We have had another eventful week at New Bridge! On Wednesday Mr Smith took a group of Key Stage 3 boys to the Salford Trampolining Centre for an event to allow young people to experience trampolining and learn new skills. Our eager bouncers were taught how to perform a tuck jump, do a seat drop and progress onto a seat drop with a twist – as you can see, they certainly got the hang of it very quickly..

All the young people loved the day and Mr Smith is very pleased to report that they were a credit to the school as always.

Our thoughts have been with a young man in Year 11 who is currently in the Children’s Hospital in Manchester. We are all rooting for him and hope he is soon better and back in school – it has been very quiet without him. Kyle is a popular member of our New Bridge family and we understand people will want to send their best wishes. Some have asked if they can visit Kyle but his parents have asked for privacy at the moment. They will let us know when Kyle is able to have visitors. Please can we support them with their wishes at this time.

Thankfully we have had no snow this week and our young people have been out and about as usual. We have 2 reports to share with you, the first from Miss Evans:

“Everyone in IBLC2 had a great time on Outdoor Ed this week. They all thoroughly enjoyed being outside, even if it was a bit muddy!

They were all keen to try the different activities but Hannah was particularly determined to try the zip wire! After a bit of trial and error she managed to get on and enjoyed the experience..

Her biggest achievement was the way she kept trying until she succeeded – well done, Hannah!”

Mr Hollinworth’s Year 8 group are working on the topic ‘The Elements’ and Mrs Cockcroft took these lovely pictures of this week’s visit to Daisy Nook to find out more about water:

“We made rafts out of natural materials and followed them downstream to see how the water has shaped the landscape.”

The majority of our young people excel on a daily basis and we are able to celebrate their successes with their family and friends in many different ways, including this weekly blog. At New Bridge we are constantly striving to help our young people find ways to manage their feelings effectively. There are occasions, however, when some struggle to handle their emotions and end up making bad choices. We work alongside our young people as they reflect on situations and work through future coping strategies. The ‘Post Incident Learning Process’ we employ at New Bridge enables this process to happen in a calm and controlled manner, helping students to work through difficulties. We would like to thank our parents and carers for their continued support which is invaluable.

Many of our young people face challenges in their lives and during our Learning Centre assembly we watched a moving clip from Nicholas James Vujicic, an Australian motivational speaker born with Tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs..

As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and started his own non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs, at the age of 17. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide on life with a disability, hope, and finding meaning in life. We talked about the principles of being positive, patient and thankful, never giving up, overcoming challenges and focusing on what we can do, not what we can’t. This proved a very moving assembly..

The theme of never giving up was echoed by Reece – last week he was very nervous about his work experience placement at the Atrium café and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. Reece decided to give it another try and went back again on Friday morning with Faisal (who missed last week’s visit due to the snow), and Miss Meakin was delighted with their morning’s work:

“We just got through the doors at Medtia and had our first job to carry some boxes over to the café..

We got to the café and discussed some health and safety rules of the kitchen and then they were asked to put out the menus by the café supervisor, Becky..

Then the ‘dream team’ were on washing up and drying duty..

They both got stuck in and were all smiles, well done, boys!”

We promised to keep you updated on Oliver and we’re delighted to say that he had another great work experience placement this week. He is really enjoying his work in the café as you can see..

Miss Allison says she was treated to the best dish so far in this week’s ‘Cooking with Hortus’, a plate of ‘Chicken Noodles’ – she can’t recommend it highly enough and you can try it at home with the recipe here.

On Wednesday we held our first Learning Centre Parents Group. Mr Barker reports:

“This was really well attended. There was a very positive discussion about some of the common issues that affect us as parents and ideas about how to move the group forward. This included setting up a Facebook page and inviting in guest speakers to talk about relevant issues that would run alongside regular group meetings. There was also the opportunity to talk in smaller groups to share experiences, worries and concerns. There was really positive feedback from parents who attended who appreciated the opportunity to talk to others who ‘get it’.
A special mention and thanks must go to Mrs Gillett who volunteered her own time to support two of her Food Industry students (Shihab and Fahad) to provide refreshments during the afternoon. Shihab and Fahad have obviously been very well trained.”

Our staff have been busy too, both in and out of the classroom. Some staff have been gaining their MIDAS qualifications this week to enable them to drive our minibuses and our recently qualified teachers have been sharing experiences and consolidating their teaching skills. Our curriculum focus for this week’s blog is Maths..

Year 7 have been looking at measuring accurately in cm and mm and converting cm into mm. They have also been estimating the lengths of objects in the class then measuring them to see how accurate their estimating has been..

Year 8 have been learning the days of the weeks and the months of the year and looking at which season each month falls into. They have been singing along to songs as well! They created a ‘days of the week’ wheel to identify ‘yesterday’, ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’..

Year 9 have started looking at weights, they have been investigating by picking up weights to see how heavy they are, which is the heaviest and lightest and estimating the weight of different objects..

Year 10 have been learning how to double small numbers up to 10 using cubes..

They have been looking at time – how to tell the time, the number of days in the week, weeks in a month and a year, hours and minutes..

Year 11 have also been looking at days of the week and months of the year before they move on to time next week. They have been putting the days of the week in order and created a Day Wheel to help identify ‘Yesterday’, ‘Today’ and ‘Tomorrow’..

The pupils have really enjoyed creating a diary and recalling their favourite subjects or activities that they do in or after school each day..

Mr Holban’s Year 11 class have started their ‘Time’ topic and they have been learning to read the time using analogue clocks. They are now able to read time in hours, half hour and quarter past and quarter to..

The pathways group have been concentrating on their new ‘Time’ topic. They have been working hard on reading analogue and digital clocks, 12 and 24-hour times, telling time stories and working out tricky time problems..

One of their sessions is based in the ICT room and the students really like being able to reinforce their learning using a range of ICT programmes, activities and games. As you can see, they are all engrossed and working hard, as they always do..

Year 13 are trying hard to concentrate on Maths whilst looking forward to the Calvert Residential in a couple of weeks! Sophie and Sebastian had fun with their number line work..

Brittany, William and Edward are working on the perimeter and area of shapes..

Keiffer is working on measurement and doing some practice exam questions..

Year 14 have been using boards and Numicon to identify and produce symmetrical patterns..

They have been using a number grid to count on from a given number and to add two numbers together..

They have been enjoying a game to reinforce their understanding of fractions and completing work on this topic. They are working on understanding unit and non unit fractions and finding fractions of shapes and numbers..

Kayleigh loves using the teaching clocks to practise telling the time. She has really worked hard on this and is now telling time in minute intervals – fantastic work, Kayleigh!

There seem to be lots of viruses and sickness bugs going round New Bridge at the moment. It’s always a tough call as a parent knowing when to keep your child at home and when to send them in. The school nurse will send a letter home if your child has experienced sickness and diarrhoea, stating they should be symptom free for 48 hours before they return. Colds and viruses are more difficult to advise on, however, and of course it all depends on how your child is affected. We do promote infection control and reinforce the importance of washing hands, nevertheless we seem to remain a hot spot for germs.

We hope you have a relaxing 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