This week I have had the pleasure of observing teaching and learning in lessons again. It never ceases to amaze me that even at this point in the year when teachers and pupils are tired and hot, our standards never slip here at the academy.

On Monday, I observed a PE lesson where Mr Hopkins taught Year 9 the high jump. Risky though it was, all of the students did really well and tried to improve on last year’s high jump targets. Even Mr Pryce and Mr Abedin had a go!

On Tuesday Mrs T. observed Mr P. in Design Technology where the boys made some amazing art using the CAD machine..

I loved Cameron’s work with the slogan ‘Just because my path is different doesn’t mean I’m lost’. Shaun also made a great piece of art using the CAD machine; he painted his and burnt the image away.

On Wednesday Mrs T. and I observed Mr Mullins and Mrs Young. Their classes worked constantly hard throughout the observations and produced work of a very high standard. Mr Mullins’ class were working on the use of persuasive language and Mrs Young’s class were learning about capital punishment! I was really impressed with Connor and Keele’s knowledge and enjoyed looking at the finished work in literacy. I’ll let Mrs Young tell you more about what her class have been doing..

We all must admit that the weather has been amazing!!! We all cannot believe how hot it has recently been, it feels almost like the UK is one of the Mediterranean countries at the moment. Saying that…our boys find the high temperatures very hard to bear at the moment and struggle with work at times. However, they managed to complete some brilliant pieces of work across a wide range of lessons and I must say I am really proud of them. They have come a long way and the progress they have made, not only as students but on a social level, is really amazing.

This week in class we focused on what Germany is famous for i.e. people, places and companies. We started the lesson by identifying different car logos and coming to the conclusion that they all were manufactured in Germany..

We then discussed current affairs. The massive tension between the USA and Mexico was our topic for this week. We analysed various factors and the reasons why such drastic measures are being put in place by the USA..

Then it was time to talk about the death penalty in America, a brief history of it and our aim was to see that the justice system in America is not flawless in all the cases they deal with. We discussed Troy Davis, who despite a lot of doubts and physical lack of evidence was executed without being granted a retrial. We found out how everybody felt about the capital punishment and what was each of the pupil’s stance on the matter. It was quite a powerful lesson..

In Science, we carried out an experiment with the aim to see how acidic and fizzy drinks affect our teeth. We pretended that an egg was our tooth and its shell was our enamel. We immersed our eggs into orange juice and coca cola..

..and after a few days we checked them to see the results. We were all shocked to see that the shell almost dissolved by being exposed to the acid in the orange juice..

..while coca cola only discoloured the outer layer without damaging it greatly..

We drew the conclusion that we need to brush our teeth regularly and drink sugar free drinks or water preferably. We also did some work on food chains, sorting out the definitions and using them to answer the questions on challenge cards..

In English we discussed what the elements of a story are..

..and how to prepare the skeleton of a story. Next week we will continue to write our own ones..

In the afternoons we played a game of football or ‘rounders’ with all the children from our Key Stage 3 department. It was really great to see how all the students got on really well together. We had lots of fun!!! 

Mr Mullins also has an update for us..

This week in SBA3 the boys have excelled in all things algebra related. So much so that when Miss Rodgers and Mrs Tootill popped their heads in, there was a look of panic across their faces as the boys challenged them to either work out missing functions or expand brackets!

Their efforts throughout this week were wonderfully encapsulated by Jayden when flicking through pictures of himself, “Wow Sir, you can almost see the steam coming out of my head because I was concentrating that hard!”

In Literacy, the class have brushed up on their knowledge of persuasive writing techniques with a view to applying these in creating a piece for either an invention from the Industrial Revolution or an invention of their own. We may well have the next James Watt or Lord Alan Sugar amongst us..

Enjoy the weekend boys; make sure you make the most of this thing they call ‘Summer’.

What Mr Mullins hasn’t mentioned is that we also helped him celebrate his birthday!

I made another visit to Year 9, this time with Mrs Burrows teaching them Maths. They were learning about composite shapes and Mr Diveney showed the class his skills, coming to the front to demonstrate how to find the area of composite rectangles and doing an excellent job of checking his own work..

I have to say I was really impressed. It is such a pleasure to be able to pop in and out of lessons here. Shaun worked so hard he came to drag myself and Mrs T. back into the classroom to see the Maths lesson on expanding brackets!

Miss Brown is really pleased with Year 9 this week, they have been focused and on task even with the holidays looming, as you can see in their food tech and creative lessons this week..

Well done, Year 9! Over to the Nurture Group..

Last Monday we welcomed Namal into the Nurture Group, who quickly joined in with the Bikeability training. We could not have wished for better weather! The boys really enjoyed being out of the classroom all day and showed maturity while being instructed what to do. The boys want to say a big ‘thank you’ to Mr Molloy for organising this..

On Wednesday the group were invited to Positive Cycles in Oldham where they removed the spare parts that could be used to repair other bikes. The boys really enjoyed removing tyres from the wheel frame. Harvey S. was very helpful, showing the other boys how to do this..

In English, the group have written their own newspaper article – Namal worked hard, producing this lovely piece of work..

In food technology the group made ham and pasta in a white sauce. The boys made a basic white sauce before adding ham and pasta, serving it with garlic bread..

The group have been busy both in and out of the classroom, working and playing hard. In Maths the boys have being working on pie charts again, with Namal using his left hand after hurting his writing hand earlier in the week..

In their design technology lesson with Mr Pidlyskyj, Harvey and Harry made sporks using different materials and equipment..

To try and get the boys to work together using their fine motor skills, they have used the lego to create a city..

After completing his work, Harvey challenged Miss Davies to a game of tennis, winning by default..

In food technology the boys chose to make a jam and fresh cream sponge….with a spare one for staff to try! Boys, it was amazing with staff loving it..

Wow those cakes looked yummy! I’m glad that Namal has settled into life at Spring Brook, welcome to the family Namal!

Callon has been working hard with Mr Roscoe – just look at this wall he made..

Very neat Callon, I am impressed.

Congratulations to Mr Hopkins for all his hard work which has meant that Spring Brook has achieved the Gold School Games Mark Award for the 5th year in a row…which means we can go for the Platinum Award next year!!

To end the week on Friday, I went to see our very excited Year 6 who will be joining us at the Upper School in September. As you can imagine, they had 101 questions for both myself and Miss Kansik. It was a pleasure to go and talk to the boys, I will look forward to their transition visits next week – see you then, boys.

To end my blog this week I would like to say a short goodbye to Miss Tokelove our Art teacher who is leaving us to go and have her baby. We all wish you well Miss Tokelove and baby T. and we hope to see you both very soon.

Miss Rodgers
Head of Site

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