HWA Blog - 27.3.26
Happy Easter, everyone. This term has absolutely flown by, and what a fantastic term it has been. We’ve enjoyed so many highlights, achievements, and moments of pride across the school.
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all staff for their continued hard work, dedication, and commitment to ensuring our children and young people receive the very best opportunities, care, and support to flourish. Your efforts make a huge difference every day.
As we look ahead to the summer term, our Year 11 students and Key Stage 2 learners will begin preparing for their GCSEs and SATs. I wish them all the very best of luck, they have worked incredibly hard, and they deserve to do well.
Wishing everyone a restful Easter break. I look forward to seeing you all refreshed and ready for an exciting summer term ahead.
Sharing the highlights…
Staff Wellbeing
Staff wellbeing is, and will always be, a priority at Hollinwood Academy. Today, we were delighted to recognise two members of our team who consistently go above and beyond.
A huge congratulations to Alison our fabulous cook, who is always accommodating to the needs of our children, young people, and staff. Her kindness and flexibility make a real difference every single day.
A big thank you to Ben for his continued hard work and his calm, consistent approach in supporting our young people. His dedication and reliability are appreciated.
Both colleagues received well-deserved wellbeing hampers as a small token of our thanks for their ongoing commitment and the positive impact they make within our school community.
Mrs Mayers class Jammie Dodger giveaway…
This term our students also took part in our giant Jammie Dodger giveaway as part of our form time social and well-being activities.
The excitement of sharing something unique and special with school friends and classmates brought a level of positivity to our students and we look forward to delivering our third and final giant Jammie Dodger giveaway over the next term.
Sunshine Bus
We were delighted to welcome our amazing funders, Fiona and Geoff, to Hollinwood Academy for a tour and a visit. Their recent donation has made an enormous difference to our school community, enabling us to purchase a brand-new school minibus and develop a wonderful new sensory room for our pupils.
Their generosity has had a profound impact, and we cannot thank them enough. It was a pleasure to show them around school and share the positive changes their support has made possible.
Our fantastic Student Council played a special role in the day. They created heartfelt thank you cards, took part in the official minibus presentation, and had the opportunity to speak directly with Fiona and Geoff about how much their contribution means to the school.
We are incredibly grateful for their kindness.
Sunshine Bus
EHCP learning walk
The EHCP learning walk carried out in the Spring term highlighted purposeful and supportive teaching across both Primary and Secondary phases. In Secondary, students explored their Year 9 options and discussed these as a group, other classes were debating current issues through RSE-linked activities, including social-skills tasks and opportunities to express their opinions. Staff used a variety of questioning methods, class discussion, paired talk and even post it note questions to ensure every student could take part confidently.
In Primary, children were busy developing key regulation, motor and social skills through sensory circuits. They also worked on fine motor tasks and team-building activities developing their social skills independence. Some classes were focusing on the cognitive and learning step targets working on their spelling and handwriting tasks. Social games were also played which encouraged pupils to practise sharing, turn-taking and positive interaction.
The insight into these lessons provided a clear snapshot of engaged learners, supportive environments and strong progress towards EHCP targets across the school.
Children sharing their learning
Thank you to Miss McDonald and Miss Bramley’s class for visiting my office today to showcase their fantastic work on Antarctica. The children impressed me with their thoughtful explanations, detailed research, and clear enthusiasm for the topic.
Their hard work shone through, and it was a pleasure to hear them speak about what they had learned. Each child received a Headteacher sticker in recognition of their effort, teamwork, and pride in their achievements.
Well done, everyone — keep up the brilliant work.
Engage Easter breakfast
This morning, the Engage Pathway began the day with a wonderfully egg-citing Easter breakfast. children tucked into fresh fruit and soft brioche rolls, filling the room with plenty of smiles.
Just when we thought the morning couldn’t get any more magical, we received not one, but two surprise visitors a pair of very cheerful Easter bunnies. They hopped in to spread joy, take photos, and, of course, lead us on a special Easter egg hunt tailored just for our learners.
It was a brilliant start to the day full of laughter, energy, and those little moments that make our Engage Pathway community feel so special.
Engage Easter Breakfast
Themed door winners
A huge well done to Mr Gold’s class and Miss Donbavand’s class, who were crowned our themed door winners this term.
Your creativity, attention to detail, and imaginative designs really stood out. The effort and teamwork that went into your doors were impressive, and you are both very well-deserved winners.
Fantastic work, everyone you’ve made our corridors brighter and our school community proud.
Headteacher award
One of my favourite parts of the term is giving out the Headteacher’s Award. It is always such a proud moment to hear individual “wow” achievements and to celebrate these with the whole class.
What makes it even more special is watching the rest of the class cheer, clap, and support their peers. Their genuine pride in each other’s success reflects the strong sense of community we value so much at Hollinwood Academy.
Well done to everyone your hard work, kindness, and achievements continue to make us incredibly proud.
Headteacher Award - 27.3.26
Let’s see what has been happening in the classroom.
In Mrs Smith’s class this week…
"10JSH have had a great week learning. In Maths, the class has been looking at ratio and splitting amounts by a ratio, for example, finding how much each person would get if an amount was split between 2 people in a specific ratio. They have just started to look at measuring and drawing angles, using equipment such as protractors and compasses. They are also drawing triangles with information provided such as one side and two angles, three sides and no angles.
