Dear Parent/Carer

It has been an enjoyable and productive end to the summer term. In recent weeks we

have completed external and internal examinations; had an excellent rewards day last

Wednesday, as well as presentation evenings, which celebrated the many academic,

musical and sporting achievements over the year.

We are delighted to win the accolade of ‘School of the Year’ in ‘The Skills for Business

Awards 2014’. Full details are in this newsletter and reflect the tremendous amount of

work we do in preparing pupils for life after Hollingworth. This week we will also be

holding a sponsored 5km walk/run in support of Southport Spinal Injuries Unit and North

West Air Ambulance. This is a cause close to our heart as they recently helped a former

pupil.

We end the year in this final week with Year 11 on Work Experience and our Sports Day

on Wednesday. Please note school will close for all pupils at 1.50pm on Friday 18th July

2014. We will receive our pupils back on Wednesday 3rd September 2014.

In the meantime, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family an enjoyable

summer holiday.

Yours sincerely

D Randle

Headteacher

Press Release from Roz Hughes PR Ltd

Hollingworth Academy Wins Regional School of the Year award

Dara OBriain, John Packer (Vice-Chair of Governors), Jenny Collins (Head of CEIAG) Vera Travis (Pastoral Support Mentor) and Jo Manfred (Skills and Participation Development Officer, RMBC) from Hollingworth Academy

Hollingworth Academy in Milnrow near Rochdale beat off stiff competition from other secondary schools

from across the region to win School of the Year at the Greater Manchester Skills for Business awards for

their work in helping secure apprenticeships for students.

Staff from Hollingworth Academy including Jenny Collins, Head of CEIAG (careers, education,

information, advice and guidance) and Pastoral Support Mentor, Vera Travis, picked up the award at an

awards ceremony last Thursday 3 July at The Hilton Hotel Manchester Deansgate hosted by Irish

comedian and presenter of TV’s The Apprentice, You’re Fired!, Dara O Briain who compered the event.

The school has special status as a Business and Enterprise College and of the 2013 school leavers, 6.3 per

cent went on to an Apprenticeship, which is more than double the borough average.

Commenting on the award win Hollingworth Academy’s Head of CEIAG, Jenny Collins said: “We

regularly have guest speakers from both the public and private sector who run workshops and give talks

about apprenticeships. Hollingworth has continued to invest in work experience opportunities for

pupils. This provides them with an exposure to the world of work which is invaluable when applying for

apprenticeship opportunities. We maintain strong links with employers and businesses, which is vital in

ensuring young people pursue apprenticeships, if this is the right route for them.”

Richard Nash from Greater Manchester Learning Provider Network said: “Hollingworth Academy has

excelled with providing students with apprenticeship, business and employability opportunities. Past

pupils have even become ambassadors to help current students through their education. This is truly a

dedicated and nurturing school, which only wants the very best for their pupils’ futures. ”

In total 70 Greater Manchester organisations or individuals were shortlisted in 17 categories. The jury

panel comprised of some of the region’s most notable representatives from the learning and skills sector

including Councillor Sue Murphy, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Employment and Skills at

Manchester City Council; Mike Blackburn, the chair of the Learning and Enterprise Partnership in Greater

Manchester and Regional Director for BT; Rachael Beasley, FE Work Based Learning Account Manager at

Pearson Work Based Learning; Paul Holme, Skills Policy Advisor at New Economy and David Teale, Chief

Executive of North of England Excellence.

The awards are created through collaboration between the Greater Manchester Learning Provider

Network (GMPLN), Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) and New Economy (NE).

The headline sponsor for the Greater Manchester Skills for Business Awards 2014 is Pearson Work Based

Learning and other sponsors include Manchester Metropolitan University, Salford Business School and

Greater Manchester Colleges Group (GMCG). Other partners include Greater Manchester Combined

Authority (GMCA), Apprenticeships and North of England Excellence.

Hollingworth Academy has, as always, been busy encouraging our pupils to

read for pleasure over the last year.

During the spring term we held many events to mark World Book Day which

saw staff dress up as their favourite characters from books, pupils designing

bookmarks for a national competition and a very successful Readathon.

