Welcome to another Key Stage 3 blog. What an exciting week we have had here at Spring Brook Academy! We returned to school on Monday following our half term break. Harry and Rob from Ashton College came into school to make a short film ‘A Day in the Life of Spring Brook Academy’ – watch this space for the film being published!

On Tuesday our Year 8 met very early in the morning and took off to Disneyland in Paris. They had so much fun!

There was even talk of a new driver at one point..

You can read Graham’s updates from France here and see all their photos in our Facebook albums here and here. Mrs Tootill went with them and I’m sure she’ll have plenty to tell us about it next week.

Our exciting news…..we have four new babies here at Spring Brook! This week our ‘Living Eggs’ arrived..

..and now our chicks have hatched. The first one was a boy. He was named Geoffrey..

The second to hatch was a girl. Our boys named her Jennifer..

The next two were named Rita and Graham!

I’ll let Mrs Young tell you more about the chicks but first, over to Mr Mullins’ class..

This week the boys have worked incredibly hard in finding fractions of amounts. They have applied their knowledge and understanding of multiplication and division and have since moved on to more complex questions surrounding missing numbers..

In Literacy, we have compiled a quite comprehensive list of ideas for our newspaper reports surrounding the Industrial Revolution. It was wonderful to witness the children helping one another and even using their topic books to go over events and clarify certain dates. Having each selected their preferred focus, they are now in the process of completing an independent research task for anything they feel might help structure and scaffold their report planning.

Finally, the boys welcomed a new pupil to the group with their preferred choice of initiation – a game of Monopoly and they didn’t hold back. Even now, I think they are still trying to come to a compromise with rent owed on certain properties..

Enjoy your weekend!

Miss Brown’s class were very busy making cookie dough on Wednesday..

Mrs Young’s class have been amazed by the hatching chicks. They have had lots of people, including myself, popping in and out of their classroom all week..

The first week back has been full of excitement for all of our class. 2 students went to Disneyland Paris as part of the Year 8 residential and the rest of the class had some very special ‘guests’ to look after…4 little chicks, which hatched on Wednesday and Thursday..

They are so gorgeous that a few members of staff are seriously considering adopting them!

In Maths, we have been working on comparing halves and quarters of quantities, items and shapes. We also tried identifying mixed numbers and their equivalents to the improper fractions..

In Literacy we focused on improving our handwriting and for it to become more fluent and legible..

In Science we have been learning about different types of teeth and their functions. Our last task was to cut and stick the teeth in the right places..

Mrs Young’s class have certainly been busy. Connor’s handwriting has improved so much! Last but not least, our Nurture Group..

The group have found percentages of shapes and numbers this week in their Maths lessons, using a power point quiz at the start of the lessons. Staff couldn’t believe how competitive they still get.

In the emotional and social lessons, the boys made jigsaw puzzles from the Blobs scheme, this helped with their fine motor skills. Leo was so happy to have his cast removed so he could use both hands and take part in activities..

The boys discussed as a group the feelings the Blob could have by looking at the different icons on the picture. The group showed a mature attitude and gave some good responses..

It was lovely to see Harvey S. return to school on Thursday, just in time for his food tech lesson as he had picked the recipe to make. Harry, Leo and Harvey S. produced a great dish of apple crumble..

Well, that is it for this week. What a great first week back! We’re glad all the pupils and staff returning from Disney had a safe trip home. I’m sure that the staff will be ready for a well-earned rest this weekend. Thank you to all of the staff who have supported this trip, you truly are amazing.

Enjoy your weekend,

Miss Rodgers
Head of Site

You can find all our weekly blog entries here

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham