I joined New Bridge four years ago after a difficult experience at a mainstream school where I struggled to comprehend the scale of a new main school site. Add to that the wicked cocktail of being bullied and a difficult period in my life and I reacted by making poor behavioural choices. Trust me, I know you see me on these blogs as a well spoken, smart and confident young person but back then I was nowhere near that.

Yet I wrote this because some people often get themselves into trouble and it knocks their confidence. I know many students are inspired by the famous blue hoodie of Activ8 and want to wear it. I know many students that want to be the future Head Boy or Head Girl. Some of you might even want a job promotion and are now doubting yourselves because you had a bad day. It is fine to make mistakes – I make loads of them! You are never going to be able to live a perfect life! However, it is how you react to your mistakes that defines you as an individual. If you have a bad lesson and make some poor choices, apologise to the teacher and work harder to achieve next time. I also wrote this because no matter what background you have come from, if you have the drive to be a success then more often than not, you will succeed. And if I can do it then there is still some hope left.

We have hit the time of year when they are loads of major events to enjoy across the New Bridge community. Last week saw our Bronze students head out on their first DofE expedition and I very much hope that they enjoyed it. Coming up in the next term, we see more expeditions as well as the return of the big time! Yes, those dreaded GCSEs are back and for many, this Easter is basically sleep, eat, revision and a bit of fun time.

I also want to congratulate Digit4ll on their success at the Young Enterprise Finals for the Oldham region where they won the “Best Presentation” Award beating Blue Coat and Hulme Grammar. Yes, little old New Bridge beat Hulme Grammar, the same school that not many mainstream schools have had the honour of beating in any inter-school competition. Well done to everybody in Digit4ll, especially Tom, Luke and Mitchell. What you have achieved I believe is truly groundbreaking and I believe it is up there as one of the best achievements this school has seen in quite a while. Lumenus are building up to their main event of the year, “Aladdin and Jasmine” and thankfully our Head Boy, Jack has been persuaded not to embarrass himself before it was too late.

I will be the man that embarasses him on the rugby field instead. Yes, discussion has intensified ahead of the upcoming #BattleoftheBlogs2 which will more than likely take place on the last Thursday of the Summer term (20th July). I respect Jack; he is a good friend, a good Head Boy and a great sporting competitor. I am happy to share the biggest sporting event in the New Bridge calendar with him. Yet he won the first game and that result hurt! We often get told to not be upset when we lose but losing is meant to hurt because that is the only way we can learn to win. This might be called a testimonial, a once in a generation event even a celebration of a magical dynasty that has revolutionised the school. Yet for myself, it doesn’t matter what you all choose to call it as I know that this is my only chance to exact revenge on that rugby field for what happened last time. No matter what happens though, this is an occasion to be celebrated by all and I hope to get as many of you involved as physically possible. Naturally, they will be a couple of announcements hopefully within the next few weeks with the full details so keep up to date with our blogs as well as our Facebook page which recently hit 1,000 likes which is unbelievable.

School has now closed for the two-week Easter holidays, however I will still be popping in to the Medtia building on a Monday for Andy’s Man Club which continues as normal. I hope every one of you enjoys the next two weeks while it lasts because it gets busy now and this year, the stakes are high!

Matthew