HWA Blog - 07.06.2024
What a great week we have had as we return for the final half-term of this academic year.
As I walked around the school to welcome everybody back, I called into a number of classes and forms to award some children and young people their Head Teacher’s Awards as they were absent from school on the last day of term.
Well done, everyone.
HTC - 7.6.24
We have been very busy this week with teacher mid-year performance management meetings with myself, Ms Gordon and Mrs Needham, EYFS moderation, week one of the year 4 timetables tests and week three of the GCSE exams. Our children and young people have worked so hard.
Our GCSE students have sat their Maths paper 2, Spanish reading and listening and today they sat their Biology paper 2 exam. As the year 11 students sat down this afternoon to start their Biology exam, we had our JCQ general inspector arrive. He spoke to Mrs Hogan and myself and then observed the students carrying out their exams, under exam conditions. The JCQ general inspector also checked our exam policies, the student’s access arrangements, invigilators and that we are compliant. He was very happy during his visit and we have no further actions as he was happy with all of our exam arrangements. Mrs Hogan, our exam officer, is very meticulous and thorough and has done an outstanding job over the past few weeks an everything over the past 6 months leading up to these weeks. Next week we have more GCSE exams, the year 4 multiplication tests continue and we also have the year 1 phonics tests.
On Thursday, year 10 students went to Park Life at Heaton Park. Together they have had a full tour of the festival, been given an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes and talked about all the different job roles.
The lead of health and safety came and spoke to us about her role. How she has to organise medical help, transportation of goods and flooring and over sees everything and everyone that comes in and out of the festival.
The lead bar men spoke about their organisation skills, how they set it up, the decoration and how their team is of over 100 staff members that work in partnership, showing good communication skills.
The lead of artist organisation spoke about her role of communicating and organising artists needs and wants, to ensure they are comfortable in their environment before, during and after going on stage.
Each member of the team discussed their job role in detail and talked about their paths to getting into their role. They spoke openly about their personal lives and experiences, how some of them had diagnosis of ADHD, autism etc and it hasn’t stopped them in pursuing their careers. The message they wanted to get over to our students was “You can be anything you want to be in life, regardless of your journey!” we could not agree with this more.
Park Life
Let’s see what some of the classes have been doing starting with Mrs Davies’ class…
"I can’t quite believe this is the last half term of the year; time really does fly when you’re having fun! On behalf of the whole staff team, we would like to start this blog by saying how immensely proud we are of the class for all their hard work. It has certainly paid off, and this progress has been evident in the tremendous strides they have made. It has truly been my pleasure to teach them this year.
In order for children to learn effectively, it is important for them to be regulated. The children have opportunities throughout the school day to use their self-regulation techniques if they feel dysregulated. As a class, we take part in sensory circuits twice a day, once in the morning and once after lunch to prepare ourselves for learning.
Throughout the day, the children can independently request an item to help them regulate from their individualised requesting board. A few examples of this are walks, the dark room, trampoline, bubbles, and the sensory wall. Once again, we are so proud of the progress the children have made in recognising when they're dysregulated and in understanding techniques to regulate themselves.
This week, we started our new topic, "Commotion in the Ocean," and I'm looking forward to all the amazing activities we have planned throughout the term. Let's reflect on what we've been up to in class this week.
In communication, we have had lots of fun using "TD Snap" to create two or three-part sentences to express which items we need to complete a given task. This week, our tasks have included making an ocean scene out of playdough and creating under the sea biscuits.
Our first sensory story of the half term is "Ernie's Seaside Adventure." Using a multi-sensory approach to learning, we begin the sessions by listening to the sensory story before moving to the tuff trays to explore a variety of activities related to the story. This week, we enjoyed exploring a garden-themed tuff tray, examining different garden elements before taking Ernie on a journey to the beach. At the beach, we built sandcastles and cooled down by splashing in the water.
During our Attention Autism sessions this week, we contributed to environmental efforts by looking at how we can clean up our beaches. We painted our hands to create handprint fish, and we also engaged in fishing activities.
In our curiosity, cause and effect sessions in the afternoon, the children are offered a choice of six activities. They take charge of their own learning by selecting which activities to participate in. While children engage in these activities, staff members work towards their individualised targets in a fun and engaging manner. Some examples of activities this week include ocean coral bow painting, feeding the shark, releasing animals from slime, and mark-making in the sand.
We are excited to see what the remainder of the term has in store. I would like to take this opportunity to wish our year 6 children, who will be transitioning to secondary school, the best of luck. Continue being amazing and keep being you!"
SDS - 7.6.24
Now to Mrs Mayer’s form…
"We have made huge progress during our first year at Hollinwood Academy and students in our form are looking forward to a well earned break over the Summer holidays. However, that does not mean that any of our students are slowing down in the lead up to the end of the academic year, far from it.
Recently, we have been producing our own short movies as part of the ICT curriculum, whilst also learning about green screen and video editing, creating our own videos on life at Hollinwood Academy as a year 7 student along the way. The audience for our videos is year 6 students coming to Hollinwood next year and we were given the purpose “To show the year 6 student that there is nothing to worry about in year 7 at Hollinwood”. Everybody has created an original project using their own images, videos and sounds. Bailey even received a Head Teacher’s Award for the quality of his transition video, well done Bailey.
