We can’t believe we’ve reached the end of this academic year. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in September when we open for the Autumn term on Tuesday 5th September. Unless your child attends the Learning Centre where they may wear their own clothes, please ensure they have the correct uniform which can be purchased online here or by calling into school over the Summer. If you are unsure which items are needed, please click here for more information.
As ever the final week of term was very busy. Tuesday was the Year 11 Leavers Assembly, the culmination of their school life shared with their families and our school family. This must be one of our highlights of the year, we are always so proud to see our pupils mature into the most amazing young people..
You may remember us telling you how our former pupil, Coral, is off to university in September and we were delighted she was able to come and take part in the ceremony and inspire us all with her story – and help present our Year 11s with their Record of Achievements folders..
On Wednesday we then welcomed parents and carers to our Year 14 Record of Achievement ceremony, yet another truly wonderful celebration of our students’ achievements. Our young people spoke of how much they have progressed on their journey with us here at New Bridge and although it was an emotional event, it was also inspiring to see how many of our students are moving on to exciting destinations, including colleges and employment based opportunities through our employability matrix. We are immensely proud of all our young people and wish them every success for the future. We’d like to thank Roger Postlethwaite, previous head of the Learning Centre for being our guest speaker and presenting students with their individual achievement folders.
Wednesday was our Summer Super Learning Day. The religion studied primarily was Buddhism. We reflected on Buddhism principles of who we are, what we were and where we are going which fitted in beautifully with the transitions our young people are going through. Timelines were made and some beautiful art work was created..
We listened to the story of the Buddha..
..and learnt some calming yoga and relaxation techniques..
On Thursday our annual sporting extravaganza began. Our Sports Day had taster sessions in archery thanks once again to Zahid Rasul from Aim Higher Sports Academy, cycling and Karate (courtesy of Mr Fieldhouse) coupled with traditional races. We all had the best time with Mr Thompson and Mr Bloska proving the most amazing MCs ever on Mr Meadows’ PA system which he kindly lent for the occasion..
We have to say that the staff got rather competitive too when it came to their turn..
It was great to see not only the pleasure but also the determination on the pupils’ faces. Massive thanks must go to Mr Smith for organising the event and also to Mr Lawrence, Mr Greenway, Mr Hickie and Activ8 for setting out all the chairs and putting them away again afterwards, marking out the races with cones and ensuring all the events ran smoothly. Our refreshment tent proved extremely popular too and we’re very grateful for the much needed supplies of drinks and special frozen ‘fruit smoothy popsicles’ served with a smile by our lovely volunteers..
Roll on next year, we can’t wait for another Sports Day!!
As you know, our Learning Centre student councillors agreed activities for our last few days and a great time was had by everyone! Students (and staff!) ’busted some moves’ at our karaoke..
The inter year group games led by Mr Taylor were a huge success as always, with all the students enthusiastically taking part..
(Sorry to our cleaners for the bits of balloon we’re sure they will continue to find for some time!)
Our eagerly anticipated Beach Party was also a big hit! Although the scaffolding around the Learning Centre may not be the most attractive, it proved very useful for hanging bunting and decorations from! The party was complete with sand, buckets and spades, a paddling pool, beach towels, disco, flower garlands, grass skirts and beach games..
We even had our own campervan hot dog stall and colourful cocktails, complete with umbrellas!
The Learning Centre annual pool and table tennis finals were held on the last day of term. William was victorious in the table tennis before caming runner up to Ellis who won the pool competition..
Well done lads, both finals were played with good sportsmanship which was appreciated by everyone watching..
The last day of term started with an assembly at the school site where we celebrated together all the achievements from over the year and medals, trophies and certificates were awarded from Sports Day and other curriculum areas. We said goodbye to Year 11 who had been busy getting their shirts signed and good luck message books completed. We also said goodbye to Mrs Thompson who will be retiring. Mrs Thompson began her New Bridge career at the Park Dean site and is the proud mum of our very own Mr Thompson. We will miss her. We also said our farewells to Ms McDonald and Ms Grayson who are going to university, we wish them well in their studies. Mr Bloska, our wonderful music teacher, is off to Lancashire to join Rivington and Blackrod School, we wish him all the very best in his teaching career. Mr O’Connor is taking a year out to travel the world – oh, to be young! Mrs Brierley is moving sites and will be working with our sixth form students at the Learning Centre, as will Mrs Kershaw, Mr Fennelly, Ms Snooks and Miss Mellor. We will still see them, they are still part of our family, just moved out down the lane! During our Learning Centre assembly the students shared what they had been doing during Super Learning Day before we focused on moving on as we said goodbye to our Year 14s with the message to ‘believe in yourselves, you can achieve whatever you put your minds to!’
Finally the end of the academic year culminated with our famous New Bridge Talent Show, a wonderful opportunity for our young people to shine (which always makes Mrs Lamb cry with sheer pleasure).
We wish you all a great Summer and look forward to seeing you back in September after a well deserved break. Please don’t worry if the new timetable your child brought home has a few blank slots, we are appointing some new members of staff over the Summer and updated timetables will be sent at the start of term. All that remains for us to say is have a fabulous break! We hope our exams have been equally successful with our pupils receiving the best possible grades – we will keep you updated!
Judith and Dawn #proud
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Click here to read Graham’s end of year message
