Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome back to a new term here at Spring Brook Academy. I really enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break with my family but was delighted to get back into the routine of things here with our Spring Brook family. I hope that all staff and students had a lovely break and are now feeling refreshed and ready for the Spring term.

We have had a very positive start back to the term this week, I have really enjoyed walking around the building and observing students in class and learning. Yes, you didn’t even notice me because you were all in class and engaged with your teaching and learning, a great start! Thank you everyone.

Let’s have a look at what Nurture Group have been doing this week..

Where did the holiday go? The boys have returned and settled back into the routine of the Nurture Group. In Maths we are looking at properties of shapes and angles. The group have started to read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this ties in with the topic of the Second World War which we are covering in History..

In our emotional and social lesson the boys are looking at empathy and how the Blob family feel while going through the different doors..

In food tech the group made chicken savoury rice – this was a great success, with all the boys trying to eat it before dinner!

Well done boys, you have started the new term with a positive attitude.

Thank you Nurture Group, the savoury rice looked yummy – if you ever need a taster, please feel free to knock on my office door!
I love the work that you are doing with the Blob family. Remember this: education will open up many doors for you in life – choose EDUCATION!

Over to Mrs Young’s class. Mrs Young was poorly towards the end of the last term but here is an overview of what her class did in December and some amazing photos. I love Mrs Young’s teaching style and the way she lays out the learning for different types of learners on her board.

Over the past few weeks we have been working on calculating the perimeter of various shapes, factors and prime numbers..

We worked in pairs to find the perimeter of rectangles and squares using co-ordinates on a pirate map and in the end we had to add all our scores and find the winner with the highest score..

To find factors of various numbers we used concrete manipulatives and factor bugs as a visual and engaging aid to help the class achieve their learning objectives..

In Literacy we focused on recognising the layout of a letter..

We also tried to use our topic knowledge of Tudors in Literacy and produced an advert letter putting ourselves in the shoes of Henry Tudor and trying to encourage other women to marry him. Callon’s work turned out to be a huge hit. His humour and rhyming phrases made us all chuckle..

Fantastic work Callon – you have a gift of entertaining people and writing your work in an engaging way. I am proud of you!!! In Citizenship we discussed events having a massive impact on our History and the sinking of the Titanic and the discovery of a Tollund Man were some of them. Boys worked in pairs and put the events in the right order..

..and also tried to work out why the Tollund Man had to die using forensic and historic background and evidence..

We all worked really hard on producing work across all the topics and managed to make some special Christmas keyrings for the Christmas Fair..

Well done boys!!! Mrs Young

Levi returned to school on Friday and made a really positive start. He also made a Victoria sponge cake..

I made one too but I couldn’t include photos of my cake because it ended up in the bin! Levi’s cake turned out beautifully..

Year 9 have been busy since returning to school after the Christmas break, this week they have each created a fitness regime for all of us to complete every day during the morning form period! The circuits already completed have been tough and extremely engaging..

The Year 9 class have returned with a mature and positive attitude to their work this week. I have been glad to see them and enjoyed listening to their Christmas experiences. Well done Year 9, another great week.

For the first week back after Christmas the Key Stage 4 boys were in need of some exercise to burn off the many calories consumed over the break. Therefore a hill walk was needed for D of E this week and so they hiked up behind Stalybridge to Hollingworth Moor to see the sights of Manchester in the distance..

They also took a detour down towards Brushes Reservoir to investigate some old army rifle ranges that are no longer in use. The small buildings and trenches are still there as well as thousands of part shell casings from the bullets that have been fired in the past..

Well done boys on a fairly strenuous exploration on the first week back!

Another fun packed week of learning here at Spring Brook Academy. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Miss Rodgers
Head of Site

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