Gallery

Our gallery shows a selection of photographs from across our Academy.

CEO’s Blog – 24th March 2023

CEO's Blog - 24th March 2023 Our Organisation... The weeks are flying by and we're nearly at the end of the Spring term, so here's a snapshot of life at every one of our schools and settings. We're growing all the time, but our offer remains the best in special...

CEO’s Blog – 17th March 2023 – ‘Thank You!’

CEO's Blog - 17th March 2023  'Thank You!'   Well, if you've been following the updates on social media this week, you might just have noticed that almost 100 of our young people have been lucky enough to travel to Disneyland Paris. A trip that started on Monday...

CEO’s Blog (10th March 2023)

CEO's Blog (10th March 2023)   It was International Women's Day this week, and it was great to see our schools and settings marking the occasion with their activities and learning opportunities. Of course, we shouldn't only celebrate our women and girls for just...

We are looking for our next CEO…

We are looking for our next CEO... It's probably been the worst kept secret for a while, but I'm writing my blog this week to let everyone know that we are actively looking for the next CEO of the New Bridge Multi Academy Group and MAT. After many years working as...

CEO’s Blog – Student Voice (24th February 2023)

CEO's Blog - Student Voice (24th February 2023)   A few weeks ago, before the half term break, I said I would be reporting on how we listen to the Student Voice across our MAT and wider Group. Well, this week, I'm able to do just that, as some of our schools and...

Graham
It’s been another busy old week.

I’ve managed to get to every site this week – quite a feat when we are now supporting the Pupil Referral Centre in Tameside (they’ve got sites in Droylsden and Duckinfield).

Over the last couple of weeks, I have mentioned the financial challenges that schools within our sector are presently facing. Earlier in the week, on behalf of Special Schools’ Voice, I wrote to the Department for Education (you can see the letter here). We’ll wait and see if there will be any movement!!

I’ve held a couple of meetings this week with families from Hollinwood Academy in relation to our strategy for growth. Both meetings had an excellent turnout and hopefully I was able to ease any fears that families had about our inevitable growth. The local authority are working alongside us to ensure we can adapt our premises to meet the growing population of children both attending and wanting places in the school.

Last weekend a number of colleagues that visited the USA on our Apple Education trip had a get together and catch up. I love spending time with like-minded colleagues. People who, like me, look for solutions and look for the latest developments and innovations that have the potential to support our learners. I heard of a great new piece of kit that is widely available throughout Scandinavia. 3D simulators are widely used in the agricultural industry. Some of you may well have been on the simulators that you sometimes see at theme parks or in shopping malls. Basically, it’s the same technology and principle but on a smaller scale.

The very best bit, and what makes it really pertinent to many of our young people, is that we can design the simulator to mimic driving a fork lift truck, or a JCB, or a dumper truck, or a crane – pretty much anything that is mechanical – we can make it virtual. How amazing could this be? I then got thinking about virtual driving lessons etc. … what possibilities! The very best part for me was the fact that the simulators were not particularly expensive and, most importantly, they give learning a purpose. I’ve fed my thoughts and ideas back to our teams who are now looking into the cost, logistics, technological requirements etc.

I’d be delighted to see Lauren learning to drive!!! What do you reckon, John??

Have a great weekend everyone,

Graham

You can find all Graham’s previous blog entries here

Location

New Bridge Multi Academy Trust
Roman Road
Hollinwood
Oldham
OL8 3PH

School Hours

M-F: 8am – 4pm
Weekends: Closed

Phone & Email

0161 870 9386

info@newbridgegroup.org