Readathon is the UK’s sponsored reading event designed to encourage

children to read for pleasure. Pupils rose to the challenge, reading hundreds

of books and raising an amazing £548.73 for seriously ill children. Their

fantastic achievement also earned the school a book voucher for over £100.

A massive well done to all involved!

On the 6th March 2014, teachers were invited to dress up as characters from their favourite books for

World Book Day. Pupils enjoyed spending the day guessing which characters staff members had chosen

to dress up as. In addition to this, KS3 pupils spent English lessons throughout World Book Day learning

about famous characters from a variety of books. They spent time considering which character was

least worthy of remaining on our pretend ‘Hot Air Balloon Flight’. They were also given the opportun ity to

enter various World Book Day competitions, such as creating bookmarks and book trailers.

The school’s History Department organised a two day, whistle-stop

visit to areas of World War One’s Western Front in Belgium on 6th

and 7th March 2014. The party leader was Mr B Rigby who was

accompanied by fellow teachers Ms A Holmes and Mr P Bremner.

After an overnight journey via coach and ferry, the 33 Year 9 pupils

ventured from Calais into Belgium eager to see what they had

been learning about in class.

Their first day included visits to Essex Farm Trench and Advanced

Dressing Station (emergency first aid), Passchendaele Memorial

Museum (for an interactive experience of the battle there in 1917),

Tyne Cot British Cemetery (the largest of its kind in the world), Langemark German Cemetery (as a

contrast to the British Cemetery at Tyne Cot) and the Yorkshire Trench (a British trench once featured in a

BBC documentary). Their evening meal was in a restaurant in the centre of the picturesque city of Ypres,

following which they participated in a reconstruction of the ‘Last Post’ ceremony at Menin Gate (a

memorial to British Commonwealth soldiers).

On day two, following an overnight stay in Château d’Ebblinghem

in Northern France, the pupils visited Sanctuary Wood (to see

original British trenches) then on to ‘In Flanders Field’ interactive

museum (in Ypres) followed by a tour of Talbot House in Poperinge,

which was a unique British soldiers’ club set up during World War

One to provide a different, relaxing atmosphere for soldiers of all

ranks as an escape from war on the Western Front.

The party set off back in the afternoon of the second day, arriving

back in Milnrow late on the same day, bringing back with them the

experience of having seen what they had previously learned

about through books and films. This hectic but very informative visit was enjoyed by all the participants

as it helped to develop their understanding of what World War One was really like, especially as this year

marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the war.

The photos are of a few of the Year 9 pupils that show how much they found the visit to be worthwhile.

Current Year 9 pupils also have the opportunity to go on the visit in 2015. Please tell your son or daughter

to ask their History teacher for a visit letter.

Here are a few examples of what some of the pupils thought of the trip:

The trip was incredible. It was a once in a life time experience: shocking, emotionally

overpowering, yet in some cases heart-warming; the comparisons between the two

commentaries was especially outstanding. I think everyone found that soldiers, past and

present, are extremely courageous and deserve the highest amount of honour and respect.

‘Your glory will not be blotted out’. (Molly Parker)

What can I say about the battlefield trip? It was an amazing experience that I enjoyed to the

fullest. I learnt a lot whilst enjoying myself. Since I am taking History as an option, this trip served

as an insight to what the next two years are going to be like. I had a personal reason to go since

my Great Granddad died over in Ypres. Unfortunately his body was lost, but his name is on the

Menin gate. It was fantastic to find his name when we went to see the last post under the Menin

gate. Overall the trip was a great experience that I will remember for a long time.

(Megan Dickson)

We got to Dover around 6.30am and boarded the ferry at 7.00am. The ferry arrived at Calais

and we set off to our first site which was a WW1 cemetery. All of the graves were the same, but

there were different markings on the graves. The height was the same to signify that they were

all soldiers who had fallen. (Thomas Schofield)

For me the visit to Ypres was amazing; it was as if the war was being recreated in front of me.

Even though being this close to burial grounds was depressing, it gave me an insight into how

young men lived in the war. However, it terrified me when I saw the age of the soldiers that

died, a lot being just kids. But on the whole, the visit was extraordinary and I would recommend

it to any school willing to take their kids to Belgium. A once in a lifetime opportunity!

