HWA Blog - 03.11.2023
It was lovely to welcome the whole school back after the October half term break. The children and young people have had a great first week back and it was lovely to see them so settled after the holidays. As I walked around the school to welcome everybody back I called into Mrs Bottery’s form to hand out a Head Teacher’s Award to Harry as he was absent from school on the last day of term.
Well done Harry on a great start to year 7.
This term, we will be diving into some exciting topics across various subjects. I hope our primary families found your new class newsletters informative and if you have any questions please speak to your child’s class teacher. This half term also sees our KS4 students sit their Mock GCSEs. The Mock GCSEs are a vital part of our students’ preparation for their actual GCSE examinations. These mock exams serve as a valuable opportunity for our students to gain experience in an exam environment and to identify any areas that may require further attention before their final exams. These exams will be conducted under examination conditions, with the aim of replicating the experience that students will have during their final GCSEs.
It is important to note that the Mock GCSEs will provide students with a clearer understanding of their current strengths and weaknesses in each subject. Following the completion of the exams, students will receive individual feedback on their performance, highlighting areas for improvement and suggesting specific areas to focus on in their studies.
Please be assured that the Mock GCSEs are not intended to cause additional stress or anxiety for our students. Instead, they are designed to provide a realistic portrayal of the examination process and assist students in their academic progress. It is important to remind our students that mistakes and challenges are a natural part of the learning process and should not discourage them from working towards their personal best.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the upcoming Mock GCSEs, please do not hesitate to contact school. Our dedicated staff are here to support both you and your child throughout this crucial period.
This week, we celebrated Halloween as our children, young people and staff creatively decorated their classroom doors with spooky designs as part of our Halloween celebrations. The students had the chance to showcase their artistic abilities and engage in collaborative efforts to create a immersive Halloween atmosphere. There were some truly amazing decorated doors and the winning doors were picked not only for their creativity but meeting with the brief. All the doors were fabulous but our winners were:
Miss Hulme class and Miss Harris form. WELL DONE and I hope you enjoyed your prizes!
Let’s see what some of the classes have been doing starting with Miss Bramley’s class…
“We have had a fantastic start to this half term, it started off a little bit spooky with creating Halloween art to decorate our door with and writing some fantastic describing sentences about Halloween. As part of our history lesson, we learnt about the origins of Halloween and where it all started and took part in some traditional Halloween activities such as apple bobbing, which was very entertaining! In the afternoon we decided to make some sweet treats, we made chocolate rice crispy cakes covered in cobwebs, the children were eager to take these home and share with their families, to trick or treat them.
In English we have started our new talk for writing topic, which is traditional tales with a focus on The Three Little pigs. We have started off by completing activities to help us understand the story and especially looking at the characters, we have used drama and role play to help us achieve the goal of understanding how the characters might be thinking and what they might be feeling at each stage of the story. The children loved the drama element of this and got really involved in acting out the story with each other.
Each week we look forward to our art lesson, and this week was no different the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring colours through paint and colour mixing to produce new colours, the children could identify what the primary and secondary colours were.
In science this term we are learning about materials and their properties, we went on a hunt around the classroom, and each brought back an object made of different materials, we then thought about which material would be a good choice for the roof of the little pigs house and what properties the material would need to have. The children thought that being waterproof was the most important as they didn’t want the pigs to get wet. We then decided to create an investigation to see which materials were waterproof, we did this by building a house made of Lego and placing different materials on top and then poured water over it. The children made some great observations, we agreed as a class that the plastic roof kept the little pigs the driest.
We can’t wait to have lots more fun learning the rest of this term.”
Now to Miss Byrne’s form…
“This week our Year 8 form has been working so hard in their learning! In English they have been working on some tricky homophones and have played a fun and active game to practise. It involves trying to find the answer to a question under pressure against someone else in the class. It is loads of fun!
In maths, we have been working on addition and subtraction using manipulatives to solve the tricky problems including exchanges.
In science, we have started a new topic all about energy and we spent our science lesson pretending to be particles in solids, liquids and gases. We demonstrated melting, evaporation, condensation and freezing. All the students participated very well doing this activity.
In outdoor education we have been shopping and staff were delighted at how polite the students were with members of the public!
