This week has been amazing, so many different festive activities have taken place and it really is beginning to look at lot like Christmas everywhere we go. Trees and decorations have been put up and we’ve had a wonderful time with our annual Performing Arts Christmas Showcase.  Our young people thoroughly enjoyed it, their enthusiasm and energy were infectious and it was lovely to see young people from the school, Learning Centre and Hollinwood Academy working together to produce such a special performance.

We would like to thank all the staff who supported our performers through the rehearsals and our two evening productions both on and off stage, Christmas has now well and truly arrived at New Bridge! If you weren’t able to join us for the showcase, our Digit4ll students from the IT pathway filmed the performance and you can order a copy on DVD here.

Mr Smith took a group of young people to Old Trafford on Wednesday to take part in a table cricket tournament..

As usual our team’s behaviour was exemplary and they had a brilliant day, you can find out more about how they got on here.

On Thursday our choir visited the Salvation Army hall in Shaw to join their annual Shoppers’ Carol Service – here they are at the end after an hour of singing..

Commandoes Joe’s visited the school on Thursday and ran sessions throughout the day. Many of our young people were able to go and join in the activities that promoted achievement, healthy living and positive self-esteem (and were also a lot of fun!)..

A group of Year 11s have been planning their holidays in Living Skills with Mr Hollinworth and they braved the weather on Thursday to visit Manchester Airport’s viewing park..

We think they might have been wishing they were on that plane heading for somewhere warm and dry..

Mrs Peacock’s options group shared the work they have been doing this term in assembly – Will and Callum stood up and explained:

‘In History we have been looking at the Celts and Romans. We made pots from clay and painted them when they were dry. We made mosaic patterns and made a coaster for cups.’

Mrs Peacock told us a bit more:

‘Our History group have moved through different time periods starting at the dinosaur era. We have recently been studying how the Celts lived and we found out made their own pots so the students have made their own pots and decorated them with Celtic designs..
 
 We have just arrived at the Romans and we will be learning more about them throughout next term. We have already started the topic by making a coaster using mosaic tiles, inspired by Roman designs used to decorate floors.’

Mr Urey is particularly proud of his Celtic pot, well done sir!

This week our curriculum focus is on our Interactive Bases but we have so many wonderful pictures to share with you that we’ve decided to do an ‘IB Christmas Special’ as well – please click here to view it. Our feature on the IB starts with IB3 taking part in a very cheerful morning routine..

They have had some wonderful music lessons..

In Art they have been working hard to create pieces for a display at the Learning Centre’s art gallery..

Ellie’s stingray for the sea creatures display is particularly impressive..

The Year 7s even made time for a spot of dancing..

We are taking a break this week from our ‘Cooking with Hortus’ feature as the students have been busy making some delicious mince pies..

We are slowly putting on the pounds but they are very much appreciated so please keep them coming

Next week will be very busy for everyone with our Christmas dinner, a ‘Santa Stroll’ at the school site, lots of Christmas singing (including more outings for our choir) and our ‘Super Learning Day’ on Thursday. The theme this year is ‘Festival of Lights’ and in addition to lots of festive activities we will be holding our own ‘Christmas Markets’. The Learning Centre market will be offering items for sale made by our Enterprise groups, our IB and E-Base classes, our horticulture department and also some very well priced scented candles – a great opportunity to get any last minute gifts whilst also supporting our young people so don’t forget to bring your money!

Friday will see the return of Mr Taylor and Mr Howard’s Christmas inter-year group games and we are really looking forward to the competition (and their costumes!) Needless to say staff have been practising on the quiet so it should prove to be a very lively event. The school site will be treated to our annual staff ‘Stars in their Eyes’ talent competition and we have been promised a special performance by (as Mrs Lamb calls them) some of our more mature male colleagues who have offered to step in after a boy band had to cancel a show planned for Monday. There should be some very interesting pictures to share with you next week!

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Judith and Dawn

You can find our full blog here

The New Bridge Horizons blog is available here for updates on our Key Stage 5 Pathway students in Lumenus, Digit4ll and Activ8 together with Future Finders students and the young people at Horizons

Click here to read this week’s blog from Graham