Wowsers! That about sums it up for us after a stunning end to a stunning term. Coming to the end of the Summer term always feels like a race against time to get everything ready for the next term whilst also juggling all the end of term activities. This week alone we’ve had Sports Day, Super Learning Day, the Year 11 Leavers’ Celebration, the Year 14 Leavers’ Celebration, class parties, Rewards Morning and Stars in their Eyes. We’ve competed, celebrated, remembered, sang, laughed, cried, said goodbye and learned (or at least reminded ourselves) what a special place New Bridge is and what a privilege it is to be part of the New Bridge team.
Our Sports Day was a big success on Monday thanks to all the hard work of the PE team. We had a wonderful array of adapted bikes and the help of Ability Wheelz to transform the car park into a cycle track. Joel from Lancashire Cricket also came and oversaw some very competitive cricket and thankfully the rain held off..
Manchester City even brought the Premiership Trophy and the League Cup for everyone to have their pictures taken with – pupils and staff!
Lumenus were also busy on Monday, although not with Sports Day – they were at the Royal Exchange Theatre for the first ever SEND Schools Festival! All the hard work they had put into devising and rehearsing their own piece paid off and they gave a wonderful performance..
They were then able to relax and enjoy watching the other schools taking part – the perfect end to a very busy year for Lumenus!
Our Super Learning Day was based around ‘Journeys’ and all the staff and young people threw themselves into the activities with gusto. A group of students prepared survival packs for a journey with helpful quotes and snacks to get them through. They then followed clues and a map around the Learning Centre grounds to find key landmarks on their journey.
The students from Ebase focused on Noah’s Ark and the preparation of the animals getting onto the ark in order to get out of the rain. IB were joined by three of the Year 11 students who will be moving up next year and learnt about the story of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes and the journey to the Sea of Galilee. In the morning they listened to the story and made their own bread before setting up a beach and travelling to the Sea of Galilee where they were joined by the young people from Horizons. They all enjoyed making sandcastles, catching fish and playing ball games and ended their trip with some lovely fruit drinks..
Miss Patchett’s class made some delicious Sikh food..
The AB went on a pilgrimage..
..and a lot of construction work took place!
The underlying religious focus around special journeys and pilgrimages helped the young people to understand how different religions celebrate in coming together to worship their gods and prophets..
Thursday saw the Learning Centre going back in time to the 60s with a Woodstock day! We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (and there will be more to come in a Facebook album) but as you can see, the festival was a great success!
All our young people have had a wonderful week, including the Nurture Base at school as Mr Cotterill explains..
It’s been a fun filled, yet busy end to the school year in the Nurture Base this week. First up was Sports Day on Monday and representing ‘Team NB’ were our team of tireless athletes . . . Ryan, Hamza, Junior, Aimee, Josh, Salman and Daygon, all ready and raring to go in a range of events!
Everyone did amazingly well, and well done to Ryan, Josh and Aimee for winning their respective races. To celebrate, the Team NB athletes then rounded off their day with some fun on the bouncy castle..
On Wednesday, we had a special visit from Gail, the Community Champion at Morrisons in Failsworth, who kindly donated an array of tasty ingredients for the class to make their very own pizzas during our cooking lesson…unfortunately, we were too slow getting a picture of the finished products as everyone ate them!
Daygon and Aimee took the opportunity during the day to spread the word about Morrisons’ launch of their ‘Quieter Hour’, an initiative supported by the National Autistic Society enabling autistic customers or those with autistic children to have a much calmer shopping experience with dimmed lights, in store music turned off, avoiding tannoy announcements, the beeps switched off at checkouts etc. You can find out more here about the new ‘Quieter Hour’ at Morrisons every Saturday..
On Thursday, it was the Year 11s leavers’ assembly and Record of Achievement. We said an emotional goodbye to one of the Nurture Base’s biggest characters, Ryan, who is moving on to pastures new at the Learning Centre..
Ryan will be sorely missed by us all and the class most certainly will not be the same without him. We wish you all the very best for the future, mate..
It’s been an incredible year! I just want to say thank you for making my first year in the Nurture Base one to remember and welcoming me into the New Bridge family. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you all and watch you all grow and mature since September! On behalf of me, Mr Meadows and Miss Eouzan, we wish you all a lovely summer and we can’t wait to hear about what you’ve been up to come September.
Somehow we also found time to fit in our class parties..
..and our inter year competitions at the Learning Centre..
We also had the winner of our competition to design our school tie, voted for by the pupils. The winner was Zenadin Bux..
To say he was pleased was an understatement and the theatre erupted with cheers and applause at the prospect of pupils being able to wear a tie and blazer for their school uniform. Parents, we’ll be sending out a letter next term to get an idea of interest and how many ties and blazers we need to order
During our final Learning Centre assembly, we bid a fond farewell to all those who are moving on. We reminded ourselves of the words of the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley which so inspired Nelson Mandela, ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.’ We also reminded the students just how far they have come on their journey with us and, more importantly, just how far they can go if they put their minds to it and believe in themselves. It is always sad to say goodbye but it is with immense pride that we wish all our Learning Centre students good luck for the future.
At the other end of the school, Kyle accompanied Mr Quinn to Kingfisher School’s leavers’ assembly on Friday. They spoke to the children about life at New Bridge and Kyle was able to reassure the Year 6s who will be joining us in September (thank you to Mr Littler for the photo)..
Before we leave, we have to introduce you to Wilson, the Learning Centre football..
Although Wilson may look tired and weary, he has given his all this year and remained active and useful for the students – a little like the staff team by the end of term!! He is now enjoying his retirement on show in Miss Allison’s office.
We would like to say a huge thank you to our amazing staff team and to all our young people for making it such a privilege and honour to work with you. We learn so much from you – it is, at times, truly humbling.
Wishing you all a restful, relaxing and happy holiday. See you in September!
Gavin and Dawn
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