(Joe Street)

On Monday 7th July, the Quantum Theatre Company is coming into school to

commemorate the anniversary of the outbreak of The Great War. The Company

will deliver a show called ‘Your Country Needs You’ to all Year 8 and Year 9 pupils.

The First World War Your Country Needs You uses original sources and material

from the time and interweaves songs, poetry and prose to examine the effects of

war on those directly involved. Moving, informative and sometimes even comic,

‘Your Country Needs You’ delivers a wartime experience that gets to the heart of the day to day

lives of those involved.

We have a group of History Ambassadors on hand to answer questions on why this happened: James

Briggs, Emily Hamer, Jake Hirst, Alisha Hussain, Amy Kershaw, Shafee Nasar, Connor Reddan, Holly

Pountain, Emily Pountain, Sophie Bowker, Megan Cross, Cadean Park, Brooke Newel and Kia Lang.

Madeleine Howley, Andrew Tighe, Ayra Ahmed and

Ameerah Latif attended Gifted and Talented Maths

Master Classes at Crompton House CofE School on

Saturday mornings for six weeks. They covered various

exciting activities on topics that you would not normally

cover during secondary school lessons, such as fractals,

Mobius strips, cryptography and they even learned

about the maths behind juggling!

Over February half term all of the pupils in the top sets of

Year 7 and Year 8 completed a Maths Challenge for

Liverpool University. They competed against pupils from

hundreds of schools from all over the country. Sally

Tisdall worked really hard to achieve the highest score

from Hollingworth.

On Thursday 1st May, all of the pupils in the top sets of Year 7 and Year 8

completed some very tricky problems by competing in the UKMT Maths

Challenge. Thirty two pupils managed to achieve a high enough score to

earn either a bronze, silver or gold certificate. Erin Monaghan achieved the

best score in Year 7 and James Briggs achieved both the best score in Year 8

and also the school.

The Food Technology department run a competition throughout the school year for all

Year 8 and Year 9 pupils. Each half term the pupils study a topic and during that time

they make a couple of dishes that are linked to that topic. The teachers then nominate

a Year 8 and Year 9 pupil they feel have made the best effort in making the chosen dish.

At the end of the school year a pupil from both year groups is chosen to be named

“Chef of the Year” and receives a “Master Chef” apron and cookbook. All termly winners receive a

certificate and a decorated wooden spoon in assembly. The following pupils have won this since last

December. Congratulations to you all!

Chef of the Term: Year 8 Caitlyn Woodrup, Faiza Rani, Jessica Frater and Grace Lewis

Year 9 Morrison Foden, Courtney Holt, Jack Corfield-McBride and Claire Singleton

Chef of the Year: Year 8 Emily Pountain

Year 9 Sana Ambreen

The Music Department are proud to announce the following results:

Jack Monaghan (Year 10) gained a Merit in Grade 4 French Horn.

Robyn Pedley (Year 9) gained a Pass in Grade 3 Trumpet and a Pass in Grade 2

Piano.

Congratulations to these pupils.

Good luck to the five pupils who will be doing instrumental examinations later on in July 2014.

In March, pupils from the Academy

participated in the Piano, Guitar and Wind

Band classes. We got lots of positive

feedback and everyone really enjoyed the

opportunity to perform.

On Thursday 2nd May 2014, we held our very

first Evening of Voice. A number of

Hollingworth singing pupils, taught by Mr

Jacob, gave a variety of performances

ranging from the Imagine Dragons to Nina

Simone. The evening was a real success

and we have already started working on

next year's event.

On Monday 30th June 2014, piano pupils, taught my Mr Theed, served a delightful mix of music and

afternoon tea at the Afternoon of Piano event. It was well attended by parents/carers, invited guests

from The Rosemary Residential Home and Year 9 Music pupils.

On Wednesday 10th December 2014 we will be taking

a trip to see the musical at The Palace Theatre,

Manchester. Tickets are priced at £31.50 and will be

sold through WisePay. We only have a limited number

available so they will be allocated on a first come, first

served basis. Letters are available from Miss Earl.

The Performing Arts Faculty are excited to announce that we have started work on this year's musical,

Grease. We will be doing three performances - 19th, 20th and 21st November 2014. Details about tickets

will be released after the summer break.

