Another busy week in preparation for launching the next phase of our iPad project in which we roll out the iPads to our pupils. I’m thrilled to tell you this will be happening on Monday. All pupils will spend the morning familiarising themselves with their new devices and receiving an orientation from their Form Team to help get them set up and ready to use in their lessons. Our Digit4ll Pathway pupils will be acting as our resident Apple Genius Bar operatives and visiting Form Groups across the school to support them with this initial set up.

As we progress through the coming weeks and months we’ll be exploring together with the pupils how we use the iPads to support their learning. For many of our more independent pupils, this will involve helping them to develop their knowledge and understanding through modelling and explanations, and support their progress through feedback and assessment, as well as supporting collaboration, group work and self-led study. With regards to our pupils with more complex needs, I’m really excited that not only will we have the support of Apple and their partners Jigsaw24 as we continue with the project, but also the support of ACE Centre North, a local charity that provides support for people with complex communications difficulties with a focus on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Assistive Technology (AT). Working alongside our existing partnerships with our Speech and Language Team, Visual Impairment Team and Hearing Impairment Team, we’ll be exploring how we can use the iPads to break down barriers to engagement and access to learning for this group of pupils. Very exciting times ahead indeed.

This week the pupils in 7JFN want to share their news with you. They have been busy settling in to their new school and getting to know each other and make friends – here they are in tutorial time enjoying reading, colouring in and playing with lego before the day’s lessons begin..

The class really enjoyed their Food Technology lesson this week making their own fruit kebabs – Warren liked doing the cutting, Zeeshan liked chopping the skin off the melon, Leo thought it was hard to cut the melon but Azeem enjoyed that part, Caitlin liked getting the fruit on the stick, Lexie said it was good and Jasmine and Zuha enjoyed making them too. Sulaiman’s favourite part was threading the fruit on the stick while Liam’s was dipping it in chocolate and eating it and Alex liked cleaning up!

In their Maths lessons with Mr Goup, the class have enjoyed working with concrete manipulatives including Numicon..

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”210″ gal_title=”7JFN Maths September 2019″]

On Friday Mrs Shaw asked all the pupils what they think about their new school and this is what they had to say..

• ‘I feel happy at New Bridge School’ ~ Jasmine
• ‘I like doing swimming at school’ ~ Warren
• ‘I like coming to New Bridge School doing Maths, cooking, swimming and PE’ ~ Azeem
• ‘I was nervous to start my new school, now I feel brave’ ~ Alex
• ‘I love this school and I’ve made lots of new friends’ ~ Zeeshan
• ‘I like ICT and my new teachers’ ~ Sulaiman
• ‘I was nervous to start New Bridge and now I feel confident’ ~ Lexie
• ‘I am excited to come to school and I like swimming’ ~ Caitlin
• ‘I like New Bridge. My favourite lesson is ICT’ ~ Leo
• ‘Mrs Shaw looks after me at school and I like coming to school’ ~ Liam
• ‘School is good’ ~ Zuha

Next week our Activ8 Sports Pathway will sharing their news with us.

A letter has been sent home (click here to view it) with details of Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission’s upcoming return visit following the Oldham Local Area SEND inspection. As part of the re-visit, they would very much like to have your views which you can give at an open meeting on Monday 23rd September. You can find more details on the POINT (Oldham’s Parent Carer Forum) website here.

Have a good week,

Gavin

You can find Dawn’s blog for the Learning Centre here

For news on our Key Stage 5 pathway groups at Medtia Square please click here

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham

You can find my previous blog posts here