I don’t know quite where to start this week as it’s been such a wonderful week with Christmas spirit in abundance at every turn. We’ve celebrated the build up to Christmas by exploring the themes of giving, looking after each other and helping others and it’s been heart-warming to witness the generosity and good will of our pupils and staff. We’ve sat nearly 350 people for Christmas dinner; we’ve taken a Santa stroll with the man himself who had been into school to hand out presents; we enjoyed a fantastic Super Learning Day filled with pupils visiting each other around school to share the gifts they had created; we clapped and sang along to our brave pupils who put themselves forward to perform in front of the whole school for Mr Thompson’s annual Stars in your Eyes show; and partied with our class mates to celebrate heading off for the holidays. Here is just a taste of our festivities..

Our Autism Base classes enjoyed putting together their donations for the Oldham Food Bank as part of Super Learning Day. After carefully packing their box, a group of the pupils delivered it to the Food Bank in person and enjoyed meeting the staff there who were lovely!

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We were also fortunate to receive some tickets to the Manchester United match and a group of our pupils enjoyed a very special evening with Mr Smith and Mr Hanif..

Lastly we said goodbye to two much loved members of staff. Happily, one of them is only temporary; Mrs Carter is taking adoption leave as she welcomes two young children into her family. As an act of generosity, I don’t think I could think of many things more generous. We all send her our love as she creates her new family and look forward to welcoming her back next year.

Sadly, the other is more long term; Mrs Singleton is retiring after 21 years at New Bridge School in one form or another. Having spent so many years making such a difference to the lives of so many young people in Oldham, she is off to begin a whole new adventure with her husband in France. We will be incredibly sad to be losing such a longstanding and well-loved member of the team but know that she’ll be back to visit us from time to time on her return trips to the UK.

In the meantime, it just leaves me to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2020.

Gavin

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