HWA Blog - 7.11.25
Welcome back. It has been an extremely busy start to the term.
Our Year 11 students have been working incredibly hard in preparation for their mock exams, which begin next week. These assessments are an important milestone, giving students the chance to reflect on their progress and identify areas for improvement ahead of the summer exams. We are proud of their dedication and resilience.
As we move towards the end of term, the calendar is packed with activities and celebrations as we head into the festive season. There’s so much to look forward to including our traditional Christmas dinner and jumper day, the much-anticipated Christmas show, and the vibrant Christmas markets. These events are always a highlight, bringing our school community together to celebrate and have fun. Key dates will follow.
A Wonderful Week of Learning and Support
This week, it has been a pleasure to visit many classes across our school, and it has been lovely to see the hard work taking place. From focused lessons to creative projects, the dedication from both our children and young people and the staff supporting them is something to celebrate.
What stood out most was kindness and teamwork. It’s lovely to see children and young people looking out for each other, offering help, and showing genuine care. These moments remind us that learning isn’t just about academic it’s about building an environment where everyone feels valued and supported.
Shout out to Miss Nelson’s year 8 English class. They blew me away with their descriptive writing and PEEL paragraphs. They are clearly working hard to develop their writing skills using a variety of language techniques. Thank you, Louie, Eva, Daniel, and Ella for showcasing your work, you should be very proud.
Thank you to all our staff and students for making this week a good one. Let’s keep this positive energy going as we move through the term.
Celebrating Success Beyond the Classroom
This week, Mrs Millard and I received an email that made our day. One of our former students Idrees, reached out to share his exciting news. He has become a student officer in the police...
"Hi Laura and Natalie, I just wanted to let you know I have been offered a confirmed place at GMP as a student officer on the PCDA route and I am starting next Monday on November the 10th! It was nice seeing all the teachers earlier this year so thank you for inviting me in and supporting me with my application."
🙂
What an incredible achievement and a testament to his hard work, determination, and commitment to making a difference in the community. Moments like these remind us why we do what we do. Seeing our students grow into confident, responsible individuals who go on to achieve their dreams is the greatest reward.
We are so proud of you Idrees and wish him every success in this new chapter. Idrees, you are inspiring others, congratulations and thank you for sharing your news.
Celebrating the Grand Opening of Heywood Academy
On Friday, I had the privilege of attending the grand opening of Heywood Academy and wow, what an occasion it was. It was an emotional moment for me, having seen the incredible teamwork and dedication that went into making this vision a reality.
Mrs Millard took centre stage to welcome over 100 stakeholders and share the inspiring journey that began back in 2018. Hearing the story of perseverance and collaboration was truly moving, and seeing the academy officially open its doors felt like a huge success for everyone involved.
I am so proud of what has been achieved and excited about the opportunities ahead. I look forward to working alongside the Heywood Academy team as we continue to create amazing experiences for our children and young people. Exciting times ahead.
Heywood Academy Photos - 7.11.25
Now let’s see what has been happening in the classrooms...
Starting with Miss Bailey’s class…
A Sparkling Start to the Half Term in Engage Two.
"We’ve had a busy start to the new half term in Engage Two. This week, our classroom has been filled with colour, sound, and excitement as we explored all things Bonfire Night through a range of fun, multi-sensory activities.
In our Sensory Story lessons, we immersed ourselves in a Bonfire Night sound story, tuning in to all the noises we might hear at a real celebration. The crunch of leaves underfoot, the gentle crackle of the fire, the fizz of sparklers and, of course, the loud bangs and whizzes of fireworks lighting up the sky. We made our marks by creating vibrant handprint bonfire pictures and explored a sparkly firework mark-making tray that shimmered with colour.
Our Attention Autism sessions were full of Bonfire Night excitement too. We watched loud party poppers burst, made fizzy firework pictures, and practiced our shared attention and turn-taking skills with the always-popular stomp rocket, a big hit every time.
During our communication sessions, we continued the Bonfire theme by creating bright spray-bottle firework art and making delicious chocolate sparklers. Everyone used their preferred communication methods to make choices and requestS some of
us used TD Snap on the iPad, while others used talk boards to support our language. We absolutely loved these activities, especially getting messy and tasting our yummy creations.
