HWA Blog - 15.3.24
Disney
This week, the year 8 students had a memorable experience at Disney. The wonderful moments of their trip captured through shared photos and memories on Facebook have highlighted the excitement they felt.
I extend my gratitude to the entire staff team for their invaluable contribution in ensuring the success of this residential trip. As a school, we take immense pride in the collective effort put in by our staff members to offer the students the most remarkable experience, enabling them to revel in the magic of Disney.
Do keep an eye out for our upcoming spring newsletter, where we will delve into the Disney trip in greater detail.
Science Week
Science Week at Hollinwood Academy was a week filled with excitement and discovery. The theme this year was ‘Time’, and it was introduced during the assembly at the start of the week. This captivating assembly revolved around various aspects of time, encouraging children and young people to ponder questions related to clocks, seasons, life cycles of frogs, and much more.
Throughout the week, primary students engaged in a wide array of activities, culminating in a thrilling finale on Friday. The activities included:
1. M&M - Rainbow Science Experiment
2. Lava Lamp
3. Exploding Volcano
4. Milk and food colouring.
5. Paper towel rainbow
6. Sensory Bags
7. Crime Investigation
The crime scene investigation involved our very own Miss Gordon found herself under arrest!
This memorable Science Week was made possible thanks to the incredible efforts of Miss Natalia and Miss Angela, our science technician. Their commitment to creating an engaging and enjoyable experience for all was evident in the success of the week.
Overall, Science Week was a resounding success, fostering curiosity and a love for the subject among our children and young people. Next week, secondary young people will start their science week.
NPA - Science
COY - Science Week
ELO - Science
HMS - Science
RBA - Science
Maths Week
This week our school also celebrated Maths Week. We kick-started the festivities with a special shoutout from Mrs. Jones, who wished everyone a happy Pi Day on 14th March. The week was a reminder of the wonderful world of mathematics. Our secondary students have been actively engaged in various activities and discussions related to maths in their EHCP lessons.
Ms Young’s class have celebrated Math’s Week…
"Today our class was reassured that Maths did not have to be about just memory. Our students noticed that it could be about having fun with looking for patterns, spotting connections, making predictions, solving problems or even designing board games.
Some students designed a board game using positive and negative numbers as this is the current topic of our focus in Maths lessons.
One side of the page had smiling characters and very welcoming background, which represented positive numbers.
The other side had intimidating or angry looking creatures which was used to represent negative numbers. Then all the students had to come up with some directions using words like forward or backward and moving beyond or below number 0.
The other students focused on pattern designing or using LEGO bricks to create number operations."
Ms Young - Maths
Art Competition - The Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show
Hollinwood Academy's will be participating in The Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show, thanks to the efforts of our art teacher, Mrs Whalley. This prestigious competition offers children and young adults aged 4-19 an incredible opportunity to showcase their artwork at The Royal Academy of Arts, both online and onsite.
With the chance to exhibit their creativity in such a renowned institution, our students are eager to unveil their masterpieces to a wider audience. Mrs Whalley has nurtured their artistic abilities, providing guidance and inspiration throughout the creative journey.
The Royal Academy Young Artists’ Summer Show is a chance for our students to celebrate their achievements and gain recognition for their hard work.
Miss Tootill's class has already offered us a glimpse of the extraordinary artwork that is yet to come. Stay tuned as we will keep you updated with the exciting developments leading up to the submission of our students' artwork!
Art Competition
Now to Miss Boothroyd’s and Mrs McDonald’s class…
"We have had a wonderful week in KS2CML/VBD this week; we have explored ’The Journey’ in English. The children have written their stories this week about an imaginative journey of their own and have implemented ideas from or class text. Some fabulous stories have been shared in class and the children love presenting their work to their peers.
In Topic this week, we have learnt the importance of trading responsibly. The children carried out their own research and created a mind map collectively showing why it is important to trade responsibly and the benefits it has. All the children agreed that it is very important to trade responsibly and even came up with more ideas on how this can be done!
During our PSHRE lesson, the children worked in pairs to create their own youth clubs/ afterschool clubs and groups for people to come and interact and make friends – this was a lovely team building exercise. The children really enjoyed creating their own groups within school. We had a lot of amazing ideas!
The children have had fun in ICT this term so far and this week worked in small groups to create a Scratch coding quiz game, this is a work in progress, and we cannot wait to see the final quiz next week.
We have travelled back to the 90s in Music this term and have been exploring ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air’ the children have explored the genre of rap and we have been learning the lyrics to this well-known song – Miss McDonald has been taken back to her childhood. We are excited to perform the rap at the end of term – we will video this and upload it to EFL.
We have been exploring circuits in science and learning about electricity and how appliances are powered. We made a human circuit, and the children were amazed to see the electrical current that flows through humans – we compared our hands to a simple circuit and when we let go hands, the current stopped, similarly to when there is a break in a simple circuit there is no power to light a bulb."
CML/ VBD - 15.3.24
Now to Miss Pott’s form…
"The class have been busy since their return from half term, in history they have been studying World War One and this week they have completed their assessment on that.
Food & Science was all about experiments. In food they have been making their own bread and fresh pasta and looking at the effect of gluten. The bread they made looked and smelt amazing, one of the students let me have some and it tasted as good as it looked.
The science experiment was looking at the melting point of different solids, the class always prefer it when they can get hands on.
Art has been successful over the last couple of weeks, although we have some very talented artists in the class, they struggle in the lessons because they cannot do their own thing. Over the last couple of weeks Mrs Whalley has allowed them to create their own piece of artwork and as you will see its amazing. Sam used the light box to help him copy a picture.