On Thursday 27th February 2014, Hollingworth Academy were delighted to

welcome back The LionHeart Challenge, an inclusive, nationwide Business

and Enterprise Programme for school pupils.

All 230 Hollingworth Year 10 pupils took part in this high paced and exciting

Programme, which saw pupils working in teams of ten supported by a

LionHeart business mentor to tackle Team Development, Product Design,

Finance and Marketing, before presenting their Business Plans to a panel of

business judges, including Mr Robert Beedham, Chartered Management

Accountant and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

(CIMA) member.

All teams taking part were challenged with coming up with an innovative and thoughtful Eco Business

Design. However, the winning team: Team 17 Eco Energies, comprising of Josh Gordon, Harry Royds,

Arslan Mohammed, Ejaz Hussain, Danielle Hewitt, Jess Hopkins, Aaron Nolan, Connor Larkin and Jayde

Taylor proved to be top dog on the day!

With their slogan “Live Healthy, Live Successful”, the team put their science

knowledge into practice and devised an Eco Friendly engine that works in all

vehicles. It works by taking gasses from the air and using them to power the engine,

thus purifying the air and reducing pollution at the same time. Indeed their product

was not only good for the planet, but was also deemed by the judges to have a

sound Business Plan behind it, with their Estimated Sales Volume for Year 1 alone

being 20,000 units, with a forecasted Net Profit of £30million.

The team are now progressing on to represent Hollingworth Academy at the Prestigious LionHeart

Regional Finals in September. They will be able to work shoulder to shoulder with the drivers of industry

and business professionals from across the North, whilst also creating a striking 4D image of their product

and a fully researched Business Plan, to try and become The North West Regional Champions for 2014.

Finally, they hope to progress onwards to represent not only the school, but the Region, at the Grand

LionHeart National Final 2015, where they will attend a Black Tie Banquet and Awards Ceremony.

We wish the Team all the best of luck, and look forward to letting you all know how they get

on as they continue and progress through their LionHeart journey!

LionHeart deliver a suite of inclusive, entrepreneurial programmes for primary schools, secondary schools,

Further Education colleges and universities.

In Science we have had primary schools in from the local area for a Science taster lesson – a different

primary school every half term. We have had Year 5 pupils in to do experiments to find out how much

energy is in food. They have a morning in Science completing practical activities with Bunsen Burners,

Thermometers, Boiling tubes, etc. The last session was with Moor house Primary in April.

This event was run between 8th and 11th July this year at the Contact Theatre in

Manchester and a group of our Y9 pupils took part on Thursday 10th July.

“Our international theatre exchange culminates in four days of shows, workshops

and events and is regularly cited as life changing by the young people involved.

For 2014, young artists from Manchester, Corby and Livingston are paired with

theatre companies from Iran, Jamaica and India, each creating a new piece of

theatre inspired by their ‘twin’ company.”

Seventy Year 11 pupils conducted fieldwork over two days in Castleton on 24th and 25th June as part of

their controlled assessment in Geography. They investigated whether Castleton had more positive or

negative effects of tourism. The trip was very successful as they not only collected relevant data, but

also understood the impact that tourism has through personal experience; they visited different

attractions such as Peveril Castle, Peak Cavern, local shops and went on a (very long) walk to Hollins

Cross. They were excellent role models and worked exceptionally hard throughout. Thank you to all the

pupils that were involved and to parents/carers for your continued support.

There will be Year 9 fieldwork taking place in September when all Year 9 pupils will use handheld GPS

devices and flip cameras to record evidence of antisocial behaviour in Milnrow. We firmly believe that

fieldwork is an essential part of Geography as pupils learn about relevant issues though real-life

examples. To all Year 9 parents/carers, thank you in advance for your support.

On Wednesday 12th February 40 rowers represented Rochdale in the Greater Manchester Indoor Rowing

Championships in Wigan. The team relay was an outstanding success. It was the first team to compete

2016 metres and 32 of our 40 rowers achieved gold medals – a terrific achievement and the best set of

results we have ever had in the County Finals. Medal winners are as follows:

Gold Bronze Year 7 Girls & Boys Year 8 Boys

Year 8 Girls

Year 9 Girls & Boys

Year 10 Girls

Year 11 Girls & Boys

We also had a number of pupils achieve individual medals in their individual events. Each Borough in

Greater Manchester competed, so there were up to 40 rowers in each event. As you can see, all our

rowers achieved a new personal best distance and worked extremely hard to win their medals.

