Yet another busy week at New Bridge, it’s now officially summer and here we are nearing the end of this academic year. ‘What’s new?’ we hear you say. On Tuesday we held our first transition evening for the whole New Bridge Group across all our sites and invited families to meet Year Heads, Pastoral Managers, representatives from our Pathways, key curriculum staff and healthcare colleagues. We gave short presentations explaining the structure, provision and ethos of the school and Learning Centre along with general day to day information such as attendance, time out of school, uniforms and after school club and holiday club provision. Daniel Wood was also available at the Learning Centre to talk about our employability strands and future destination opportunities.

We would like to thank everyone who attended. We know transition can be a anxious time for our young people and their families; as one of our current Year 12 students put it, ‘I was really nervous before I came to the Learning Centre, but I love it, everyone is lovely and it feels more like a college.’

We hope we were able to answer all your questions but please do get in touch if there is anything you are still unsure about or would like more information on. As the first ever evening of this kind, we are aware there are improvements to be made for next year and any feedback from parents would be gratefully received.

Next week sees the start of the busy run-up to the end of term as our Head Boy, Matthew, described in his blog here, with performances of our big summer show, Shrek, taking place on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning and Wednesday evening. If you haven’t already booked a ticket there are still a few left, please contact Wendy Warren on 0161 883 2401 extension 1007 for details. Over 65 young people from across the Group are involved in the performance and we were lucky enough to have a sneak preview on Thursday afternoon – it’s absolutely fantastic, you certainly won’t be disappointed!

Lumenus, our performing arts pathway and the school choir sound incredible and, as always, it is a fully inclusive New Bridge show of a high standard worthy of the West End!

Our famous Sports Awards are being held on Thursday evening at 7.00pm and we can’t wait to find out who our famous guest speaker will be this year! Our PE staff have been busy organising the event; it is a prestigious occasion, one of the highlights of the New Bridge year, with many a proud pupil receiving an award – you can expect a full report on the evening in our next blog!

Our Nurture Base have returned from their overnight Duke of Edinburgh’s residential expedition and we are thrilled with this group’s achievement. The pupils and Nuture Base staff haven’t stopped smiling since, and Mr Hagan has sent us this lovely account of the trip:

‘They did the Monsal Trail, which consisted of 8 miles in a very scenic part of the country, although it’s not that scenic when you’re going through one of the many dimly lit tunnels or, in the words of Will, ‘climbing mountains!’

I worked with this group of students in the Nurture Group for four years and having spent this academic year away from them, I was wondering what to expect when I put my name down to assist on the trip. What stood out for me most was the students’ impeccable behaviour, manners and conduct throughout. Even in times where they were tired and just wanted to go and lie down..

.. they were still willing to do what was expected, putting up the tents, making one another’s tea and making Mr Taylor and the Duke proud!

On the Monsal Trail walk, every passing person received a warm, ‘Good morning/afternoon’, ‘Have a nice day!’ from the group and numerous times when I was lagging 30 yards behind trying to keep up, I would have members of the public saying what a lovely bunch of students they were..

They were an absolute credit to themselves, their parents and to New Bridge School. Special thanks must go to Activ8’s Jordan and Chris from the Learning Centre who went as support – both of them were absolute stars who went above and beyond.’

On Thursday we produced our Year 14 video at the Learning Centre, it was great fun to make and we can’t wait to watch the finished piece, although for some reason Miss Allison is not so sure! We’re very grateful to the Digit4ll team for doing the filming and to all the staff and students for their energy and enthusiasm, particularly Miss Silvester for her hard work in organising it. Miss Allison has put in a special request to keep her wig, or at least borrow it at the weekends…….we’re intrigued!!

This week our Liaison Officer, Mrs Akhtar, joined the food industry group to explain Eid and to teach the students how to make vegetable pakoras and chicken samosas..

As you can see, the students had a great morning making and sampling the food. Seb C. was declared the samosa wrapping champion..

Thanks again for some truly delicious treats!

Miss Silvester and her group had a wonderful trip out on Friday as she explains here..

‘As part of our ‘Australia, here we come!’ theme this term, we have been focusing on the Great Barrier Reef. We have explored different objects and textures linked to the topic. Today we visited the Sea Life Centre at the Trafford Centre to enhance understanding and contextualise the theme..

The students had a fantastic time experiencing the sights and sounds of the centre and even got to touch a real starfish..

Definitely a trip to remember!’

Oldham’s Autism Partnership Board, ‘Autism Way Forward’ has now published Oldham’s draft Autism Strategy and they want to know what you think of it! The consultation is open until 15th July and you can read the strategy and give your feedback on it here.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Judith and Dawn

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