head teacher bernice kostick / deputy head teacher...

Head Teacher Bernice Kostick / Deputy Head Teacher Gill Foord

http://www.northridge.manchester.sch.uk

1

Dear Parents and Carers

This has been a very busy term for all at North Ridge. New pupils have settled well

into school.

Pupils have enjoyed super learning activities – Harvest assembly, Remembrance Day

assembly, learning about the Memusi Foundation, Anti bullying week and Christmas.

We are currently working very hard to prepare for our RRSA award, Healthy Schools’

Award and Open Futures award.

Year 11 leavers returned last week to collect their examination certificates.

We continue to run a successful shop and café on the Abraham Moss site. Sixth form

students have a weekly rota for working there. The food and coffee are delicious! We

have some great arts, crafts and preloved clothes for sale in the shop. I recommend

the homemade soup!

Be Proud Award 2017

Our café and shop were nominated for the Be Proud Award 2017 under the category

of “community project of the year”. The team went to Manchester town hall on 24th

November to a meal and celebration. We didn’t win but thoroughly enjoyed the event.

Well done to Laura, Sandra, John, Sarah, Deiniol and Whitney

Our Nightingale class are now very settled at North Manchester General hospital -

spending four days in the hospital working and learning, and one day in school doing

sport and leisure activities. I would like to thank the team at North Manchester for

continuing to support our students and making them feel like real members of the

staff team.



2

Our work with Lancasterian School has continued during the autumn term. This work

will continue into the new term. The staff from the school have benefitted from

leadership, management support and training.

Staff news – Mrs Stollar leaves at the end of the week to a new role at Manchester

College. We wish her every success. Mrs Roy has returned from maternity leave. Mrs

Roberts has given birth to a little boy.

Eleanor, our school nurse is going on maternity leave at the end of the week. We wish

her the best of luck. She will be returning in December 2018. Sarah Quigley will be

covering her work.

Thank you to those of you who attended the Christmas Fair. We made £1,035.42! The

Christmas disco was also very successful with lots of pupils and their families joining

us for the celebrations. As we start our final week in school we look forward to the

Christmas party on Wednesday and Christmas assembly on Friday at 1.00p.m. All

families are welcome to join us for the assembly.

Reminders for all parents and carers:

Pupils (except for 6th form) must wear school uniform – black

trousers or skirt, black polo shirt, royal blue jumper, plain black

sensible shoes. Pupils require a coat for activities outside of school.

Toys and games must not be brought into school. Mobile phones

must be handed to a member of staff during the day.

Dropping off and collecting pupils - we have had some incidents

where pupils’ safety has been put at risk. Pupils being dropped off

by parents and carers - vehicles must be parked in the designated

areas. Parents/carers must follow the guidance using the far car

park if their child is fit and able to walk to the school building.

Please do not attempt to park in an area with double yellow lines or

walk your child through the flow of buses driving into school.

Attendance – holidays will not be authorised during school time.

Please take your holidays during school holiday time.



3

I would like to thank the staff team for their hard work

supporting the pupils of North Ridge. On behalf of the staff I

wish all parents, carers and pupils a very happy Christmas and

healthy peaceful New Year. School reopens to pupils on Monday

8th January 2018.

Bernice Kostick

Head Teacher



4

Our English lessons this term have been based around our sensory

story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have been

sequencing the story and describing the characters, but what we

have enjoyed most is feeling the chocolate river and tasting lots of

different types of chocolate.

In Health and Well-being we have

enjoyed our weekly yoga lessons. We

have been working very hard on our

targets and have even been creating

our own yoga poses.

As part of our cooking lessons we visit the local

supermarket each week to collect our shopping.

We have been using our own personal shopping

lists to find what we need. We have also been

learning to pack and pay for our own shopping

when we get to the till.



5

Class Peake Taking care of our environment

Class Peake have been learning

about Environmental Awareness

for their ASDAN qualification.

We have identified things that

harm the environment.

While on a walk to Tesco, Class

Peake identified things that spoil

our local environment.

Class Peake had a group discussion to

share ideas about what they could do

to help their environment. They

decided to do some general gardening

maintenance and pick litter from

outside school.

They did a great job and now our school

environment looks a little bit nicer!



6

Music

This term in class Fiennes we have been able to create our own Christmas song.

Students have been able to break down the different components of making a song

starting with making a beat and then adding music and words to our song.

Each student has been given their own role within the song whether that’s singing or

using instruments such as keyboards, base guitars, drums or tambourines.



