HWA Blog – 22.9.23
It’s been another busy week at Hollinwood Academy, but first a reminder of the upcoming Macmillan Afternoon for Primary parents, will take place on the 29th of September. This event is a fantastic opportunity for you to meet your child’s primary teacher, gain insight into their academic progress, and connect with other parents.
The afternoon will commence at 2 pm with refreshments available in the canteen. Please take this time to relax, enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and engage in casual conversations with fellow parents. We encourage you to make the most of this opportunity to build relationships within our school community.
At 2:30 pm, you will have the chance to visit your child’s classroom and meet with their primary teacher. This will provide you with a valuable insight into the daily routines, learning environment and teaching strategies employed in the classroom. Moreover, it will offer a platform for you to discuss your child’s progress and address any concerns or questions you may have.
In order to ensure a smooth flow of interactions, we kindly request that only one parent per child attend the event. This will help us to provide personalised attention to each family and allow for meaningful conversations with the respective primary teacher.
On a different note, I wanted to update you on the progress of the playground renovation. Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain we have experienced, there has been a slow progress this week. However, it’s been wonderful to see our students making use of the new seating areas. We are hopeful that the weather will improve soon so that the renovation can be completed.
I am delighted to announce the newly elected student councillors for this academic year. They were nominated by their peers and during our first Primary Student Council meeting, they had the chance to get to know each other and express their excitement for the role. We discussed their roles, responsibilities, and the importance of various policies and documents. All students present showed great enthusiasm and eagerness to support the wider community through fundraising and other initiatives. We are proud of their commitment and look forward to their contributions.
Our first school secondary council meeting happened this week and we welcomed some new faces. We spoke about our roles and responsibilities as school councillors and discussed some ideas for World Mental health day which is coming up on October 10th. We also spoke about a possible new venture, creating a school newspaper for the student’s half termly and the councillors were very excited about this and will be going back to their peers to discuss and gather thoughts. Olivia has agreed to be our secretary during meetings and is already doing a stellar job! We are very excited for the year to come.
I am pleased to share that secondary students have achieved various certificates, namely, Food Safety for KS3, Microscope licenses, and Bunsen burner licenses for Year 7 students. These achievements highlight their dedication and commitment to their studies.
Mr Gold’s year 7 class passing their Bunsen Burner Safety assessment.
Mrs Daniel’s class passing their microscope safety assessment.
Furthermore, our primary students have started to benefit from Talk for Writing, a new approach to improve their writing skills. Our primary teachers have received training from renowned educator Pie Corbett, and they are incredibly excited to witness the impact this methodology will have on the students’ writing abilities. Miss Tootill, our literacy coordinator, has carefully selected reading books that will both stretch and challenge all our students. For example,
Year 1/2 will be reading “Meerkat Mail.”
Year 3 students will enjoy “The Day the Crayons Quit.”
Year 4 will dive into “The BFG.”
Year 5 will explore “Charlotte’s Web.”
Year 6 will be delving into “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
Talk for Writing involves the use of images, actions, speech and drama to enhance the students’ understanding of the text. We encourage you to discuss the book your child is learning and would love to see videos and photos of them practicing at home. Please feel free to share these on Evidence for Learning, our online platform. If you encounter any issues accessing the resource, kindly contact the school office for assistance.
Here are just a few highlights from the student’s Talk for Writing lessons this week:
Miss Natalia’s Talk for Writing lesson https://www.youtube.com/shorts/V9FaRF53CjU
Mrs Boothroyd’s Talk for Writing lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3hBocspkOc
Miss Hulme’s Talk for Writing lesson
https://youtu.be/ZodX4NeMAFw
Additionally, this week also marked the start of lesson observations. We have already witnessed two English lessons, both incorporating Talk for Writing techniques. It is heartening to see the positive impact of the talk for writing training and the integration of last year’s training on colourful semantics and the TD Snap core app. These efforts demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that all our students make progress.
This week, we bid farewell to Michelle, one of our cleaners, as she has decided to concentrate on her university degree. We wish her the best in her future endeavours. We would also like to say goodbye to Katie Devlin, an amazing Teaching Assistant, who will be joining the team at British Telecom. We thank her for her dedication and hard work during her time at our school.
Every Wednesday morning, I have the pleasure of meeting with primary and/or secondary curriculum leads. This week I met with the secondary curriculum leads, and as always, we started the meeting with some positive comments, and I am pleased to share them with you.
Firstly, our secondary curriculum leads had nothing but praise for our staff team. They described them as “absolutely incredible” and expressed their love for working here at Hollinwood Academy. It is truly heart-warming to hear such positive feedback from our own colleagues.
In addition, the secondary curriculum leads highlighted the excellent transition of our year 7 students. They have settled into Hollinwood Academy life extremely well, embracing the new environment and making positive connections with both staff and peers. We are delighted to see their smooth integration into the school community.
Furthermore, the attitude towards learning displayed by our year 11 students was commended. The curriculum leads described it as “outstanding!” It is fantastic to witness their dedication and commitment as they navigate this crucial stage in their education. We are confident that their hard work will yield great results.
Lastly, the new labs that were recently introduced have already made a positive impact on learning and student engagement. The feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. They appreciate the upgraded facilities, which we believe will further enhance their educational experiences at Hollinwood Academy.
In conclusion, I wanted to share these positive comments with you as they reflect the hard work and dedication of our entire school community. We are fortunate to have a committed and talented staff team, motivated students and improved facilities that contribute to the success of our school.
Now to the class blogs for this week…
Miss Hulme’s class…
“We have had a wonderful couple of weeks back and we have had so much fun already! It has been lovely to see the children settle in to their new class so well.
