Happy Friday everyone and welcome once more to our Spring Brook Key Stage 3 blog. The weeks are flying by! I ended last week with a really positive review for Holly. It was so good to share the news with Holly’s parents about her progress and attainment. Well done, Holly – keep making positive choices – you are doing really well!

This week in trampolining Mr Mullins’ class learned a little about what kind of training a squad trampolinist would have to do. They completed 2 sets of a fitness circuit focusing on balance and core strength..

..before getting on the trampoline and learning new skills..

Well done boys! Mrs Young’s class have had a busy week..

We enjoyed a boxing session in the gym and Keele was particularly good. Thanks to Mr Pryce’s gym for accommodating our students..

This week we have worked really hard in Maths. We started by comparing decimals and putting them in the right order on a number line. We also rounded whole numbers to tens and hundreds and finished the week on rounding numbers to one and two decimal places. It was great to see that one of our pupils did a little bit of peer mentoring with another boy finding it hard to solve a mathematical problem. Great initiative, Leo!!!

In Literacy we focused on suffixes, what they are and how we use them. We also talked about adverbs and revised all the rules of how to apply them effectively in our writing..

Science was a very ‘hands on’ lesson. We talked about Forensic Science and how it evolved over centuries. We also learnt about fingerprints and that there are three basic pattern types. We tried to investigate what type is the most popular one and it turned out that the whorl ones were in the lead!

In PSHE lessons we tried working on our social skills and how to take turns and interact with one another in a polite manner. The boys loved Monopoly and Connect 4. We even tried chess, which turned out to be very popular with Callon and Leo..

In History, we summarised our knowledge about the Battle of Hastings and moved onto a new topic, motte and bailey castles. All the boys were really interested in the old fashioned method of building massive structures like that and were shocked to find out that it took 25 years to build a castle!

This week in English, SBA1 have been learning how to use the Toulmin method to write extended pieces of writing such as letters and essays. We have applied this method to create a persuasive letter, applying for a position on an astronaut training programme!

In Maths we have been looking at the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. We have also been applying our knowledge to a variety of real-world problems to help contextualise our learning. In Living Skills we have made pizzas from scratch! We’ve made our own dough as well as our own sauce, using a delicious mix of tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs. The students chose their toppings and creatively decorated them, some with smiley faces..

Those pizzas looked lovely Mr Paige, and I have especially enjoyed reading Levi’s work about being an astronaut! It’s been another busy week in SBA3 too..

In Maths the boys have been working hard to develop their own strategies to help with mental addition and subtraction, building up enough self-belief and confidence to attempt class quizzes on the interactive white board. It was wonderful to witness them not only persevering if they made an error but also encouraging one another..

Such social skills and positive attitude towards learning have continued throughout Citizenship where we focused on friendship, what makes a good friend and how to be a friend. It was wonderful to see the word bank created including words such as loyal, truthful, trustworthy, fair and honest. I am sure the boys will continue to demonstrate these characteristics both in and out of school.

In History, the class have been making medieval ginger bread as part of our on-going Norman topic. The smiles and laughter soon disappeared when they realised they had to get their hands in ‘sloppy breadcrumbs’. “Sir, it smells like Christmas” they happily announced although I can confirm they certainly did not taste like Christmas, much to the amusement of the boys – and to think only the wealthy ate this!

Should you wish to try the ‘Spring Brook does Great British Medieval Bake Off’ at home, you too can achieve this week’s technical challenge with a mug of warm water, honey, breadcrumbs, ground ginger and cinnamon. Not sure the medieval snack would get a handshake from Mr Paul Hollywood but the boys definitely deserve the plaudits for getting stuck in and quickly recognising that we were better off popping to the café for ‘proper grub’.

Fantastic effort, Mr Mullin’s class – not sure I would enjoy those medieval snacks either! Now to our Key Stage 3 Nurture Group…

In our Science lessons the group are looking at senses and this week we have covered touch with the group being blind folded and asked to touch certain objects to see if they could feel what they were..

The boys have tried hard to work as a group and are becoming more settled. At soft play on Tuesday they had to work as a team, following clues to find beanbags that had been hidden by staff. The group really enjoy this activity and can be a little bit quieter when we return..

Harry enjoyed a game of jenga after completing his Maths work on perimeter – the rest of the group then quickly finished theirs so they could join in..

Levi was chosen along with James to go and get the ingredients for food technology. While visiting Tesco Levi weighed the fresh vegetables and labelled them before going to the check out..

While cooking the boys worked independently, following staff instructions to the recipe..

..and enjoyed eating their results!

At the end of the week after lots of work, during our quiet reading time Leo fell asleep!!!!

Can I just say a big ‘thank you’ to staff, students and parents and carers for supporting the We Love Manchester Fund during our coffee mornings. We have donated £208 to this charity.

To end the blog I would like to say ‘break a leg’ to Ben Devall for his big show ‘Oliver’ – what a talented actor! Ben is in this show with his Mum. Obviously, I don’t really wish for Ben to break his leg….well-wishers typically say ‘break a leg’ to actors and musicians before they go on stage to perform. The origin of the phrase remains obscure but the expression reflects a theatrical superstition in which wishing a person ‘good luck’ is considered bad luck. Today Ben has also astounded me with his magic skills, such talent!

Enjoy the autumnal sunshine while it lasts,

Miss Rodgers
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