In EHCP lesson this week the focus was Maths due to Thursday being 𝜋 day, Daniel completed and extreme dot to dot which went up to 1000 and the class then created some beautiful origami butterflies.
Outdoor Education is always a favourite lesson as it gives the students the chance to get out, they have been to various places including Tandle Hills in Royton and Strinesdale along with Heaton and Alexandra Parks.
I would like to add how proud I am of the Year 10 and 11 students I teach; this week they have all sat another Maths mock exam in preparation for the summer and they have all handled it well. Keep up the good work."
SPS - 15.3.24
Now to Mrs Duffy’s form…
"This term has been a short one but seems to be packed with lots of activities including a trip to Disneyland Paris.
Reflecting on the last few weeks I am acutely aware that whilst I watch the students growing socially at Hollinwood Academy, I am also amazed at how they are developing academically. During form time I am often given lots of information and academic facts from the different lessons they attend at Hollinwood Academy.
Last week the students in 8GDY made their own models with clay and then painted them using inspirations from Hundertwasser. (Who I was informed is an Austrian visual artist and architect).
Alex is progressing in science and will be working towards gaining an entry level in science over the next 12 months. This will be an extra qualification as well as the GCSE science qualification, which is fantastic!
Matthew Lear is progressing well with literacy and during morning registration always wins a form price for the points he achieves. Bedrock is used to improve literacy. and this narrows the word gap giving all learners the language they need to thrive in school and beyond. Matthew is also getting his head down and focusing on Maths. We are so proud of his academic effort and achievement.
Akeem produced a beautiful poster. The poster states that: ‘all colours are beautiful’. We loved the poster so much we have given it pride of place on our form wall.
In Food Preparation and Nutrition, we have been investigating different cooking methods and looking at these methods through a sensory analysis. Alexis and the rest of the class have taste tested the different sensory attributes of potatoes when boiled, roasted, and baked. In addition to this we have made a range of different dishes using the hob.
We will be continuing with these dishes as last week we also took delivery of some Alaskan Salmon. This was donated to us through @Fish Heroes and via ‘The Food Teachers centre. Fish Heroes seeks to give pupils a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish, aiming to develop a positive attitude towards eating fresh fish. Next week we will be using the Salmon in year 8 to make a Salmon Linguine.
Cooking with the children is something I am looking forward to this week. We have missed 8GDY because on Monday the form joined the whole year group and set out for a trip to Disneyland Paris. Logan, Madeleine, Ivy, Alex, Liam have shared a range of images, and it is evident that they have had a fantastic time. We cannot wait to welcome them back into form on Monday to hear about their amazing trip."
GDY - 15.3.24
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA Creative STARs...
Mrs Lerigo’s STAR of the week is Effy for much improved behaviour and an outstanding approach to learning! You superstar!
Mrs Lerigo’s HWA Creative STAR is Teddy M for following instructions perfectly as to how to create a scaly snake biscuit! Just brilliant
Mrs Lerigo’s scientist of the week is Teddy Mullins from Emma’s Class.
Miss Bramley’s STAR of the week is Harry for having a fabulous week and doing super in his maths!
Miss Bramley’s HWA Creative STAR is Lyla for creating some wonderful stories in our storytelling area.
Miss Pietraszewska’s STAR of the week is Diana for always being ready to learn. Well done!
Miss Pietraszewska’s HWA Creative STAR is Roma, for her creative drawings! Super job!
Miss Oakley’s STAR of the week is George for using his new communication strip to enhance his speech to request for toys.
Miss Oakley’s HWA Creative STAR is Euan for making patterns using the dinosaur stamps.
Miss Bailey’s STAR of the week is Cody for great engagement during morning routine and reading his friends names independently.
Miss Bailey’s HWA Creative STAR is Maja for Engaging brilliantly with in our sensory cooking session and showing some fantastic independence.
Mrs Quinn’s STAR of the week is Olly for signing a new word this week ‘roll’.
Mrs Quinn’s HWA Creative STAR is Riley for showing an interest in writing letters.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the week is Stanley for wonderful communication this week using his Snap Core app.
Mr Corrigan’s HWA Creative star is Louis for excellent engagement with the story map in English this week.
Congratulations to Faiha for great listening on the carpet.
Congratulations to Maya for choosing an extra fractions activity.
Congratulations to Simisola for being proud of her friends. Well done!
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s STAR of the week is Jacob for his amazing effort in Art.
Miss Boothroyd and Miss McDonald’s HWA Creative STAR is Isaam for managing his emotions and making the correct choices when he is feeling upset.
Miss Hulme’s STAR of the week is Jared for trying hard this week to articulate his feelings to an adult before becoming distressed and for having a super last few days! Well done Jared, I am so proud of you.
Miss Hulme’s HWA Creative STAR is Thomas for always taking lots of time and effort to create some lovely art work. Well done Thomas!
Miss Gittins’ STAR of the week is Lewis for always being positive and happy.
Miss Gittins’ HWA Creative STAR is Caitlin for contributing creative ideas during lessons this week.
Our super spellers – who have moved 2 year groups UP – are Ollie, Joshua, Caitlin, Mia and Nabiha!
Miss Matthew’s STAR of the week is Gerad for being a kind, responsible and hardworking member of the class– well done Gerard!
Miss Matthew’s HWA Creative STAR is Corey for having Miss McDonald comment on how well he is doing in maths!
Miss Tootill’s STAR of the week is Fatima for sharing and celebrating ‘Ramadan’ with staff and peers.
Miss Tootill’s HWA Creative STAR is Connor for being creative within his Art lesson.
STARS of the Week (15.3.24)
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Needham