7

Art

This term class Fiennes have been about Amazing Animals in art. The pupils studied the

different patterns found on moths and spiders and produced sketches of some of the

patterns they observed in their art journals. They then made models of spiders and

moths using card and papier mache and created the patterns using oils pastels and

paints.

English

The topic covered in English this half term has been Journeys. Pupils have been able to

read, identify and understand the key features of a non-fiction text. Students have

learnt about the story of The Titanic and the first moon landing and in their own words

re-told the story or wrote a report using adjectives and conjunctions.



8

Film It

Every Thursday a group of Key Stage 4 pupils take part in Film It. Students complete a

short vocational film making project which helps them develop the following skills:

Team work - Creative thinking – Leadership - Problem solving – ICT

This term Class Bonington students have been have been learning how to plan, record

and edit a short advert for school.



9

Class Nightingale

Fathiya is responsible for replacing cutlery, napkins, condiments, loading drinks and

food items into the fridges. She is very well liked by her placement staff and enjoys

her job role.

Mostafa is currently working in the Pharmacy department which he is really enjoying.

Some of Mostafa’s responsibilities include, sticking tape the medication boxes,

putting the correct labels on the medication and placing the medication into the

Robot.

Bailey is working in the Porter’s department and has settled in the team exceptionally

well. Some of Bailey’s responsibilities include supporting his colleagues with

transferring patients to different wards, making sure all cages are stored in the

correct area and collecting the wheelchairs from various departments throughout the

hospital.

Jordan is a valued member of the G4S team. Some of Jordan’s responsibilities

include, making sure the corridors and wards are clean. She does this by using various

cleaning techniques such as high dusting, Kexing and damp dusting.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Class Nightingale are enjoying their work experience at North Manchester General

Hospital. This opportunity has given our students an amazing insight to what it is like

working in a busy environment. The student’s in class Nightingale enjoy a variety of

roles working in different departments across the hospital. These include The Gallery

Café, Porters,G4S and Pharmacy.



10

In my world we have

been learning about

Judaism. We tried on

the different

traditional clothes

and we ate some

traditional food!

In creative we have been

enjoying cooking a range

of different healthy

foods. We have developed

our chopping skills and

followed step by step

instructions for recipes.



11

This half term in maths

we have been learning all

about shapes.

We have been counting

the sides and corners to

figure out which shape it

could be.

We all loved the sensory

shape game, we had to

search inside a tray to

find different shapes and

name them.

In English we have been reading the

story called Treasure Island. We

have all enjoyed exploring the

different props we may find on a

treasure hunt.



12

Class Ross have had a very busy Autumn term. We have worked really hard across the

curriculum. We really enjoyed learning about ‘Treasure Island’ in English. We have listened

to the story and completed lots of written activities. We have also followed instructions to

make a treasure map and a hand print parrot.

In Class Ross we really enjoy maths and all pupils have worked really hard over the Autumn

term. We have been developing our number skills through a range of sensory and practical

activities. We have been working on counting, ordering numbers, addition, place value and

number bonds. We had great fun learning about different 2D and 3D shapes and their

properties. The staff team are really proud of the pupil’s hard work and achievements.

On behalf of all the students and staff in Class Ross, we wish you a very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year for 2018.



13

For Children in Need this year, Class

Scott had a ‘winter games’ day. We

took part in a variety of games

throughout the day; including boccia,

kurling and parachute games.

We had lots of fun and, needless to say,

it became quite competitive!



14

At the start of this term Class Flinders went swimming as part of

our carousel lesson. Pupils visited North City Baths every Wednesday

for their lesson. Everybody tried really hard to better their

swimming skills. Breathing skills, arm movements and distance has

been our focus during these lessons. Our class really enjoyed their

swimming lessons and should all be very proud of the progress they

made.

Class Flinders

This half term our English topic has been Treasure Island. We

enjoyed learning about Jim Hawkins adventures. We have dressed up

as the characters from the story and enjoyed acting out the scenes

during a role-play lesson. We have some fabulous actors and

actresses in our class!

In DT we have been cooking healthy food. We have made leek and

potato soup and roasted butternut squash soup. We have also made

falafel burgers and coleslaw, roasted vegetable cous cous and bread

rolls. We will continue to make healthy food during DT as part of our

healthy school initiative.

The Class Flinders team would like to wish you all a

very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjW_POT3YHYAhVCVxQKHdkzCUsQjRwIBw&url=https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/robert-louis-stevenson-ppt-and-worksheets-on-treasure-island-11465080&psig=AOvVaw1Op5HRqjHdMyVVqKUFxl65&ust=1513073755315911



15

In Maths, we have been learning about numbers and shapes. We have

been counting objects and sorting them into number order.

