We’re looking forward to welcoming families to our Parents’ Evenings – Tuesday 22nd at the school site and Wednesday 30th at the Learning Centre. A new pastoral report is being sent home beforehand which is personal to your child and has been put together by their class teacher, pastoral manager and their year head. This is part of the significant changes we are making to our reporting system in direct response to the way progress is now being assessed nationally. We will be showing parents how our new ‘dashboard’ will enable us to capture both academic and learning for life skills and how it will personalise your child’s academic and social development and involve you and your child in setting and understanding clear targets. There will be presentations on both evenings explaining how the ‘dashboard’ works and you will be able to ask any questions you may have about our exciting new system. We hope to see you there!

We have had a lot of fun joining in the fundraising for Children in Need Day! Our young people and staff left their usual ‘uniform’ at home and battled through the snow (thank you to the Hortus students for clearing the snow from paths and car parks at the Learning Centre!) in a wide range of colourful outfits – we will bring you the photographic evidence next week…. At the Learning Centre IBLC made some delicious ‘spotty buns’..

Elliott then took them around the Learning Centre to staff in exchange for a donation….needless to say they didn’t last long!

The Nurture Base at the school site have been hard at work for weeks getting ready for their Children in Need sale at break time. Mr Meadows has all the details..

We have been working on learning new skills to help us work together and take turns..

We started off with some team building and problem solving exercises using a bench – the pupils had to work together to be able to cross to the other side of the bench without falling off..

We then began making the sweet cones to sell for Children in Need and we had to work hard as part of a team to get all the orders completed..

We set up our stall in reception at break time and we were very busy raising lots of money for Children in Need as you can see..
 
 

This week our curriculum focus is on Humanities and Mr Hanif would like to tell you what has happening in his History lessons..

I always try to tell my pupils that History is full of really good stories and, to borrow a line from Doctor Who, when they enter the classroom we do “wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff” and go on great adventures, discovering the stories of the past. So, step in to our little time machine and we will take you on our journey so far..

This term Year 7 have had an introduction to History. We have found out about chronological order and why it is important to put events in the past into the right order. The pupils have created historical timelines making sure all the events from the past are in the right order. They finished by creating their own personal timelines tracking their unique and wonderful History..

This week we have explored one of the first things on our World History timeline – dinosaurs! Year 7 have learned about the different kinds of dinosaurs that roamed the earth, although unfortunately the Tyrannosaurus Rex is not as scary as it once was thanks to Toy Story’s Rex..

We also made our own fossils this week and the children have really begun to develop a good understanding of how the use of these sources of evidence has given historians a greater insight into life in the past..

We can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Year 8 have been learning about the Stuarts and the English Civil War and in the last few weeks we have been concentrating on the Gunpowder Plot or, as Anisa refers to it, the “washing up powder plot” – Mrs Usher and I can’t help but giggle every time Anisa insists on calling it that, somehow we don’t think Bonfire Night would go off with quite the same bang every year!

Year 9 have focused on the Second World War and the impact this had on children during the war. The aim of the topic is to gain an understanding of how people’s lives were different in the past and how events from the war have shaped our lives today..

This week we have concentrated on the impact of rationing during the war, and why it was necessary and the class were able to describe how people’s diets were different during the war..

They compared a wartime menu to a modern day menu and created one of their own with rationing in place – once they’d got over the shock of not being able to nip in to MacDonald’s and KFC, they were able to create some lovely menus which relied on the use of fruit and vegetables..

Thank you for joining us on our journey – I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes, “We are not makers of history. We are made of history.” (Martin Luther King, JR)

New Bridge hosted a SSAT national conference, ‘Leading an Outstanding Special School’, on Wednesday which included workshops and learning walks across our sites. The delegates were able to see our young people hard at work and it proved to be a very successful day..

The introduction of a halal option to our school meals is proving to very popular, as is the extension of the healthy snack options provided by the school meals service at break time which has been well received by pupils and parents. Our Christmas preparations are now well under way and Christmas dinner menus (14th December!) have been finalised and invitations to guests sent out. Rehearsals are underway for our Christmas Showcase, a montage of all the work our young people have done within Performing Arts, Lumenus and Music this year. The performances are scheduled for Wednesday 7th December (morning and evening) and Thursday 8th December (evening). Please contact Wendy Warren by email to wwarren@newbridgegroup.org or by ringing 0161 883 2401 extension 1007 for details of tickets.

We have joined in with Anti-Bullying Week and shared poems and thoughts during our assemblies. We celebrated the care and compassion our young people show each other on a daily basis and presented out new buds and buddies with their badges.

A new parking plan is now in operation at the Learning Centre following work to improve the car park and clear signage will be in place shortly to direct visitors to the appropriate place. The front of the Learning Centre is now reserved for adapted vehicles and parking is not permitted on the driveway to ensure the area around the new zebra crossing is kept clear. Please could you make sure you park in a designated marked bay at the side or back of the Learning Centre – you may use the entrance at the rear of the building if this is closer to where you have parked.

We’re looking forward to welcoming Lola, a very placid and well trained Golden Retriever, to the Learning Centre as part of our new ‘Dog Awareness sessions’. Some of our students would like to overcome their fear of dogs and there are others for whom contact with a dog can be comforting and therapeutic. Mr Barker will be bringing us news of how the sessions go but we know there are plenty of students (and staff) eager to meet Lola!

This week’s ‘Cooking with Hortus’ Spaghetti Bolognese was wonderful – Miss Allison says she will be putting in an order to take away..

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Judith and Dawn

You can find our full blog here

The New Bridge Horizons blog is available here for updates on our Key Stage 5 Pathway students in Lumenus, Digit4ll and Activ8 together with Future Finders students and the young people at Horizons

Click here to read this week’s blog from Graham