It’s been an energetic week in more ways than one! Sport Relief has certainly made an impression. Pupils have been covering a mile (and over, in some cases) by swimming, walking or jogging..

In addition, we have held our week-long equivalent of the Great British Bake Off, the ‘New Bridge Sport Relief Bake Off’, which must surely have set a record for the never-ending supply of buns that have been crafted and iced with some very impressive designs. We understand pictures have been taken of every batch and will be submitted for judging, although fortunately everyone got to take home the buns they had made, otherwise the judges might have had trouble sampling such a mountain of baking. Here is just a small selection of what they might have faced..

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In the Autism Base at school, the theme this term has been Pirates. The children used stencils and all sorts of materials for their treasure boxes and other essential pirating equipment – they even made a crocodile out of a pineapple..

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They also made the most amazing cake in Food Studies, which unfortunately we didn’t manage to taste but it looked brilliant – a real show stopper!

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The PE department been busy too. Tuesday saw them taking two teams to the Greater Manchester Games – not only did our players gain some expert coaching in tag rugby..

..they also did brilliantly in the competition! Our under 16 team came third and won bronze..

and our under 19 team won the competition and received gold..

Well done to our fantastic players!!!

Activ8 once again had the chance to put their leadership skills to good use when Hollinwood Academy hosted the Ability Counts Roadshow on Wednesday, as you can see here.

The Nurture Base have also been working hard, learning all about road safety and putting what they’ve learnt at school into practice – please take a moment to watch the brilliant short film here that they made highlighting the dangers.

This week has been Autism Awareness Week and our young people have been learning about the behaviours and characteristics of autism and what they can do to help their peers.

E-Base students from our Autism Base have been taking part in a range of activities to help both staff and young people throughout the Learning Centre have a greater understanding of what goes on in their classroom and about young people on the autistic spectrum. A group have started their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and we will bring you exciting details of their upcoming expedition after Easter..

The E-Base students have had a great week, decorating the Learning Centre with posters they have made, watching a presentation in assembly of their work and making some fantastic gingerbread creations..

    

Our gingerbread biscuits were also a huge success with the resident wildlife including a robin, magpies and…“Stop the press!”…Hitch and Stitch, our famous crows! We even have the evidence to show you, thanks to our wildlife photographer Miss Thornhill..

We are looking forward to our next Super Learning Day on Tuesday 22nd March when we will be learning about Hinduism and the Spring Festival of Holi. Holi is also known as the Festival of Colours and we have some exciting celebrations planned…dance workshops, art, music, literacy and sensory activities to employ all our senses in experiencing taste, smell, touch, vision and sound. You will get a full report on the day, we promise  🙂

How quickly the spring term has passed! We will soon be back at school starting the summer term which is always packed with sporting events, residential visits, awards ceremonies and, of course, the Prom and School Show. We’re very excited to tell you that this year the summer show is ‘Shrek’ and will involve young people from across the organisation – it will be a fabulous production, and we will give you details of the performances and how to obtain tickets soon!

Next Friday is Good Friday and the first day of the Easter holidays, so this will be our last blog for this term. We would like to wish you all a peaceful holiday and look forward to sharing more news of our wonderful young people with you after the break.

Judith and Dawn

You can find our full blog here

Click here to read news of important changes to the education system in Graham’s blog