Bonfire Night has been the perfect way to launch our new topic, ‘Awe and Wonder’, and we can’t wait to see what exciting adventures the rest of this half term will bring."
RBY - 7.11.25
And now to Mrs Bottery’s class...
"This week, students in 9HBY have been settling back in after the half term holidays.
In Art, the students have been looking at colour theory and how different colours can be used to represent different emotions. They were set the challenge of mixing primary colours together to match the colour they had been given.
The class visited Heaton Park during Outdoor Education on Thursday afternoon. They went to the farm there and saw the various animals which they enjoyed.
In PE they have starting trampolining. This is an activity that they all really enjoy. They made sure each other were safe by spotting when they weren’t on the trampoline.
The students have continued working with bread in this week’s Food lesson. They have taken the bread recipe they have used in previously and have modified it to increase the amount of fibre in the recipe. Ways they have done this include adding currents, using wholemeal flour, and adding seeds. It certainly smelled delicious…I hope you enjoy eating it over the weekend."
HBY - 7.11.25
Mrs Duffy’s (GDY) class...
"It has been lovely to welcome our students back after the half term break and everyone in form 10GDY have returned refreshed and are working extremely hard in preparation for their mock exams which begin next week. Since the beginning of this academic year, 10GDY have embraced the prospect of working towards their GCSE’S and are already proceeding with coursework in English and the maturity and enthusiasm our young people have shown since the start of this process has been incredible. I am also proud to say that we have some budding artists in GDY and Jasmine, Logan and Ivy have blown us away with what they are producing in their coursework in Art, and we can’t wait to see their final masterpieces.
Before the start of the Summer holidays, we were fortunate in GDY to welcome two new students, Eliza and Niamh who have each brought a fun and vibrant energy to the form, and it has been a joy this term to continue to get to know these two new students who have been a great addition to our GDY family and we are looking forward to continuing to getting to know them both.
In preparation for adulthood this week, the form’s been learning the skills in writing a CV, and during employability the students have begun writing their own CV for future applications for colleges and prospective jobs. Our lovely Akeem with his infectious smile has been looking into a career in the building trade and as he continually ‘builds’ everyone up in the form, we think this would be the perfect career for him if he wished. During their CV writing the students had to include any hobbies or special interests and we are proud to say that we have many talented students in our form with unique interests. Our lovely Maddie who has just celebrated her 15th birthday is passionate about drama, Jasmine is creative and enjoys creating 3D paper art and we also have Liam who has recently signed up for the cadets and he is thoroughly enjoying learning new skills including how to get water from underground if the pipe is unavailable, and how to fire a hose. He is also getting ready for the remembrance Sunday parade where he will be with his fellow cadets.
In food preparation and nutrition, the students butchered a whole chicken and have used different cuts of meat to prepare multiple meals including a Keralan chicken curry, chicken stir fry with noodles and finally a marinated chicken and rice where the students created their own individual marinade and Yassin our flavour king created a rich, beautiful marinade for his chicken drumsticks and they were delicious.
In the community there have been many bonfire celebrations taking place this week and during outdoor education on visits to Tandle Hills and Alexandra park, we have taken the opportunity to educate our young people on how to keep safe at a bonfire and firework displays, and the students learned some valuable lessons in fire safety and how to be safe.
Encouraging our young people to read is highly important at HWA and in form time we have been fostering opportunities for the students to delve into a book from our library, and more recently from an online library epic reading which we have subscribed to for all our students. Everyone in GDY have embraced reading more, especially Nicholas who has been striving to improve his literacy and is noticeably reading more for pleasure which is a delight to see.
Alexis is our music enthusiast, and we all enjoy listening to her talk about her music moguls and we embrace Alexis sharing her music knowledge with the form. Needless to say, Alexis is taking music as part of her GCSE and is currently enjoying learning to play the guitar. Matthew is a natural in ICT and has a clear gift for computer literacy and he is enjoying studying for his GCSE in ICT. Matthew has also chosen to study photography and has been learning how to use a digital camera and is now looking forward to continuing gaining more knowledge in this subject.
