HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We ended the term with a celebration for the students. It was such fun today, hearing laughter around the building before the students even got in was caused by Mr Pryce’s costume. How does anyone come to school dressed as Donald Trump and later turn into a younger version of Barack Obama? Mr Pryce, just brilliant!
This half term has flown by. I can’t believe how quickly it has gone. We have welcomed new students into our Spring Brook Family and worked hard as a team to do so. The team of staff at Spring Brook really deserve a well-earned rest this half term, they have certainly earned it. I would personally like to thank everyone from our cleaners and premises team to our admin Miss Loftus, our cook Sue and all of the teaching staff not least Mr Southerington my right-hand man – or should I say creature of the dark side today?!!!
As usual, the team made such an effort today to ensure that our students had lots of fun.
Not sure who those purple and black caped people were giving out certificates in class assembly today….very strange indeed!
Whilst we had all the celebrations today, the students have been working incredibly hard to complete their learning this week. I’ve been blown away by the poetry in Mr Mullins and Mrs Mason-Power’s classes.
Let’s start with our Year 9s in Mr Mullin’s class. Their efforts in school this half term have been outstanding to say the least.
Final blog of the first half term back… seriously, where has the time gone? As promised last week – we have some poetry to share with you. I genuinely cannot express how proud I am of every single one of these boys for what they have achieved, not just this week but since coming back.
[fvplayer id=”21″]
I’ve already mentioned how I am rapidly running out of superlatives to describe them – it may well be that they have to write their own blog from here on in just to avoid me repeating myself!
They continue to go above and beyond, pushing themselves and delving into tricky concepts with a determination to succeed.
I know I have already told you individually, but if you are reading this boys – do not let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve or that you can’t do something. You have so much to offer and myself and Mr Bocking are incredibly fortunate that we have the opportunity to unlock this potential.
Parents/carers – your boys deserve all the credit for this half term.
Enjoy the well-earned rest, stay out of trouble and see you on Monday 2nd November.
Superb boys, you really have excelled this half term and that is also down the the efforts of Mr Mullins and Mr Bocking, what a team!
Over to Mrs Mason-Powers’ class. It was a pleasure to observe them this week in English, Maisie and Tyler both worked really hard with their acrostic poems about autumn.
I can’t believe that SBU3 have completed their first half term together, it’s flown! Looking back over the half term I’m so proud of how they’ve worked together and settled into Spring Brook. This week we’ve been practising our football skills in the sports hall and Tyler has been really developing as a keeper.
On Monday we walked from school to a local park and spent time counting squirrels and climbing trees, everyone really listened and did well at being out in a group, well done!
Continuing our outdoor theme, we ventured further and visited Daisy Nook Country Park. We studied the map, had a go at some orienteering, and searched a shallow stream for rocks and pebbles before we start our new science topic studying rocks and soils next half term.
Back in the classroom, we have continued working on place value in Maths, working with Roman numerals, decimals and complex part-whole models. Maths is definitely a strong point in SBU3, well done everyone for your progress this half term.
In food tech we made ‘eyeballs’ ahead of Halloween, they were really difficult! We had to mix Oreos, cake and melted chocolate and make them into balls which were incredibly crumbly, then add more melted chocolate and finally decorate with smarties to make the pupils. This was a really difficult challenge and the effort of the class was brilliant. We ended up with some great cake pops and a few finished eyeballs!
In English we went back outside looking at signs of Autumn and thinking about what we could see, hear and smell. We also collected examples of adjectives like crunchy, bright and cold to use in our acrostic poems. All the poems will be finished after half term and I’m looking forward to being able to share them all here, they’re brilliant!
To finish the half term we spent Friday in a Halloween mood, dressing up, face painting, doing Maths puzzles, learning about the history of Halloween and carving pumpkins! They looked fantastic.
SBU3 are continually improving and congratulations to everyone for a terrific half term ~ Ms Power and Mrs Culhane
I loved the scary eyeball cake pops you made.
Ariz was so kind he gave all his to another class. Such an act of kindness to spend all that time carefully making them to share them with others. Well done to you Ariz.
Over to Mr Hopkins who has been on his adventures again. Can I say a huge well done to Kyren this week, if he had been in school today he would have received senior leadership pupil of the week. Kyren has had a great week in school, let’s have a look at his class adventure with Mr Hopkins..
For PE this week we have once again managed to get out and about to explore the local area. This week we trekked over to Park Bridge with our classes to explore the river, the old quarry and the ironworks in the area.
Our pupils have really engaged with the outdoor trips they have been able to participate in this half term. We have still been getting our physical activity for PE by walking appropriate distances but it has also had massive benefits to our pupils’ mental health by being outside after such an extended period of time inside for most of this year. We have had many of the pupils say how they have felt less stressed after being out on these trips and it’s great to see their positive behaviour in school reflect this.
We do also spend some of our PE lessons at Spring Brook focusing on different skills. This week we have been looking at teamwork, safety and respect through working on our rugby tackling. Both Mr Coldwell’s class and Mr Mullins’ class were exceptional in their attitudes, technique and teamwork for their sessions – well done!
[fvplayer id=”19″]
Finally the last group to go out for their John Muir Award visit to the waterfall at Middle Black Clough was Mr Coldwell’s group this week. They behaved fantastically and fully engaged with the challenges they were set.
The group helped each other out and took care of each other during the river crossings and couldn’t help themselves when they had the opportunity to stand under the waterfall and slide down the river bed!!! Well done to this group!
[fvplayer id=”20″]
It really has been an amazing half term back after such a difficult year. I’d like to congratulate all of our pupils for their hard work and resilience as we have all been adapting to a new way of being in school. You have all been truly awesome and I look forward to more positive experiences after the half term break.
Take care and stay safe ~ Mr Hopkins
Remaining with this class Mr Coldwell has also had a few things to say..
This week we have been working on improving our social skills and building up trust to be able to go out in the community. The students all were able to get on with each and spoke to members of the public politely. In class we have also been focusing our reading skills. We have had a number of students read out loud which I am very proud of. Cooking was also successful when we made crepes.
Today we wished Jacob in Miss Crossley’s class good luck with his new school. Jacob will be joining another of our trust schools after half term. We all wished him well today. Here are the class all ready for Halloween..
Didn’t they all look wonderful? I loved their outfits today. Miss Crossley’s learning environment is wonderful I love to see all their creative work.
In Mrs Young’s class we had some very creative costumes indeed. Mason scared me with his wolf costume and Harry’s was brilliant, he was a cereal killer….that one took me a while to work out!
Brilliant work going on as ever in Mrs Young’s class, well done everyone. Next to Mr Stewart and Mr Pryce’s class. Bethany has had a wonderful week, in fact so have Theo and Kyle. Some of them found the apple bobbing challenge easier than others!
[fvplayer id=”22″]
My favourite end to the week is always celebration assembly but this week I was busy completing staff appraisals with Mr Southerington so we’re not sure who stepped in this week in our place??? I’m being told they were dressed in purple and black. Certainly not mine and Mr Southerington’s choice of attire!
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”29″ gal_title=”Halloween 2020 assembly”]
I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful half term. Stay safe everyone.
We return to school on Monday 2nd November 2020 I look forward to seeing you all then.
Miss Rodgers
Head of Site
You can find all our weekly blog entries here
Click here to read this week’s news from Graham