If we remember correctly from our own school days, it’s ‘Bonjour tout le monde’ (‘Hello everybody’) as it’s been all things French this week down at the school site with our annual Year 8 residential trip to Disneyland Paris. Our pupils and staff joined other Year 8 pupils and staff from across the Trust for a truly magical experience and we’ve been kept up to date with all the fun and excitement through Graham’s blogs and our Facebook page where there are tons of photos of all the action. If you’ve not already checked it out, you can click on the links in bold above.

Back in school, the New Bridge team have been with our Disney trippers in spirit with a fantastique celebration of French culture running throughout the curriculum this week. Our staff have cleverly themed their teaching with a French twist, covering topics ranging from French cuisine and fashion to performance art by Marcelle Marceau and even the French space programme! Our pupils have thoroughly embraced their continental curriculum, here’s just a flavour of what they’ve been learning about..

In IB2 we have been very busy making French flags and snails..

..pebble frogs..

..playing petanque, making crepes..

..dressing up, having a food tasting party with IB1 and IB3..

..and ending the week by having a snail race. We have had such a fun week!

P.S. no snails were harmed during this activity and they have all now been taken back to the garden they came from.

Miss Patchett’s class put together a powerpoint of their week to share in Friday’s assembly..

They even finished it off with their very own cat walk!

9VHN looked at French cuisine, French culture and language, famous French people, the currency and we reflected on our time in Disneyland Paris last year..

We had a “Continental Breakfast” Club on Friday morning which replicated the breakfasts we ate in Disney..

AB3 also put together a powerpoint of their French week that was shown in assembly..

Meanwhile, Mr Meadows’ Nurture Group learnt the art of mime..

Over in the kitchen, Mrs Crook’s Year 11 class made some delicious baguettes..

..and even learnt a new game – l’escargot which apparently is the French version of hopscotch..

Leaving France behind, whilst driving into work on Friday Miss Allison was listening to the final of ‘500 words’ on Radio 2. She was absolutely blown away by the stories written by children aged between 5-9 and 10 -13. It reinforced how amazingly talented children can be when given a chance. She chuckled as she listened to children’s author David Walliams read the winning story in the 5-9 category, “The Poo Fairy” by Evan Boxall and was transported right back to childhood memories of reading books by the great Roald Dahl. Events at the Learning Centre this week have reminded her of one of Dahl’s great quotes on the value of ‘kindness..’

For Dahl, ‘kindness is the number one attribute in a human being’ and this has definitely been evident through the actions of a number of our students. Our young people often show care and support to those around them, however this week the kindness shown by students to some of their peers who are going through a particularly difficult time has made us very proud and demonstrated the true value of friendship. The theme continued during our Learning Centre assembly and we have committed to finding ways to show kindness to others.

On Wednesday, our girls took part in the latest City in the Community girls’ football matches at Manchester City. Miss Wright accompanied the teams..

Although we had a few regulars missing, we still managed to have two teams which just shows how popular girls football is at New Bridge. The girls set off with determination and lots of energy right from the first whistle and battled their way to a 5-0 win with Cherrie Gardner scoring 4 brilliant goals. This team had another couple of wins and a draw with just one loss against the team that eventually won the competition, with New Bridge coming second. The other girls weren’t quite as successful but showed a great team spirit and I think we would have had very different results if our regular goal scorers had been available. As usual, all the girls did New Bridge proud with their attitude and behaviour and a fantastic day was had by all.

Well done, everyone!! Another sporting success we have to share with you is that of Thomas, a Year 10 member of our Digit4ll pathway. Before the half term break he took part in the Manchester Open at the Manchester Aquatics Centre where he won a Silver medal – well done, Thomas!!

Don’t forget that our regular Learning Centre Parent Group meets next week and we are looking forward to welcoming both old and new faces. If you would like to find out more, please call us on 0161 883 2402.

Before we go, we’d like to share some exciting news – next Thursday we will be welcoming back the wonderful Kabantu from Live Music Now to perform a concert for our students at the Learning Centre. We are lucky to have worked with Live Music Now over the last few years and our visits from Kabantu (formerly Project Jam Sandwich) are always a wonderful opportunity for our young people to get involved in some very special music making. Kabantu are a great group of performers who tour the world sharing their unique blend of English and African folk music. We’ll let you know how it goes but in the meantime you can find out more about Live Music Now here and visit Kabantu’s website here or read a review on their music in the Guardian here.

Until next week then, ‘au revoir!’

Gavin and Dawn

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