It has been a phenomenal week at New Bridge this week, everybody in high spirits with Easter fun and lots of stuff going on! First a big ‘congrats’ to Activ8 Key Stage 4 and the rest of the school who took part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze practice expedition, great to hear all the stories especially of Alan who took a knock along the way but powered it to the end – well done boys and everyone else, you did yourselves proud!
Back at New Bridge our boys did planning for the Easter activities games for the main school and young students of Hollinwood Academy. We went into Oldham town centre and managed the budget and bought our equipment for the day, in the end saving £5. In the afternoon, myself and Matty took ourselves away from chilling to get some coursework done. We also got to discussing how successful we’ve become at New Bridge and how we would like to see that reflect on the future of Activ8 and those who have big dreams. Last week I mentioned a certain testimonial match between myself and Matthew, dates are being confirmed for the last Thursday of the end of the year and I said to Matthew, “You may say come the testimonial you will defeat me but, my friend, it’s 1-0 and I’m intending making it 2-0. It’s winner takes all, I shall rise to king of the blogs again! See you on that pitch.” We’re both excited for #BattleOfTheBlogs2 when best friends and great rivals come head to head in the sport they love.
Our New Bridge team attended the inclusive basketball tournament on Monday and I’m happy to say we came out as North West champions and are through to the national finals in Worcester! Well done to everyone who took part and did the team proud.
On Thursday we had Super Learning Day which was based on Easter. There were lots of activities going on – we had arts and crafts and our Activ8 hosted Easter activities sessions for the whole school which was a great success, well done to all the boys who helped leading. Digit4ll hosted their own Easter egg hunt using the iPads and I got a write up from them to tell us what it was and how it went:
“The amazingly talented computer whizzes from Digit4ll organised and ran a digital version of the traditional Easter egg hunt in the form of a QR Code Hunt around New Bridge School. Hasnain demonstrated to all the groups how to use the iPads to photograph the QR code and then find the attached URL link to a photograph. Meanwhile Abigail, Taura and Peter hid the QR codes around the building for the pupils to find and then supported groups completing the activity. Kevin recorded the QR Code Hunt. The winners were a group from Year 8. Meanwhile Josh, Michael and Josie took photos of the amazing activities going on around the school. Back in the classroom Zulaika made an animation and Danielle worked on a stop frame animation. In the afternoon, Peter and Josh helped put together a video of the day’s events for the assembly”.
Thank you Miss Dickson for that write up and well done to Digit4ll! Friday’s coffee morning was very successful and I would like thank the parents who I put on the spot for their points of view about the school, your comments were really useful and have been put forward to Mrs Lamb. Also a massive thanks to the students for filling in the sheets I handed out – a lot of stuff wanted, I’m sure we could try for a few things! In the afternoon we hosted the annual talent show for students which saw a lot of them take part and they did exceptionally well! I promised I would make an appearance and I never break a promise! I called up our boys for a spot of dirty dancing to ‘Time of my life’ until I found a partner, great to see the whole school take part in the phenomenal performance as I attempted to lift Taura up successfully (although I nearly broke my back in the process….). Again, well done to everybody who took part!
This term has been a great at New Bridge, we’ve seen the beginning of Andy’s Man Club (once again, thank you to Mr Greenway and Luke Ambler for your support on that), preparation for exams, testimonials set, high spirits and friendships growing stronger. The one thing about New Bridge is that we aren’t just a school, we’re a family. We may go through some tough times and may lose people close to us but we come together and pull each other through the dark times and make those proud who teach us and also #ItsOkToTalk. To quote from a previous blog, “WE ARE NEW BRIDGE AND WE ARE PROUD”. The final term approaches, there are exams to be done but once the work is over the party will begin! Haven here we come!! Thanks to staff again for their fantastic support. I hope everybody has a wonderful Easter and don’t eat too much chocolate – let’s go in and out of the final term on a high!
Jack