Well, here we are at the end of another half term. This has been a week where everyone has pulled together to ensure our young people have received the best possible provision whilst Year 11 have been in Wales on their residential. Mrs Lamb had the pleasure of driving down on Thursday night and heard first-hand about their very full, fun packed days taking part in some great activities..

They had pool parties and barbecues, braved the highs and lows of the Aerial Adventure..

and yes, even Mr Southerington had a go..

They put their Call of Duty skills to the test..

gave Robin Hood’s Merry Men a run for their money..

emulated Rory McIlroy on the deceptively tricky Haven Masters Links course..

and partied as though there was no-one watching..

As part of the Evolve Educational Visit process, Mr Southerington had to set targets for the students and then evaluate the residential. He challenged them to:

try new things
develop independent living skills
have a memorable experience
have fun

We think you’ll agree that the students more than achieved their targets..

but here are some more pictures for you to judge for yourselves..

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”64″ gal_title=”27th May Wales”]

 

You may also like to view the album on our Facebook page here.

We would like to thank the staff both on the residential and those who remained in school for all their hard work and dedication. Staff have said it has been an absolute pleasure to see the smiles on the faces of the students this week and it goes without saying that the job satisfaction is second to none, but we do recognise the love and care they show our young people and we would not be able to offer them these fantastic experiences without the support of our amazing staff team.

We’d like to share this lovely picture of Mr Taylor being presented with a plaque by Ben Cohen at Buckingham Palace last week in recognition of the work we do with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. Mr Taylor has given us a report of the day which you can find here if you have not yet seen it.

We’d also like to celebrate some of the fabulous work our staff and young people do every day. As Mr Quinn mentioned in his blog, it’s been a privilege to observe some wonderful lessons where our young people are inspired to learn and achieve their best, both inside the classroom and outside within the community, and broaden their skills and knowledge. Lesson observations have now finished for this term but the excellent work we have seen carries on. We are now busy organising transition visits for the young people who will be joining us in September – another reminder of how quickly this year is passing.

We have a range of Wednesday morning options groups at the Learning Centre and one of these, ‘The World’, is particularly popular with staff and students alike. Every week the group learns about a different country and the triple lesson means they have plenty of time to explore its culture, food, language, weather and even the music, both traditional and popular. Students never know where they will be travelling to from one week to the next and they enjoy discussing whether they would like to visit or even live in the places they see. It’s also fun to study countries that some of the students have already visited on holidays and they enjoy sharing their different experiences.

Our globetrotting team, Ryan, Khadeeja, Faisal, Joshua, Sohail, James and Dwayne have been to Egypt this week and sampled houmous..

All the work the students produce on each country is available to view in Mrs Robinson’s classroom and everyone is welcome to come and have a look through when they get the chance – perhaps you might find some inspiration for your next holiday destination!

We’d like to congratulate our Art GCSE group who have successfully completed their examination this week. The exhibition of their artwork is now on display in the Learning Centre Art Gallery and it looks amazing. Miss Allison may be slightly biased but it really does look fantastic and she is immensely proud of her group. We’ll bring you a full review and images of the exhibition after half term.

Carers Week runs from Monday 6th June and there are lots of events planned at the Link Centre in Oldham. Our young people from Future Finders already run the café there every Tuesday and New Bridge Horizons are in charge there on Thursdays, so they will be on hand to provide refreshments to carers attending the events. Please click the link here for further details and do call in to see our catering crew if you are visiting the Link Centre!

Talking of Future Finders, we would like to congratulate one of our old students, Reece, who moved on to Future Finders after leaving New Bridge last year and has just been successful in applying for his first job!! Well done, Reece, we are very proud of how hard you have worked to achieve this – please click here to find out more!

There are lots of exciting events lined up for our final half term. Our Year 8s are off to Disneyland Paris the day after we come back, there are Bronze, Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s qualifying expeditions to be completed and our production of Shrek will be taking place at the end of June. We will be finishing the school year off in a flurry of activity with our Sports Awards evening, Super Learning Day, our New Bridge Sports Event, Year 11 and Year 14 Awards ceremonies and, of course, the event of the year, our New Bridge Prom!

We hope you have a lovely half term whatever you may be doing and we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 6th June.

Judith and Dawn

You can find our full blog here

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