This week we have started social club as a class. We discussed what it means to be social and talking through some of the barriers to making friends and interacting with others. We have also been doing some team building in class and learning about working together. We played board games, we have been learning new facts about each other and trying to talk to people in the class we normally don’t speak to.
Well Done Year 8!”
Now to Mr Heap…
P.E
“We have had an extremely busy week at Hollinwood Academy! We have had students represent school in a ten pin bowling event at Ten Pin Rochdale. Students took part in a team event against 14 other schools. The rules were very simple, the team that knocks down the most pins wins. Both of our teams demonstrated fantastic behaviour and motivated each other throughout the tournament. It was also great to see our 2 teams supporting each other also. You may have seen from our social media post that one of our teams won the entire tournament and are now through to the Greater Manchester county finals. Well done to all of the students that took part, you once again have represented Hollinwood Academy superbly.”
Outdoor Education
“This half term students have begun accessing our shopping in the community scheme. This scheme provides the opportunity for all students to develop their confidence in the community, develops their communication skills, develop money skills and helps them to become more confident in busier community environments. All of our students have visited various supermarkets this week in the local community and are looking forward to spending and budgeting.”
Duke of Edinburgh
“Our Bronze, Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh groups have enjoyed walking and exploring the local countryside. As you can see our photos we have experienced lots of weather conditions but experienced some beautiful scenery.”
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA Inspiring STARs…
Mrs Lerigo’s STAR of the week is Effy for amazing work in our art lesson creating figurative art pieces with nature. She showed such enthusiasm.
Mrs Lerigo’s HWA Inspiring STAR is Jack for inspiring others with his work ethic, and enthusiasm to learn.
Miss Bramley’s STAR of the week is Zachary for his independent writing and letter formation.
Miss Bramley’s HWA Inspiring STAR is Abdul for his inspiring attitude to learning.
Miss Pietraszewska’s STAR of the week is Diana for doing fantastic with her new group and being a great friend to others.
Miss Pietraszewska’s HWA Inspiring STAR is Teddy for following class rules, self-regulating and remembering to be kind to his friends. I am very proud of you!
Mrs Quinn’s STAR of the week is Louis for fantastic maths learning in a new group.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the week is Stanley for confidently using his communication cards this week.
Mr Corrigan’s HWA Inspiring star is Maya for being a wonderfully supportive friend this week.
Mr Corrigan’s WOW moments go to Lewis and Simisola. Well done!
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s STAR of the week is Loki for having a super week and making the right choices.
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s HWA Inspiring STAR is Isaam for inspiring others by sharing and being a good friend.
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s WOW moment goes to Logan. Well done!
Miss Hulme’s STAR of the week is Jared for having a fantastic day and participating in all lessons. Well done Jared!
Mrs Davies’ STAR of the week is Ijaaz for some amazing artwork this week.
Miss Matthew’s STAR of the week is Rafael for his consistent engagement in class and fantastic attitude to learning.
Miss Matthew’s HWA Inspiring STAR is Lucas for his effort put in during PE.
Miss Gittins’ STAR of the week is Ollie is ours for excellent engagement and great contributions to lessons all week.
Miss Tootill’s STAR of the week is Dylan for working hard in Maths.
Miss Tootill’s HWA Caring STAR is Jake for being an inspirational role model.
This half term on Tuesday 12th December, we will be holding our pastoral Parents’ Evening for all primary classes and years 7-10 as well as our Year 11 academic parents evening as they will have just completed their MOCK GCSEs. This will provide an excellent opportunity for you to discuss how your child has settled into the new academic year and address any questions or concerns you may have. The meeting can be held face to face or via telephone and you can book this via Arbor. If you have any issues or questions please do not hesitate to contact Rachel or Courtney via email on: Rachel.Watkins@newbridgegroup.org or cfullen@newbridgegroup.org
I would like to reiterate the importance of regular attendance and punctuality. It is vital that your child arrives at school on time each day, ready for the day’s learning. Consistent attendance enables them to fully engage with the curriculum and maximise their potential.
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy if you are attending any bonfires this weekend – stay safe. My girls love to attend our local cricket club bonfire and firework display, I just hope it stays dry.
Mrs Millard