This term, in our My World lessons, we have been learning about

Judaism. Here is Usama and Campbell trying on the Kippah and Tallit.



16

Class Mallory have been busy

getting in the festive spirit this

term. Campbell is looking very happy

with his hard work on this Christmas

card, during our Life Skills lessons.

This term, our topic for Creative Skills,

is Amazing Animals. We have been

using a variety of techniques to

produce a range of animals. Here is

Aristhote showing off his beautiful

butterfly.

In Science, we have been exploring the

skeleton. We have been learning about

which species have a skeleton, and the

names of each of the bones. Here is

Aristhote putting together his skeleton.



17

P.E

This term in PE, Class Armstrong, have

been doing circuit training. This has

involved completing various exercises,

such as press ups, lunges and star jumps,

in a circuit. They have also been learning

about why exercise is good for the body

and what muscles we use in our body for

exercise. Pupils have worked really hard

during PE and thoroughly enjoyed

themselves.

Cook It

Throughout this term pupils have been

taking part in the Open Futures

curriculum, Cook It.

In Cook It pupils learnt how to make new

dishes like Quorn Chilli and Banana Bread.

They have been following step by step

recipes to help make the dishes. Pupils

have been able to gain cooking skills as

well as develop their team working skills

and independence.



18

Vancouver have been attending the

Incredible Edible allotment in Heaton Park

working on their gardening skills. They have

developed skills in weeding, sowing seeds and

planting bulbs/ plants. We were recently

given the task of making scarecrows for the

allotment which the students had lots of fun

making. I’m sure you will agree that they look

great!

We have also been really busy building bird

boxes for the local cemetery. The students

have developed skills in measuring, sanding

wood, drilling using hand drills and pillar drills

and designing. Staff have been really

impressed by the attention to detail that our

students have shown.

Our Vocational learning days

We wish you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!



19

This half term, MacArthur have been building their

work related learning skills both in school and at the

Manchester Dog’s Home.

At the Manchester Dogs Home, pupils have been

taking dogs for a walk; making sure they get plenty of

exercise.

In school, pupils have been producing a wall display for

the Manchester Dogs Home new building by following

instructions and using speaking and listening skills.

Recently, MacArthur participated in a fund

raising event for Children In Need. Pupils decided

to raise money by completing as many total

minutes possible of a trampoline. Pupils really

enjoyed this!



20

North Ridge School Council

Christmas News

By Tyler Nuro Butler and Emmanuel Balogun

The School Council election took place in October. All the pupils could vote for who

they wanted to. These pupils were elected to the School Council - Tyler, Emmanuel,

Muram, Michael, Emma, Amy, David and Callum. The job of the School Council is to

make sure that all pupils have their ideas and opinions heard by the staff.

This term the School Council completed questionnaires about healthy snacks at

break time with the pupils. You can see the results in the graph below. The school

council have also interviewed teachers and teaching assistants.

89

20

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Yes No

Nu

mb

er

of

pe

op

le

Do you like healthy snacks at break time?

Healthy Snacks At Break Time Pupil Responses



21

It’s that time of year as we get festive and prepare ourselves for the

wintery Christmas period, from Northridge 6th form and the staff we

would to share our fantastic year so far…

We have been extremely busy preparing our products for Christmas and

our students have worked very hard making products to sell at the shop

including Christmas Eve packs which have proved very popular.

Our biggest achievement is the confidence that our students have

developed working in our shop, including the ability to deal with the public

and the development of mathematical and literate functions in a daily

living environment.

The students continue to grow and develop and we at Northridge are

very proud of all our students and are excited as we observe the ever-

growing confidence and brilliance of the students. The hard work and

the determination is wonderful to see.

As we finish for Christmas we would like to extend festive wishes and

wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the

students and staff at 2nd handmade.



22

This year’s Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award pupils have had the opportunity to

complete a six week water sports course as part of their skill section. The group

attended Helly Hansen Salford Water Sports Centre on Friday mornings in some very

interesting, or should that be, very cold conditions!

The pupils were split into two groups, one group have spent the six weeks working in

kayaks and developing the basic kayak skills, while the second group have been trying

a range of different water sports activities including: canoeing, bell boating and

paddle boarding.

Pupils have been following the Paddle Power Passport Award program and have

progressed from individuals who have never been out on the water before and who

were not aware of what a kayak was, or even how to put on a water suit, to individuals

who have developed a range of skills and were able to complete their level 1, 2 & 3

qualification.

