Happy Friday! We are all very excited about our residential visit to Bendrigg Trust next week. Bendrigg have very kindly shared a link with us that includes a 360 tour of the grounds and facilities. Here is the link if you would like to have a look at home: https://www.360imagery.co.uk/virtualtour/residential/bendrigg_trust/

This week we have taken it in turns to take the Poppy Appeal items around to the different classes in school, well done to everyone who volunteered.

A huge well done to our winners of 11G’s Pumpkin Carving competition from last week. The voting closed on Monday morning and the winners were Group A: Lily, Tyler and Clayton who won a Halloween mug with some treats inside. Thank you to everyone who voted.

On Monday 11G finally got to go swimming at Hindley swimming pool after missing our session last week due to the boiler issues. Paula, our usual swimming teacher, was poorly but this didn’t stop everyone trying their hardest with their swimming. Lots of positive attitudes all round!

In the afternoon, we had a class discussion about enterprise ideas that we could use to fundraise money for our prom next year. We have thought of some ideas that we could use at any time of the year, alongside some ideas that we can do as the festive period begins in the next month or so. Keep your eyes peeled for more details!

On Tuesday morning we finally got to share our holiday news with our friends! This means that weekend news will resume again next week so please take photos and send information to Mrs Fisher by Monday evening.
This week we mixed up the groups and took it in turns to share holiday news then listen to our friends and ask relevant questions. We are still working on paying attention and keeping focus when people are speaking to us so that we can add relevant contributions or ask relevant questions. It would be really helpful if you could model these skills at home with your child, asking questions to gain more information about what they have told you and encouraging them to listen to information that they are given.
Danny and Katie did a very good job of standing at the front of class and presenting information about the things one of their peers had done during the October half term break.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Fisher took a small group at a time down to the food tech room to make Oreo and white chocolate cheesecakes whilst Mrs Cobham and Mr Murphy took the Year 11’s into the hall to decorate it in preparation for the Halloween Disco.

Tuesday evening was the Halloween Disco and we have to say a massive thank you to all the 11G pupils who came to the disco. An extra special shout out to Clayton and Tyler who not only attended the disco, but helped out with the organisation and smooth running of the event too. We hope everyone had a brilliant time; it was so nice to see the majority of the class have fun together. We cannot forget to mention Katie who was flying the flag for 11G and won the best costume prize, well done Katie!

On Wednesday it was our first English session on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We discussed what the class already know about the story and named some of the characters together, then watched the first 15 minutes of the film. There was some excellent input of opinions and thoughts from everyone in class about the content of the film, as well as key events that happened too. We split into our groups to complete some work based around the beginning of the film. We had some very good retelling of the story from everyone, demonstrating our good listening skills! Well done 11G!

On Thursday morning we completed some Maths assessments in preparation for our Maths work that we will continue following our Bendrigg visit next week. Whilst Mrs Fisher was completing assessments with pupils one at a time, Miss Fraser played some new board games with the rest of the class. In the afternoon we walked to the library but unfortunately, the library was closed for maintenance! We walked back to school and spent some time exploring the 360 tour of Bendrigg Trust and talking about the activities that we will be completing whilst we are there next week. For snack time, we ate our delicious Oreo cheesecakes that we had made in cooking on Tuesday afternoon. There were lots of thumbs up from the learners and lots of empty pots. Please let Mrs Fisher know if you would like the recipe to try at home.

On Friday, Mr Murphy led the morning session continuing the ASDAN work on Technology in the Home then the class went outside to join the rest of the school at 11am for 2 minutes silence for Remembrance Day. Everyone was very respectful. In the afternoon, the Switch from Holiday Heroes was back in class and we enjoyed challenging each other to play Mario Kart and Just Dance.

Our Star of the Week this week goes to Clayton. Clayton actively chose to attend the Halloween Disco and volunteer his assistance to Mrs Cobham with the parents’ café. He did a wonderful job of helping and we are so proud of Clayton for attending his very first out of school hours event! Well done, Clayton.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see everyone on Monday. Any questions about Bendrigg Trust, please get in touch with Mrs Fisher.

Mrs Fisher, Mrs Cobham, Miss Greenwood