Welcome back everyone after the half term break, we hope you all had a good week. Year 8 left very early on Tuesday morning for the sunnier climate of France and Disneyland Paris, and as you can see from our Facebook album here they have had a wonderful time! They arrived safely back at New Bridge on Friday night after a very long journey and we can’t wait to hear all their stories..
On Wednesday pupils from Activ8 and Year 11 went to the MCFC Academy and played 5 games in the One City Schools League tournament. Winners take all and guess what we did! We won!
Well done to all the team, Jack scored 5 goals in one game. Patrick saved the day by saving a last gasp penalty which left the score at 2:1. We are all really pleased and the trophy is sitting on the cabinet in reception. You can read Mr Greenway’s full report here.
At New Bridge we continually aim to work in partnership with parents and carers in supporting our young people and the Learning Centre Parents Group has provided a supportive forum within which families can share concerns and offer advice. We also aim to provide expertise in a number of relevant areas and on Wednesday afternoon Natalie Stenson, Transitions Nurse Practitioner, spoke to a group of 18 parents about all the complexities of transition from children’s to adult services. This was really informative and highlighted how complicated the process is that parents and carers are required to navigate. Natalie stressed that she and colleagues are endeavouring to put everything together into a pack to enable families to know what they need to know and do and when. We discussed amongst numerous other topics Continuing Health Care plans, Mental Health Capacity accounts, Lasting Power of Attorney, Trust Funds and the importance of opening bank accounts in young people’s names. All these areas have extreme relevance during the transition process and families need to be aware of them.
Natalie is based at the Learning Centre on Wednesday afternoons on a regular basis and she is more than happy to help if you have any concerns or queries. Thanks also to Michelle Lane. our Year 14 Pastoral Manager. who spent time talking with parents. Michelle also has a great deal of experience of the transition process and is available to offer support and advice. A special mention goes to Fahad who did a fantastic job providing refreshments – watch out Mrs Gillett, Fahad may be after your job!
Mrs Taylor took her Year 10 English group to see a production of ‘Gangsta Granny’ by David Walliams at the Opera House. The group had a fabulous day and were glad that unlike Granny, who had to dine on cabbage soup, they had a nice lunch out in a restaurant as Mrs Taylor reports..
This term Mrs Taylor’s English group have been reading ‘Gangsta Granny’. As they enjoyed the story so much it was great news to hear it was being performed at the Opera House. Everyone was really excited to go in!
The first half was fantastic! Cordelia and Jasmine loved it when Grandma kept suffering the inevitable effects every time she had her cabbage soup..
The girls loved the dancing and Mum’s outfits..
Junaid loved the Gangsta Granny Rap and even tried joining in with it..
A great day was had by everyone..
Jasmine thought it was amazing!!
On Friday we focused the day’s activities around feelings, emotions and positive minds. Our deep thanks and gratitude must also go Laura Embleton who is a parent and professional face painter. She kindly donated her time and materials and painted the faces of many children..
As part of the day’s activities, Mrs Parkinson’s class and AB4 worked together on emotions; the children had not spent time with each other before but the session proved to be a great success as you can see..
The day culminated with an assembly as normal on Friday afternoon with a celebration of our achievements. Pharell Williams wasn’t available unfortunately but our pupils’ enthusiastic rendition of ‘Happy’ almost met his standard!
This week our staff and young people respectfully joined together again to observe a minute’s silence, this time for those killed and injured in the London terror attacks. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected. As with the last week’s concert in Manchester, we reflected on responding with care, compassion and love as opposed to hatred and anger..
This theme of helping each other was echoed during our Learning Centre assembly. We talked about the fact that being kind and helpful to others costs nothing except a little effort but it can have a big effect on the person you are helping. We watched a video that showed a series of spontaneous acts of kindness and we talked about the satisfaction we get from helping others being the reward rather than getting anything tangible.
We would like to say a special thank you to all the staff who have worked extra hard this week, willingly covering duties and lessons whilst staff have been away with pupils at Disney. It is this ethos which makes New Bridge the caring and nurturing place it is.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Judith and Dawn
You can find our full blog here
Graham has been with the children in Disney this week but you can read his previous blog entries here
