Well, here we are in the penultimate week before the Christmas break – we can’t believe how quickly this half term has gone! We have been choosing some amazing photographs for our calendars; there have been some exceptional images captured by Sam Jones showing our children learning and also having fun. The calendars will be going out to all families next week with our compliments of the season.

This week our thoughts are with the family of Charlea who has been quite poorly for a while now. Charlea epitomises true determination and a strong inner spirit. She has spent the last 6 months in Manchester Children’s Hospital and this week is planning a Grease Party – we know Charlea will be dressing up as Sandy for sure! We wish Charlea well and send her all our love.

Mr Lawrence and Mrs Cockcroft were very proud of the pupils who represented New Bridge at the County Table Cricket Competition at Lancashire County Cricket Club on Thursday. We saw some fantastic team work and sportsmanship throughout the day. New Bridge won 2 of their 3 matches and ranked 6th overall!!! Everyone had a fantastic day as you can see..

This also has been the week of the New Bridge Winter Showcase. Many parents, relations and friends have been to see our young people perform. This showcase is an amazing opportunity to see the skills, knowledge and understanding acquired over the last term and we are always blown away when we see their achievements and the progress so many individual children have accomplished. If you would like to order a copy on DVD, expertly filmed and produced by our very own ‘New Bridge Productions’ enterprise run by the Digit4ll students, please click here.

The Digit4ll students are extremely busy in the run up to Christmas, filming and producing 3 school shows, making and selling a range of products as part of their enterprise and even spending the day running a stall at the Manchester Christmas markets this week! You can find out how their day went here and if you’re quick, there is still time to order your last minute personalised Christmas gifts..

We would also like to thank Christine in Royton who has donated musical equipment for our school Rock Band. This helps us enormously; the after school club Rock Band practises every week and occasionally performs in outside events.

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at New Bridge and everyone is getting very festive. Trees and decorations have been put up in most classrooms, although the Learning Centre Hub could do with a serious Christmas makeover! A big thank you to Mrs Wright for doing a great job dressing the tree in reception at the Learning Centre, it looks fantastic!

A very successful round of work experience is now coming to an end. Sophie, Sarah and Hamza have had a fantastic stint at the Atrium Café, as has William doing gardening at Dunwood Park. We are looking forward to introducing our new batch of work experience students in the New Year!

On Friday afternoon Mrs Dignan from the Williams Refuge in Oldham came to have a brief chat to the students about the charity she works for. She also spoke about the massive difference a small gift would make to the children and women based there at Christmas and was delighted that our students are helping their Christmas campaign. If you are able to donate a small gift suitable for a child, there is still time to send it in to the Learning Centre where our E Base students will be waiting to wrap it! Thank you for your support.

Next week everyone is looking forward to the Christmas meal on Wednesday and dusting off their favourite Christmas jumpers. There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make it go really smoothly…..we will see! Down at the school site we will be walking off our festive food with what has become our annual New Bridge sponsored Santa Stroll. If any of your family and friends would like to help our young people raise funds, please click here for details.

We would also like to remind all of our Learning Centre parents that our Christmas Market and Coffee Morning is taking place on Friday 15th December from 10am till 12pm. We are looking forward to seeing you then and showing off all the products our students have worked hard to prepare – we can promise you will find some lovely gifts for sale to help with your Christmas shopping!

Please remember to check our website and our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates in the event of heavy snow – a notice will be posted by 7am in the event of any closure and updates posted throughout the day if the weather changes. Key 103 and Revolution Radio will also be notified of any closures, so please tune in to one of these stations if you are unable to access the internet.

We hope you have a lovely week,

Judith and Dawn

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

You can find our full blog here

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham