Well, the end of this half term has sprung upon us. We have had some fun learning experiences and celebrated lots of achievements here at Spring Brook Upper. My favourite by far this half term was our Super Learning Day. The theme was ‘commitment within religion’. As you will have seen from the blog, it was a fun-packed day and one that I will certainly remember this year.

On Friday we said goodbye to our very own Mr Kemp who is leaving us to join a residential home. Mr Kemp, we wish you the very best of luck. Our Spring Brook family won’t be the same without you but we know you won’t be a stranger. Enjoy your Spring Brook night out and we hope you will remember us every time you look at your watch so that you are NOT LATE!

Last Friday the Key Stage 3 students went out with Mr Hopkins on a lovely walk..

  

Looks like they had lots of fun getting wet in a waterfall..

Mr Molloy, Mr Pryce and Miss Brown took some students to play rugby with Activ8..

Let’s see what the Nurture Group have been up to..

We have had a very busy week in the Nurture room with the boys working hard in lessons. In Maths we have moved on to the topic of substitution; the group have found this tricky but have persevered with it as if they were code breakers.

On Tuesday, as the weather was hot and sunny the group that was low in numbers gave soft play a miss and we all went off to Heaton Park, borrowing Wayne off Mr Mullins. The boys enjoyed playing on all the equipment and talking to the animals. Leo is our new Dr Doolittle..

In food technology the group made chicken savoury rice. The boys fried chicken, onions and peppers before adding stock, curry powder and rice. Once it was cooked the group enjoyed eating some before lunch and took the rest home..

In the craft lesson the boys have finished their emoji cushions with amazing results, well done boys!

I love the cushions boys – your sewing skills amaze me. The savoury rice smelt so delicious and I don’t even eat meat! Over to Mrs Young’s class…

WOW! We have made it to the end of the 1st Summer term! Only seven more weeks left till our Summer holidays – we can do it!

However, let’s focus on the last couple of weeks and how brilliant our boys have been doing in class across a wide range of lessons. The most outstanding progress has been noticed with the fine motor skills of our students. Leo’s handwriting has improved so greatly that he is able to write, legibly, fluently and with increasing speed now..

His determination and positive attitude towards his written tasks and being polite and friendly towards the staff have melted my heart. They are those small steps of progression and hope that every teacher finds inspiring and rewarding during his or her teaching career.

In Maths we have been working on fractions. We have used solid fraction tiles and loop cards to visualise portioning better..

The boys played a fraction game where they had to find fractions of various numbers..

Towards the end of the week we managed to do a few problem solving tasks using pegs..

In Literacy we focused on possessive pronouns and tried to emphasize the importance of using the apostrophe in the correct places..

In Citizenship we talked about how UK became a diverse country and some of the boys found out that all the people in the world share 99.9% of their genetic characteristics! I am hoping that the lesson and all the information the boys retained are going to help them to see a bigger picture of our society..

Our Science lessons were focused on the human digestive system; its parts and functions..

All the boys participated in recreating the system using modelling clay and found the task quite entertaining..

During our History lessons we learnt about the beginnings of German empire, its flag, symbols, position on the map and all the events leading up to the WW1..

And last but not least…on Friday we will be saying a goodbye to Mr Kemp, our lovely class teaching assistant, whose passion, positive outlook on life and care have inspired many of our children..

He was such a pleasure to work with and his understanding but firm nature helped many young people to make right choices. This is the first year of my teaching career and a learning curve too and I strongly believe that the outstanding progress our boys have made as pupils and peers towards each other would not be possible without the help and committed support from both Mr Kemp and Mr Heaton. Once somebody said that A TRULY AMAZING TEACHING ASSISTANT IS HARD TO FIND AND IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET. You, Mr Kemp, will always stay in my thoughts. Thank you. We all wish you all the best in your new role.

Thank you Mrs Young’s class, it really is nice to see Leo working hard in class and well done Leo for SLT pupil of the week award. I loved the work on the digestive system and your trampoline skills have improved lots..

Great effort boys! It has been really nice to end the week and half term seeing Mr Mullins’ and Mr Brocking’s class gel together and getting along. We also welcomed some of our governors into school this week to join us on our Learning Walks. It was lovely to hear their positive feedback afterwards, including this email from Susan Clegg..

Thanks for letting me accompany you on your learning walk this morning. I have to say the school feels like a very different place from the last time I did this some time ago. Welcoming classrooms with bright displays and comforting chill out areas. Students engaged in lessons and happy to chat to me and show me their work. Friendly staff who clearly know their students well. I can also see clear pathways between key stage 2, 3 and 4 offering continuity and a lovely nurturing feel. I’m sure this must be a big relief for year 6 pupils worried about moving to “big school”. Well done to all the staff and well done Mel and Alison. I love your calm manner, sense of humour, obvious concern for the welfare of staff and students and strong leadership. I know more changes are ahead with Springboard so you will be kept very busy…as usual.

So all that I need to do now is wish everyone in Saddleworth a Happy Whit Friday. Happy half term to everyone. Enjoy your break and I will look forward to another exciting half term. School returns on Monday 4th June (please click here for a reminder of all our term dates).

Miss Rodgers
Head of Site

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