We cannot believe that this is our final blog of 2016, the term has passed so quickly! It has been a busy and very productive Autumn term filled with added extra curricular activities that enhance our academic offer and we are very proud of our young people and all their achievements. They inspire us to work tirelessly on their behalf and we need no further evidence of this than when we see them perform as they did in the Christmas Showcase – their enjoyment was evident throughout the performance and put us firmly in the festive spirit!

Our AB classes have been joining in the preparations for Christmas as you can see..

They were careful to get some signs ready to make sure that Santa would pay them a visit..

..and we’re pleased to say their hard work paid off..

They even had fun dressing up as the great man himself..

Our choir were kept busy with more carol singing at Costco where the shoppers loved entering the store to the sound of carols, ably accompanied by Danielle on the clarinet..

Christmas dinner was an eagerly awaited event and it certainly didn’t disappoint – all our young people, staff, governors and invited guests sat down together for a very enjoyable meal..

At the Learning Centre the students from Bridging the Gap brought three guests with them from the hospital – Jack from the shop, Paul from cleaning services and Roz from the Education Centre. Paul and Jack support our students on their placements and they all said they really enjoyed themselves..

Up at Medtia Square our Key Stage 5 pathways had a great time filming their very own Christmas Mannequin Challenge..

Our catering teams excelled themselves and we hope they are now recovering from their mammoth task – thank you very much for all your hard work!! At the school site we followed our Christmas dinner with the now famous New Bridge Santa Stroll, a lovely way to spend the afternoon in the fresh air and winter sunshine..

Thursday was our Super Learning day when we celebrated the common theme that runs through so many religious festivals, light. We learnt about the similarities between religious beliefs and recognised that we live in a borough that has a mixture of cultures and in a society where everyone’s differences should be celebrated. Lanterns, calendars and cards were carefully made..

..and the school site held an afternoon class tea light procession into the theatre where members of the school choir and Lumenus sang carols in the candlelight. It was truly magical and is a memory Mrs Lamb will always treasure – she would like to thank Lumenus, the Living Skills team, the technicians and the caretakers who all helped to create such a tremendous atmosphere. At the Learning Centre students prepared decorated tea light holders for Friday’s assembly and held their very own Christmas Market. There were Christmas candles, plants from our Hortus pathway..

..and items from our Enterprise, E Base & IB groups on sale..

.. as well as a raffle for a rather impressive Christmas hamper with proceeds going to our end of year disco..

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make it such a success, in particular the students who manned the stalls and Kevin and Dwayne who, although unable to do our weekly ‘Cooking with Hortus’ slot, were able to help with preparations for the hot dog stall run by Mrs Gillett and Miss Allison (wearing their finest festive aprons and hats, of course)..

Our E Base students produced some beautiful illuminated cards in addition to their delicious festive items..

Our IB group focused on Hanukkah as part of our Festival of Light celebrations. The students engaged with our power point..

..explored the lights and had a Hanukkah party which included trying a variety of potato cakes, doughnuts and other lovely treats..

During assembly we continued the ‘Festival of Light’ with a multi-faith focus on Advent, lanterns and Christingles..

We all raised our lanterns and Christingles as we joined together in singing carols before finishing with a parade of lights back to our year group parties..

We would like to thank Mr Taylor and Mr Howard who ran our annual ‘Christmas Crazies’ inter-year group competition. Great fun was had by everyone as you can see..

Lovely Christmas jumper by the way, Mr Howard!

Friday also saw our first girls’ football tournament held in memory of Faye with the winning team receiving a special cup donated by Manchester City Football Club..

You can read more about it in the Oldham Chronicle’s article here. We also got to see MCFC’s Women’s team trophies from this season close up when they paid a visit to New Bridge – just in time for some quick pictures before we broke up..

The school site was treated to our annual staff ‘Stars in your Eyes’ talent show with acts including an X factor special, the reception team singing ‘Working 9 to 5’, Mr Howard with his party piece ‘I like to move it’, Mrs Lamb’s ‘I need a hero’, a clever ‘Who is the real Mr Holban?’ and this masterpiece from our incredible IB team..

Before we leave you, Mrs Lamb couldn’t resist sharing her favourite Christmas joke…..

‘What is the best present in the world?’ – ‘A broken drum, you just can’t beat it!’

We would like to wish all our young people, their families and our staff a very Merry Christmas. Have a lovely time and we will see you on Tuesday 3rd January,

Judith and Dawn

We have even more lovely Christmas pictures to share with you – please visit our Facebook page here to view the full album.

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