In English, we have been looking at different forms of writing using a range of writing techniques. They have written a newspaper article to show if they think that cyclists should be allowed on the roads or they should have their own paths. They have also written a leaflet for an event of their choice.
In Science, the class has been learning about acids and alkalis, they have been completing experiments to discover if a liquid is acid, alkali, or neutral. They all worked incredibly well, ensuring they are following all lab safety measures such as goggles. We also participated in Mars day and National Science week, where they made PowerPoint presentations and posters about Mars and designed their own Mars rovers, which was a particularly fun lesson.
Their Geography lessons have been based on an investigation to find out if Hollinwood Academy is a microclimate. They did this by choosing three different sites and measuring the wind speed, the wind direction, the temperature, and the light in each site. Over the past week, they have been looking at different ways of presenting this data, mixing their maths skills with the geography data they had recorded.
In Employability, the class has been learning about businesses and how they function. They have created their own business with a logo, found the costs of the items that they want to sell, decided how much they wanted to sell it for, and worked out how much profit they would make.
For Food the class has been working on their independence when cooking or baking. They made cupcakes themselves from the instructions and the ingredients.
In our EHCP lessons, we are working on communication as well as our turn taking through play. Games are a great way to practice our social and communications skills and are always a popular way to spend our EHCP time. We have a lot of fun playing yes or no answers, which means that the questions, and this helps develop not only our questioning skills, but also helps us to practice our restraint skills with not giving too much away and practice turn taking.
In our options lessons, some students have been on a photography trip to take pictures using different camera settings and methods, in Art, they have been making their own vision boards. In Music, they have been using their creativity by composing their own song, and in Duke of Edinburgh, they have been going outside and playing games in nature.
We are all looking forward to our Easter holidays, and we hope you all have a wonderful time off with your families."
Jo Smith
In Mrs Nikera’s class this week…
"This half term, Year 6 explored poetry through a range of poems and stories filled with mystery and magic. They built ideas through group discussions, practised expression when reading aloud and learned about idioms to help develop deeper meanings in their writing. They also strengthened grammar skills such as using adverbs, semicolons and the pattern of three. All this work supported them in planning, writing and performing their own imaginative poems with growing confidence.
We also celebrated World Book Day, where children shared their favourite books and enjoyed themed activities. A highlight was a fun mystery challenge involving the “Missing Reading Certificates.” Children followed clues, worked together, and solved the case in true detective style. The activity added excitement to the day, built teamwork skills and linked perfectly with our focus on mystery in English.
In Maths, Year 6 developed their understanding of area, perimeter and volume. They worked with rectangles, compound shapes, triangles and parallelograms, gradually increasing the level of challenge. Children also used practical equipment to explore volume before calculating it using length, width and height. Alongside this, they strengthened their confidence with decimals, learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide them, and applied these skills to real-lifestyle problems
In Science, children studied the circulatory system in detail. They learned about the functions of red and white blood cells, plasma and platelets, and identified arteries, veins and capillaries. They also explored how the heart pumps blood around the body and why this system is essential for survival. During Science Week, they took part in practical investigations and hands-on challenges that encouraged curiosity and scientific thinking.
In Geography, Year 6 learned why our oceans are so important. They identified the five major oceans, investigated how ocean currents work and discovered how these currents influence global trade. They also studied the Great Barrier Reef and found out why coral reefs are vital for marine life and people. Children then explored issues such as plastic pollution and overfishing, and discussed simple actions everyone can take to help protect our oceans."
Nikera HMS
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA We are Creative STARs
Mrs Quinn’s and Miss McDonald’s STAR of the week is Cody for doing an egg-cellent job sorting the Easter egg colours. Well done Cody.
Mrs Quinn’s and Miss McDonald’s HWA We Are Creative goes to OLLY for showing amazing focus, great enthusiasm, and fantastic engagement in all activities this week. Well done.
Mrs Bailey’s HWA We Are Creative goes to Everyone! For a fabulous Spring Term - We are so proud of you all.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s STAR of the Week is Zachary for his effort and enthusiasm in his maths assessment this week.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s creative star goes to.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s HWA We Are Creative goes to Maximus, for engaging in such lovely play with Ivy on the playground. Well done.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s STAR of the Week goes to Ivy, for joining in with our Talk4Writing story — retelling the story in your own words and acting out the characters with such great imagination. We are super proud of you.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is William for excellent engagement with fractions in maths this week.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is Kian for some great writing ideas in English this week.
Miss Hulme’s STAR of the Week is Madilyn for her excellent reading this week and trying super hard to read trickier words.
Miss Donbavand’s STAR of the Week goes to Cleo for taking her time and trying her best in her end of unit assessments.
Miss Donbavand’s HWA We are Creative goes to Lewis for being brave and delivering a presentation in front of his peers.
Miss Davies’s STAR of the Week is Noel for requesting to go to the toilet this week when outside.
Miss Oakley’s STAR of the Week is All of COY for amazing participation for our performance of 'Let it go'.
STARS of the Week (27.3.26)
Well done to everyone.
Have a fantastic weekend.
Miss Gordon.