We have continued to use form time Wednesday mornings to focus on our wellbeing. We observe a device-free sensory and social morning during form time. Instead of screen-time we access sensory putty, slime, lego, board games, reading books, music and sensory lights. We have discussed lots of wellbeing topics including our personal hygiene, our sleep routines and healthy eating. Mr Blaize has brought unusual foods for us to try and see if we like it. We have tried mussels, sushi, falafel and different sweets.
We always enjoy our learning. In Food and we have recently made omelettes and different pastries. In science we changed teachers for 2 weeks so we could complete all of our practical lessons in a lab with Miss Boutell. We enjoyed learning about acids and alkalis, metals and acids and electromagnetism. In maths we have used rulers and protractors to learn about different geometric shapes. We have learned about different types of triangles and quadrilaterals and we have measured lengths and angles. In outdoor education we have really enjoyed our time on the bikes and trikes over recent weeks.
As we approach year 8, we have been working with our teachers to be organised and independent. We have planned our day and thought about the equipment we will need for our lessons and carried this equipment with us."
HMYS - 7.6.24
Now to Miss Rashid’s form…
"Last term our Inspiration hub students worked hard across all subjects. During English, students were looking at dystopian settings and created their own piece of creative writing about time travel. This term we will be studying Macbeth!
During maths they have been covering rotation and translation which is a topic they seemed to have enjoyed. This term they will be covering enlargement and similarity.
Science enabled students to look more closely at electricity and they have also completed some practical lessons to support their learning. This term they will be looking at energy. All students have engaged well with computing as they are now developing their own game cover in line with a client brief.
During targeted support the focus has remained as mental health and wellbeing whilst working towards their EHCP step targets. To support this focus, students have been creating their own topic boards in line with their interests. They have thoroughly enjoyed creating their boards and will continue working on them this term. They have also been looking at future career options and what grades they need to secure their placement at college.
Students have been going to Wythenshawe park to engage with cycling in their outdoor education lessons. As you can see from the pictures, they absolutely loved it! I am hopeful this term that students will continue to engage well and continue to make progress across the curriculum."
ZRD - 7.6.24
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA We Trust STARs
Mrs Lerigo’s STAR of the week is Effy for following instructions when adults direct her.
Mrs Lerigo’s HWA We Trust STAR is Teddy for trusting other adults to support him.
Miss Bramley’s STAR of the week is Eliora for having a great attitude to learning and making super effort with making her sentences even better !
Miss Bramley’s HWA We Trust STAR is Abdul for being super brave and doing some super listening!
Miss Pietraszewska’s STAR of the week is Diana for doing very well in Talk4Writing lessons and being very engaged in learning phonics. Well done.
Miss Pietraszewska’s HWA We Trust STAR is Harrison for being very caring and asking about his friends when they were absent. Well done!
Miss Oakley’s STAR of the week is George for having an amazing first week back to school and participating in all areas of his learning. You are a super star.
Miss Oakley’s HWA We Trust STAR is Silva for accessing the trays outside and playing alongside her peers, taking turns.
Miss Bailey’s STAR of the week is Cody for excellent engagement with our sensory story and using new language with confidence.
Miss Bailey’s HWA We Trust STAR is Maja for sharing resources with her peers and engaging well in activities with growing independence.
Mrs Quinn’s STAR of the week is Kai for eating his lunch in the dinner hall.
Mrs Quinn’s HWA We Trust STAR is William for responding to the class countdown to follow instructions, in school and on outdoor education too!
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the week is Simisola for coping really well with change this week.
Mr Corrigan’s HWA We Trust star is Faiha for great engagement with her multiplication tests this week.
Mr Corrigan’s WOW moments go to Louis, Lewis and Maya. Well done!
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s STAR of the week is Jacob, for turning his behaviour around and having a very positive week.
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s HWA We Trust STAR is Loki, for always being honest with his teachers and supporting his friends.
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s Dojo winner is Shane. Well done!
Mrs Davies’ STARs of the week is are the whole class for waiting patiently in soft play whilst having our class photo.
Miss Gittins’ STAR of the week is Hadley for engaging and having a go in every lesson, all week!
Miss Gittins’ HWA We Trust STAR is Mia for accepting help from adults when feeling frustrated.
Miss Gittins’ super spellers are Caitlin, Joshua, Zakariya and Lewis. Well Done!
Miss Matthew’s STAR of the week is Rafael for his fantastic contributions when working on retrieval practice in Targeted support!
Miss Matthew’s STAR We Trust STAR is Eli for always being the person we can trust to make the right choice!
Miss Tootill’s STAR of the week is Dylan for a positive attitude towards his learning.
Miss Tootill’s HWA We Trust STAR is Madison for demonstrating great ability to trust herself and peers.
STARS of the Week (7.6.24)
Scientist of the week is Riley from Mrs Quinn’s class.
Scientist of the Week (7.6.24)
I hope you found the transition letters and teacher profiles useful as we start to plan for the next academic year. We have planned our transition dates for all our primary classes and the new year 7 students joining secondary in September 2024. The following dates have been identified for transition:
Ø Friday 21st June - Transition for all primary and new year 6-7's 9:00am - 11:00am
Ø Friday 28th June - Transition for all primary and new year 6-7's 9:00am - 11:00am
Ø Friday 5th July – Transition for all primary and new year 6-7’s – 9:00am – 11:00am
All current secondary classes will remain on timetable. This is just for our primary classes and new Year 7 cohorts joining us in September.
What a busy week and I know the rest of this term will be exactly the same. Have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs Millard
