Well, here we are at half term already, where have the last six weeks gone? Time certainly does fly when you’re having fun!
We’ve had a great week with our usual wide (and wonderful!) range of activities taking place across our sites. Our new basketball team took part in a tournament at Manor High in Sale, competing against other schools and doing us all very proud with their excellent behaviour and sportsmanship. We are only just discovering basketball here at New Bridge and our young people have not started working on these new skills yet, so we were thrilled to win 2 matches and draw 2. Goodness knows what our players will be able to achieve after some serious training! It was also lovely to be able to catch up with our old colleague Helen Wilson, who is now Head of Manor High, and you can read all about our fantastic morning in Mr Smith’s report here.
After Mr Bright’s presentation on Safer Internet Day 2016 in our whole school assembly last Friday, we were ready for the day itself on Tuesday. Co-ordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, the celebration saw over a thousand organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people. At New Bridge we monitor safe use of the internet by operating our own e-Safe Award scheme; this is a six week course that our young people must complete before earning the privilege of carrying their own e-Safe Card. You can find full details of the scheme and access the course materials here. We will be following this week’s e-Safety theme after half term with a special assembly delivered by Colette Morris from Oldham Council based on the Prevent Radicalisation Strategy.
Our IB classes have been getting up to mischief this week…they’ve had a ‘pancake war’, been heard singing along with ‘drunken pirates’ and then had lots of fun getting ready for Valentine’s day, as you can see..
Miss Silvester’s group have made ‘Queen of Heart’s Scones’..
..and some beautiful, personalised Valentine’s ‘Love’ cards by making marks with their hands and feet..
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Love really has been in the air this week. The Nurture Base and New Bridge Printers have both been very entrepreneurial and produced a selection of Valentine’s goodies which have been eagerly snapped up. (They are now planning their Mother’s Day range of merchandise, so if you are interested in buying any gifts we would advise you not to leave it too late.)
Today we welcomed a group of teachers and teaching assistants from Bolton. It was good to be able to share ideas and compare different ways of working, approaches to learning and teaching styles with other professionals. We will tell you more about the visit after half term.
The Learning Centre has seemed strangely quiet this week with our Year 13 students (and staff!) away on the Calvert Trust residential.
Mr Howard, our roving reporter on the ground, sent us this report:
“What a week we’ve all had up above the beautiful town of Keswick, in the Lake District. The weather has been kind, dry (albeit a bit ‘nippy’) with some snow on the tops of the peaks visible from our bedrooms. We’ve canoed on Bassenthwaite Lake (some of us took a dip!), abseiled, gone for night walks and horse rides, and had some fantastic meals and lots of fun in between. Our last night was ‘disco night’ where we were all able to share in the fun on our final night together before heading back to the Learning Centre!”
We are very grateful to the staff who have supported our students on their residential this week, they have worked day (and night) to ensure our young people have had an absolutely fantastic time. We can’t wait to see the photographs and find out what they have all been up to!! Thank you to the rest of the staff for ‘holding the fort’ back at the Learning Centre – we hope everyone enjoys a well deserved rest over half term.
Looking ahead, we hope you will be able to join us on Wednesday 2nd March for our popular coffee morning.
We would like to wish you all a peaceful half term break, take care and stay safe. Don’t forget that school and the Learning Centre are both closed on Monday 22nd February for a staff training day, so Tuesday 23rd February will be the first day of the new half term for pupils and students.
Judith and Dawn
Breaking news: ‘Stitch and Hitch reunited!’ It looks like our Learning Centre crows also celebrate Valentine’s Day – maybe will we have to think about suitable names for baby crows?
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