In Science this term, we are focusing on classifying animals and learning about vertebrates and invertebrates. So far, we have taken a look at different animals and their characteristics and decided whether they belong in the categories of mammals, fish, reptiles, birds or amphibians. We then looked at different vertebrates and invertebrates. The children really enjoyed playing an interactive game where we had to x-ray different animals to determine whether or not they had backbones and then categorized them into the correct group.
In History, we are learning about how children’s lives have changed over the centuries. We have especially been focusing on the Tudor times and taken a look at how children’s lives were back then. The children were appalled to learn that most children began working at the tender age of 7, but they were much more horrified to learn that one of their jobs was to clean up human waste! One child even said it was child labour and cruelty! We also discovered that the majority of children started out working as apprentices and had to swear an oath to their master that they wouldn’t quit for at least seven years!
Our focus in PHSRE this term is ‘Families and Relationships’. So far, we have looked at how we can be a good friend and what we expect a good friend to be. We have talked about boundaries within friendships and what we would not be okay with our friends doing. The children had fun playing a game where they had to get closer to each other whenever a drum was beaten and would raise their hand if they didn’t want their partner to get any closer, with their partner having to respect their wishes. We then discussed if it is a good friend to tell the truth even if it could hurt your friends’ feelings, such as if they were wearing an outfit that we thought made them look silly, would we tell them. It was intriguing to hear some children would decide to tell their friends and some decided they wouldn’t.
We are very much looking forward to the rest of the year and all the fun we are going to have learning.”
Miss Sanderson’s class…
“The year 11’s have had a brilliant start to the academic year. They are focused on the GCSE pathway and are starting to settle down into their new routine. This week they have started to look at different targets they could work towards to have a successful school year. We have also started to discuss our post 16 options and what are the next steps when leaving school. The form will be having one to one meetings with our career advisor in the next few weeks and she will also be taking part in the EHCP meetings as we prepare for the next steps.
They have made me very proud already with how mature they are handling the changes and I look forward to spending our final year making lots of memories before they move on to bigger and better adventures.”
And finally to the Hollinwood Academy Stars…
Mrs Quinn’s star of the week is William for good sitting during lesson time.
Mrs Quinn’s caring star of the week is Maleek for remaining calm using his now and next board.
Miss Hulme’s star of the week this week goes to Oscar for working towards his target of managing to cope with noise by taking his ear defenders off himself.
Caring star goes to Jared for being extremely kind to his friends during our PHSRE lesson.
Mrs Lerigo’s Star of the week
Congratulations to: Louie for improved sitting at carpet time and joining in some of the actions to the songs.
Caring Star
Congratulations to: Albi for being super caring to his new friends in class and trying hard to share.
Miss Natalia’s Star of the week:
Teddy, for being first to tidy up and follow our daily routine.
Caring Star: Harrison, for being more confident and independent during lunchtime in the canteen.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the week is to Stanley for a wonderful week and 100% attendance!
Caring star is to Lewis for great listening this week.
WOW star of the week is to Mysha, Maya and Simisola for being proud of their friends.
Congratulations to Simisola for being great in Maths this week.
Miss Tootill’s star of the week is Connor for being settled in class and completing his work.
Caring Star is Fatima for always being a positive caring role model.
Mrs Davie’s star of the week is Ijaaz for beginning to show independence.
Caring star is Arissa for giving lots of cuddles this week.
Miss Oakley’s star of the week is Ziyan for requesting his favourite items this week in class.
Caring star is George for sharing classroom toys with his friends in class.
Ms Gitten’s star of the week is Caitlin as she has had a fabulous week and contributed massively to all her lessons this week.
Mrs Matthew’s Star of the week:
Congratulations to: Zakariya for trying his best all week to join in class discussions.
Caring Star
Congratulations to: Ebon for helping another member of the class to prepare for Outdoor Education.
Mrs Bramley’s star of the week is Eliora for being a superstar in Talk for Writing.
Our Caring star of the week is Abdul , for being a good friend and sharing in and out of the classroom.
Ms Boothroyd’s star of the week is Shane for trying his best in all lessons this week.
Caring star of the week is Loki for still caring for his friends even when he himself feels unsettled.
Mrs Farooqi’s star of the week is Rosie Hardman (8TFI) for great effort in PE with her throwing and catching.
Mr Akhtar’s star of the week is Alfie H, “For great participation and work this week in ICT lessons, Alfie gave some great answers to questions around networks and the internet.” Well done Alfie. Mr Akhtar.
Mrs Jones’ stars of the week are:
Katie Walker for outstanding effort.
Liv GH for going above and beyond in the school community.
Liam B in 10ADS for great effort in maths.
Sophia GN in 9KHS for great effort in maths.
Leo for contributing to class discussions in maths.
Miss Prescott’s and Mr Blaize’s star of the week is to Austin A for some amazing writing on his first week in a new school.
Baliley for a great piece of creative writing during form time.
Mrs Harrington’s stars of the week are:
Prezidente for consistent effort in class.
Jack for great effort in class and a mature attitude.
Connor for really trying to change his attitude.
Aaron (Vision Hub) for excellent work in English.
Mrs Harris’s stars of the week are:
Harrison and Sophia for great effort in science.
Carlo for great effort across all his subjects.
Mrs Datta’s star of the week is Finlay for always doing his best in lessons.
Miss Young is really impressed with her new year 7 form. Our class has been working on learning about the skeleton; its 4 main features and what bones form the skeleton. We have used cutting out activity to reinforce the objective of the lesson. In Maths some of the learners recapped on the Roman numerals and the other students were working on recognising patterns and sequences.
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Needham