We are looking forward to the year ahead with our year 10 students who constantly amaze us everyday."
GDY - 7.11.25
And finally, what has been going on in Mr Corrigan’s class...
"Mr. Corrigan’s class has hit the ground running. It’s been a fantastic week filled with hard work and enthusiasm across all areas of the curriculum.
We’re excited to see how these skills continue to grow as we move through the term. Well done to everyone for such a brilliant start back.
Maths
Our maths topics this half term are Addition & Subtraction, Money and Multiplication & Division. In Addition, & Subtraction this week we have been looking at related number bonds to 10 and 100.
MCN (Maths) - 7.11.25
English
Our Talk for writing model text this half term is The True story of the Three Little Pigs. This week we have used our art skills as a hook to introduce the book and looked into the personification of the main character.
MCN (English) - 7.11.25
Phonics
This half term we are continuing with The duckchick to start with, then will move on to Off sick. This week we have been learning to ‘Build a sentence’ together before writing it.
MCN (Phonics) - 7.11.25
Science
Our science topic this half term is Materials. This week we have been exploring natural and human-made materials.
MCN (Science) - 7.11.25
Design and Technology
Our focus this half term is mechanisms. We have begun exploring this topic by following steps to plan and build a fairground wheel.
MCN (DT) - 7.11.25
Geography
The question we are asking ourselves this half term is... Would you prefer to live in a hot or cold place? To help us answer this we have started by exploring the seven continents.
MCN (Geography) - 7.11.25
ICT
Our topic this half term is programming. This week we have been exploring algorithms and debugging in games using the ScratchJr app.
Music
Our focus in music this half term is musical story telling. This week we have been analysing a piece of music in relation to Goldilocks and the Three Bears."
MCN (Outdoor Ed) - 7.11.25
MCN (PE) - 7.11.25
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA We are Creative STARs...
Mrs Quinn’s STAR of the Week is Teddy for settling well into our new classroom and engaging in lessons.
Mrs Quinn’s HWA We Are Inspiring goes to William for setting a great example to his peers by enthusiastically engaging in all activities this week.
Miss Boothroyd’s STAR of the Week is Nico for having an amazing first week back.
Miss Boothroyd’s HWA We Are Inspiring goes to Albie for positive interactions with peers and staff.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s STAR of the Week is Abdul for his amazing focus on lesson this week and his fantastic work.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s inspiring star George for being a great role model to his peers.
Mrs Matthews’ STAR of the Week is Henry R for being focussed in all lessons this week.
Mrs Matthews’ We Are Inspiring STAR goes to Beaux for helping another child to understand social etiquette in the playground showing patience and understanding– well done.
Mrs Bailey’s STAR of the Week is Everyone for a fantastic transition to our new classroom - we are so proud of you all.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s HWA We Are Inspiring goes to Rose for a brave and brilliant start in your new class, well done Rose.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s STAR of the Week goes to Nevaeh for your wonderful engagement in phonics lessons, well done, Nevaeh.
Miss Oakley’s STAR of the Week is Libby for being a mathematician all week, completing hard calculations without any adult support.
Miss Oakley’s HWA We Are Inspiring goes to Issac for trying hard all week to use his words to let staff know how he feels and what he needs. We are so proud of you.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is STAR Jack for coping really well with change this week.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is Teddy W for accepting help and coping well with change this week.
Mr Corrigan’s WOW moments go to Albi-Lee & Teddy B for being proud of their friends.
Miss Hulme’s STAR of the Week is Tommy for having a super first week back in school.
Miss Hulme’s HWA We Are Inspiring goes to Ariella for trying some new foods this week and inspiring her friends to do the same.
Miss Tootill’s STAR of the Week goes to Maya for her fantastic retrieval skills in reading.
Miss Tootill’s HWA We are Inspiring goes to Derry for inspiring others to be brave.
Miss Gitten’s STAR of the Week goes to Stanley for communicating his wants and needs and taking turns.
Miss Gitten’s HWA We are Inspiring goes to is Faiha for playing nicely with others at lunch time.
STARS of the Week (7.11.25)
Well done to everyone.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Gordon
