Gallery

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

CEO Blog – Destinations Champions

CEO Blog – Destinations Champions

  CEO Blog - Destinations Champions I can't quite believe that we've made it to December already, but here we are, and the countdown to Christmas is well and truly underway! This week, I would like to point you all in the direction of our newest New Bridge...

CEO Blog – 24.11.23

CEO Blog – 24.11.23

CEO Blog - 24.11.23 Happy Friday, everyone. I'm keeping it brief this week, but I wanted to give you an update on what's been going on behind the scenes at New Bridge... I met with the Directors at New Bridge Horizons, talking about the exciting partnerships we build...

CEO Blog – 17.11.23

CEO Blog – 17.11.23

CEO Blog - 17.11.23 This week has been another busy week for all of us at New Bridge, and I'm proud of our staff teams for pulling together and continuing to offer our students and young people the very best, even when it's already dark by the time most of them are...

CEO Blog – 10.11.23

CEO Blog – 10.11.23

CEO Blog - 10.11.23 This week, it has been good to see each of our sites commemorating Remembrance Day in their own way. The creativity and thought that our staff have put into these 'Remembrance' themed activities is brilliant, and testament to their ingenuity. It...

CEO Blog (3.11.23) – Welcome Back

CEO Blog (3.11.23) – Welcome Back

CEO Blog (3.11.23) - Welcome Back To everyone who has just had half term, I want to say, 'welcome back', and that I hope you had the opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family over the break. This first term is usually the toughest, and the October...

Graham

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for all your patience this week. It’s been really appreciated.

I’ve had the most frustrating week and one that epitomises the challenges we all face.

Let me explain.

Last Friday my wife started to feel dreadful. She had a headache, slight temperature and, most worryingly, a constant cough. She works with children in Bolton! On Saturday it was getting worse so she rang 111 and booked a test. She was fortunate in that she could be tested in Bolton.

Sunday came and went, with the rest of us (my 17 year old daughter, 14 year old son and myself) self-isolating. So, my return to the work at the Learning Centre was temporarily halted and I continued to work from home. Monday and Tuesday came and went without any message until, on Tuesday evening, my wife again rang the helpline to be told the test results had been lost!

Trying to get another test proved massively challenging. The only one available was in Telford (75 miles away). At this point we were all getting panicky as the implications of not being re-tested within the first 5 days could have been a 10 and 14 day isolation. Luckily, on yet another call to the help line, a particularly helpful operator suggested that if we logged on at 8.00pm another batch of times and venues was due to be released. At 8.00pm on Tuesday all 4 of us were sat with iPads, phones and laptops at the ready. It worked as we managed to get an early morning slot on Wednesday. Thankfully she got the negative result on Friday morning which has meant we are all “released” from the lockdown. This experience has really brought it home to me how fragile the whole system is and how reliant we all are on each other. My son’s Year 11 bubble at his High School managed a day – one child had a positive test – and the whole bubble was sent home for 14 days. How disruptive is that!

The potential for turmoil is massive. Let’s try and support each other, keep each other safe and keep our schools and organisations open for as long as is possible.

In saying that, I’m also aware that we’re struggling to support the safe return of a very small number of children. One of my colleagues over in Bradford, who I do a lot of work with, penned this excellent piece that has just been published in Schools Week:

I’ve had to tell 17 SEND pupils they can’t come to school – and I’m furious

Can I assure all our families affected we are working to try and get the children engaged and back into some sort of routine as quickly and safely as we can?

Please take care – have a great weekend,

Graham

You can find all Graham’s previous updates and 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