Well, it’s been a cold week in Oldham and the BBC News carried yet another negative report on the borough; the spin always seems to be that Oldham is ‘one of the most deprived towns in Britain’ and yet we see New Bridge as one of the most enriched environments. Our pupils are offered a varied timetable with dedicated staff providing knowledge and skills at all academic levels. Mr Quinn’s vision and leadership encourages us all to be the very best at what we do – the grass can never be accused of growing under the feet of our school community. We constantly strive to improve on our educational, social and emotional offer and we are now looking at some exciting individual projects that will contribute towards our school development. Watch this space!

Miss Allison would like to thank the Learning Centre staff and students alike for a particularly settled week and their positive and calm approach. She is also grateful to parents and carers for their continued support as this partnership is essential in helping our young people to thrive and achieve their best with us here at New Bridge. Mr Maycock has asked for a special mention for the Hortus lads, as the team leaders have taken responsibility for various projects and the students have worked hard to make these a success.

Our boys’ Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 football teams went with Mr Lawrence to take part in MCFC’s ‘One City’ disability league and once again impressed us with their determination and sportsmanship..

You can read more about the day in Mr Greenway’s post here.

During this week’s Learning Centre assembly we were joined by Steven, Keiffer and Chris, 3 of our student councillors who confidently fed back the issues and outcomes from this term’s Student Council meeting. We have to say they put a lot of effort into making the assembly interesting and entertaining – Miss Allison may have to up her game in future! Here’s a flavour of what was shared: hot chocolate to be on sale once a week, an outside sports area to be marked out at the rear of the Learning Centre and a chess club to commence once a week (anyone with a chess board they can spare, please send it in!). It was also agreed that we will hold a disco at the end of the year with entertainer Andy Lee and monies are now being raised towards the event by our Enterprise Group.

Our Learning Centre Enterprise Programme forms part of our Key Stage 5 options and enables our students to gain a range of social and work based skills. The programme incorporates finance, including profit and loss, money management, sales and marketing, product design, customer care and, of course, teamwork. We are very impressed with our new Enterprise logo which has been designed by Dominic..

 

The students are currently very busy designing and preparing items for sale including a range of Valentine’s gifts, several of which can be personalised on request..

If you would like to see for yourselves the items available, they will be on sale at the Learning Centre next Thursday 2nd February from 3pm. Alternatively, you can place your order by emailing ljoubert@newbridgegroup.org

This week is the turn of our ICT depatment to share some of the exciting learning our children have been experiencing. In Year 7 the pupils learn all about the control technology we use in our everyday lives. Here you can see how much our learners have enjoyed developing their skills in giving commands to physical devices and virtual devices..

In one lesson the pupils had a chance to simulate flying a plane, understanding the different types of control technology such as switch, lever, and rotate. Just as importantly, they had a load of fun! They have also worked hard on sequencing instructions and designed shapes using different commands..

In Year 9 our learners have been developing their understanding of programming and how computer games are first designed using code. Here our learners are using building block code to design their own app making objects move in a sequence and respond when clicked..

 Our IB classes have been learning all about animals and in ICT we covered the story ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ using a range of technology to access the story and even create our very own version. Pupils used switches to play different parts of the visual and sensory story..

.. they explored different animal puppets..

.. and used touch screen technology to paint jungle scenes..

Michael, Eve and Adil demonstrated their monkey and lion impersonations, recording them on a microphone for the sound effects in our story..

We are having a great time in our ICT lessons as you might have been able to see from the pictures..

The Key Stage 4 Digit4ll group have been working hard on planning a viral commercial as well as designing a webpage. On Thursday mornings they get out the plasticine and show their creativity making stop frame animations..

They are not the only young people who have been enjoying using the ipads to create their own animations, as you can see with our E Base students..

..and our Year 14s..

Mr Crookes says his ‘star of the year’ is Pradeep who has grown in confidence and now relishes every challenge he is given. Although he requires support, he only has to be shown once before he continues to complete the task. Here you can see how well he can control a mouse..

Mr Southerington had a very thoughtful lesson with Digit4ll when they talked about the reasons behind Holocaust Memorial Day and why it is commemorated on the 27th January..

The Key Stage 5 Digit4ll group have started to look at documentary film making. The students have watched a documentary called ‘ The Wolfpack’: ‘Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed, ‘The Wolfpack,’ the brothers spend their childhood re-enacting their favourite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. Their world is shaken up when one of the brothers decides to revisit the outside world and everything changes.’

The students have been involved in group discussions on what they liked and disliked about the film, what they thought about how the film was shot and what relationships the family have with each other amongst many things. We hope that we will continue to watch a wide range of films over the coming months that will not only challenge the pupils in their thoughts on topics but enhance their film making in general as we look into why the director has shot a scene in that particular way, the colouring and the shots used by the director. Here you can see Matthew composing his review of the film..

Our New Bridge Printers work continues and here you can see Luke and Lewis printing their first canvas of 2017..

A group are currently working hard on filming and editing a short promotional video for the New Bridge Future Finders. The film will show what great things that our young people do out in the community and show some of the places they work. In this image, you can see Luke working hard, as always, in the editing suite at Medita Square..

We look forward to sharing the finished film with you soon!

Moving away from ICT, some of our young people have been taking part in the RSBP annual nationwide Birdwatch survey. The Learning Centre’s resident crows, ‘Hitch and Stitch’, have naturally been making daily appearances, in addition to an array of other birds that respond eagerly to the encouragement of Jean on reception and our E base classes!

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