The entire group developed their skills to a level that they were able to achieve their

BCU One Star Paddle qualification.

One of the highlights for many of the group during the six weeks came when they

were able to convince the staff, Mrs Galbraith and Miss Doherty to jump in the water

with them at the end of the last session, which took place on a very cold Friday 8th

December!



23

On Tuesday 12th December, 24 pupils took part in the Manchester

School Indoor Rowing competition with the aim of qualifying to represent

Manchester at the Winter School Games.

The pupils competed in year groups and this year the school entered

teams into the following categories.

Boys: Year 8, 9, 10 and 11

Girls: Year 8 and 11

Pupils were placed into teams of four with the event taking the form of a

relay race. Each pupil had to row for two minutes. The remainder of the

team supported each row by securely holding their feet in place. The

event challenged the pupils stamina, power and teamwork, as the change

over from one pupil to the next was vital to allow each pupil the maximum

time available for them to record the best distance.

As we go to print we do not know if any of the teams qualified for the

finals but we will find out towards the end of the term. However the

performance of every pupil was excellent, with them all giving 100%

effort, but not only that the support and encouragement they offer each

other while performing was fantastic to see, and was commented on by

the event organisers. Well done to all involved, fingers crossed we get

through to the School Games Final.



24

Cooking

Every Monday Class Henson take part in cooking lessons.

This half term, pupils enjoyed making a variety of snacks and dishes including:

Troufakia, shortbread biscuits, rice crispy cakes, pizza & sandwiches.

Pupils set up a stall and sold cakes at the Christmas fair.

Class Henson also enjoy eating the food we made!



25

In English we have been learning about the story of Treasure Island. We

dressed up and had lots of fun listening and taking part in our sensory

story, exploring characters and learning through lots of sensory

activities.

In science we have been learning all about our bodies, focussing on the

heart, lungs and our skeleton. Even the staff had lots of fun in this topic!

In maths we have been developing our skills in number, learning about

shape, position and sorting items.

We have been working hard this term in a number of lessons. Here is some

of the work we have done…



26

In English, class Hillary have had lots of fun

learning about Treasure Island. We even imagined

we were pirates and made our very own treasure

maps!

Last half term, we went along to Blackley Crematorium to do some

planting. We worked hard despite the rain and planted 350 daffodil

bulbs! We look forward to visiting in the spring to see them all in

bloom.

We worked

well as a team

on our Christmas

fair stall and made

lots of money selling our

cards, raffle tickets and

dog biscuits.

In maths, we have been developing

our skills in number, including counting,

sequencing and adding. We have also

started looking at measure and time.

We’re getting more confident every

day.

In science, we have enjoyed

learning all about our heart, lungs

and bones.



27

Attendance

This term, pupils have been working hard to come into school on time

every day. Pupils who reach 100% attendance, receive an individual

attendance certificate and take part in a special treat when they return

to school after the Christmas holidays.

Here are the pupils who have achieved 100% attendance

this term!

Congratulations and keep up the Good work!

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Pupils who achieved 100% attendance this Autumn term will also be

placed into the big prize draw at the end of this year for a special prize!!

Hamza Akhter

Emmanuel Balogun

Aristhote Bosimo

Arman Bosimo

George Brophy

Olivia Bucknall

Miranda Chareka

Matthew Clarke

Natasha Clarke

Natasha Clarke-Davies

Tiger Lily Collins

Giorgia Marsden

Amy Davies

Huy Duc Hoang Osamede Eguakun

Whitney Fatai

Jakub Gliniecki

Charlotte Gray

Abbey Heywood

Samuel Ilangakoonge

Abdul-Rehman Iqbal Eryk Kaminski Mckenzie Yeoman Andrzej Latko

Afzal Miah

Brian Moyo

Naila Naseem

Pamela Nyarko

Simon Parkes

Martin Poland Shahnawaz Qamar-Ul-Hassan Aman Tahir Heraldas Vilimas Precious Adeboye



28

This term students from class Bell have been given the

exciting opportunity to support the Macmillan charity at

North Manchester General Hospital to create information

packs.

Students were given the task of

putting together a number of

different information packs

designed to provide vital

information to people who are

dealing with Cancer or know

somebody who could be

suffering with it. Class Bell students worked

really hard and all of their

help was greatly appreciated

by the staff working for

Macmillan. Students showed

excellent communication and

independent work skills to

create lots of packs!

head teacher bernice kostick / deputy head teacher...

Documents