This was a very important week as voting took place to decide who will take their place on this year’s School Council and who will be our Head Boy and Head Girl. Form tutors have spent the last few weeks working with their forms to discuss the qualities required to take on these roles. Mr Lyons has been amazed by the attitude of our pupils towards taking on these positions; it is clear they see it as an absolute privilege to take on such responsibility. They took their decision whether to put themselves forward for election, or indeed, who they would cast their vote for very seriously. Consequently, the atmosphere in the theatre at Friday afternoon’s Achievement Assembly was positively electric as Mr Lyons announced the winning votes and we even had a few tears (of joy) from some of our winning candidates. It therefore gives Mr Lyons great pleasure to announce our School Council Representatives and our Head Boy and Head Girl for 2018-19:

School Council Representatives:

• Year 7 ~ Declan and James E.
• Year 8 ~ Riley and Mackenzie J.
• Year 9 ~ Amanda and Grace
• Year 10 ~ Donna and Corey
• Year 11 ~ Christian and Ashanti

Head Boy and Head Girl:

• Head Boy ~ Saaim
• Head Girl ~ Millie

These pupils will play a prominent role in supporting ongoing school improvement and representing the school at key events. They will be receiving their official badges shortly so they are visible around school in their roles. In the meantime, please share with them your congratulations when you meet them and be sure to share with them your ideas on how, together, we can ensure New Bridge School can go beyond outstanding.

During our Learning Centre assembly, Miss Allison was delighted to announce the successful representatives to our Student Council, all elected by their peers. They are as follows:

• Year 12 ~ Sophie and Bobby-Joe
• Year 13 ~ Kyle and Nathan W.
• Year 14 ~ Imnann and Omar

Miss Allison is looking forward to working with them all over the next year to ensure student voice remains an integral part of Learning Centre life. The Learning Centre assembly had a celebratory feel as we shared ‘Wow!’ moments from the last 3 weeks, many of which you have seen in our recent blogs. This week Miss Allison was delighted to be invited into Mr Newport’s Science option to observe a very messy experiment – she may come prepared with protective clothing next time! Here’s a report from Mr Newport..

The Science option group have been learning about chemistry and how chemical equations are a bit like recipes (with the exception that Mr Newport and other chemists are too lazy to write out whole words!) After deciphering equations written using only the first letter of each ingredient, we made coke explode by adding Mentos and reacted vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (with quite smelly results)..

The students in IBLCSNT have been enjoying ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ this term. As part of this, we decided to make a huge potion as an Art project. In order to make sure we could all take part, we made a collage, feeling different textures and expressing choices on textures and colours..

The Supporting Others Key Stage 5 option group have been hard at work again this week. This option enables students to learn about a range of jobs focused on supporting others and introduces them to the world of work. Students are also able to develop a range of interpersonal skills including independence, communication, teamwork and health and safety at work. This option can also act as a preparation for students considering pursuing the Bridging the Gap work placement project in Year 14. Here you can see Sophie, Joseph, Josh, Terry, Kerrie, Omar, Callum and Natasha all hard at work..

This week, our curriculum focus is on ICT. Mr Crooks has chosen these clips to share with us as they of are a group of Year 7 pupils who have just started at New Bridge School. They are completing a task which allows us to ascertain the level of ability so we can help start to aid the nurturing of their progression in education..

[fvplayer src=”http://newbridgeschool.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Year7ICT.mp4″]

Our Autism Base classes also enjoy solving the puzzles on the interactive screen, both our new Year 7 pupils and their older classmates..

[fvplayer src=”http://newbridgeschool.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ABICT.mp4″]

Other Year 7 pupils have been learning about parts of the computer; they have then labelled the various input and output devices connected to a computer to show their knowledge and understanding from the lesson..

Mrs Dickson’s Year 7 pupils have made a great start in ICT. 7LHA have been discussing staying safe on the internet as part of their lessons. They have also worked on word-processing and keyboarding skills..

Year 8 have been learning how to open and reply to an email. They have created address books of emails of their class friends..

Mrs Dickson’s Year 10 pupils are working towards the Entry Level Certificate in ICT. This half term they are studying ICT fundamentals which include turning a computer on and off safely, using the correct terms for hardware and looking at different ways devices are stored..

The IB groups have been enjoying a sensory story around Autumn and working on their switch work while the Key Stage 3/4 Communication Group is working on a range of individual ICT skills..

Mr Crooks’ Year 11 pupils are learning about programming using an online tutorial available on the BBC Bitesize website to understand the fundamentals of programming robots. They will be moving on to use MS LOGO where they will do a project making a toy. The class is split in two learning abilities. The second group will be learning the same topic, however they will be using a physical robot which they will program to move from one location to another which will be recorded as evidence of the task completion..

Mr Crooks’ Year 11 students have been leaning about programming and command needed to programme a device. Here they are showing their knowledge of programming by typing commands to make a shape using Microsoft Logo. Over the coming weeks they will learn how to create a procedure, which is a block of commands saved under a name which will tell the computer what to write without recreating each command line..

Both new and old students have settled well into a very busy term in ICT at the Learning Centre. Some students have been following the WJEC qualification and others are continuing with basic ICT and E safety skills.

Our EBase and IB students are spending quality time in the interactive suite accessing interactive stories. The theme this term is ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ and here you can see the EBase students using the interactive floor to pop bubbles in the ocean and using iPads to drag and drop with the app Help Kidz Learn..

Year 13 students are using the software Publisher to gain further skills in compiling their own magazine (page design and layout, formatting images and text and identifying copyright restraints) as part of their WJEC qualification work. Kyle has designed a car magazine as seen below..

Students not taking the WJEC qualification have been practising basic ICT skills such as typing, how to copy and paste, word art and general formatting of image and text..

We thought you might like to see a few pictures from our Key Stage 4 D of E options group who are engaging with the environment and building their relationship as a team.  As part of their work on the elements (you may remember last week’s session on ‘fire’ where they toasted marshmallows), they visited Stamford Park and had a lot of fun exploring ‘water’..

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We also have the picture of Joe who we told you last week has been practising his independence skills when walking around the Learning Centre. Here he is walking to the dining room at dinner independently with a member of staff by his side ~ a great achievement, well done Joe!

Miss Allison has once again been treated thanks to ‘Cooking with Nurture’ ~ she thoroughly enjoyed the extremely tasty Enchiladas (you can find the recipe here) made by Cherrie and she can’t wait for next week’s offering!

Finally, we’d like to remind all parents and carers that we will be holding our first Parent Group of this year on Monday afternoon (8th October) at the Learning Centre. The group meets on monthly basis to provide families with the opportunity to share concerns and ideas. Appropriate professionals are invited to talk as requested by parents and carers including Chris Thomson: Positive Steps, Michelle Lane: Access to Adult Social Care and Service provision, Natalie Stenson: Transitions Nurse Practitioner, Trushu Velti: Touch Solicitors (Tameside) and Miocare: Adult Respite and Long Term provision. We hope that our parents group will continue to provide a safe forum within which to share concerns, discuss pertinent issues and highlight potential options and solutions – we hope you can join us. If you would like to find out more, please call us on 0161 883 2402.

Have a great weekend,

Gavin and Dawn

For news on our Key Stage 5 pathway groups at Medtia Square please click here

You can find our full blog here

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