Year Group Gold Silver Bronze

Year 7

2 min row

Girls Tanya Harrison

486m PB

Lily Young

480m PB

Boys Harry Proctor

532m PB

Year 8

3 min row

Girls Grace Lewis

760m PB

Sally Tisdall

742m PB

Boys Zac Critchley

783m PB

Year 9

4 min row

Girls Elise Greenhalgh

985m PB

Chloe Greenwood

963m PB

Boys Joseph Ashton

1100m PB

Year 10

5 min row Girls

Leanne Glynn

1192m PB

Hannah Wain

1191m PB

Year 11

6 min row

Girls Holly Coburn

1456m PB

Megan Scholes

1433m PB

Boys Adam Sweeney

1664m PB

On Sunday 2nd March 25 of our rowers took part in the English Indoor Rowing Championships and here

are the medal winners:

Year Group Gold Silver Bronze

Year 7 Harry Proctor

526m

Tanya Harrison

491m PB

Year 8 Sally Tisdall

766m PB

Year 9 Joseph Ashton

1133m PB

Joseph Ashton, Callum Taylor and Brandon Morris also won the Bronze in the Relay Team event.

Once again Hollingworth had a successful season and our Rounders teams’ dedication and

commitment has paid off with the following results:

Year Group LEAGUE TOURNAMENTS

Year 7 Winners

Year 8 Winners Winners

Year 9 Runners up Runners up

Year 10 Winners

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR ROWERS AND ROUNDERS TEAMS!

The school Reception team strives to offer parents/carers, visitors and pupils an experienced and friendly

service. As part of this service we are aware that there are times when parents/carers need to visit

school to see a member of staff. Where possible please can parents/carers contact the school in

advance to book an appointment to see a member of staff. We understand that this is not always

possible and on these occasions we will try to organise a meeting with the member of staff as soon as

possible, but for unplanned visits there may be a wait.

There are times when parents/carers need to drop items off for their child. The Reception team will

always endeavour to notify pupils and pass these items on, but please can this be kept to a minimum. It

is ultimately the pupil’s responsibility to remember their equipment for school and at busy times we

cannot guarantee that items dropped off will be passed to pupils in time for the required lessons.

We recommend that parents/carers get their children into the routine of checking their timetable each

evening and packing their bag in readiness for their lessons the following day. This helps pupils become

more organised and hopefully leads to a less stressful school run, or the parent/carer having to take time

off work to bring forgotten items in!

Here is a list of the basic equipment that pupils must remember each day (which is in the pupils’

planners)…

Pen/Pencil/Eraser/Ruler PE Kit Apron for CDT Calculator

Earphones for ICT Exercise Books/Planner/Homework

We have a strong team of First Aiders based in Reception who deal with sick pupils and emergency first

aid in school. Please can parents/carers be aware that this team are not qualified to diagnose and any

information we pass on to parents/carers will be in line with the first aid training that has been received.

In addition to this, the school only has a limited amount of first aid resources and we cannot provide

pupils with daily plasters or dressings.

Many thanks for your co-operation.

Parents/carers can find a full list of the extra-curricular sessions we run on our website:

http://www.hollingworthacademy.co.uk by following the links: Pupils/After School Clubs and then

clicking on the year group pertaining to your child. This is updated each term and the Autumn Term lists

will be available to view in September.

We held a competition during the month of May for whoever could grow the

tallest sunflower from seed and Stephanie Swift (7JO) won with her sunflower

growing 102cm.

Following consultation with pupils, parents/carers, governors and staff, the School Uniform Policy has

been changed from 1st September 2014 and applies to all new Year 7 pupils in 2014–2015. These

changes are optional for pupils in Years 8–11 during 2014-2015, but will be compulsory from September

2015. Please see our website for further details.

During the last 12 months we have made improvements to our dining facilities that we hope your child

has benefited from. These have included:

Quality of fresh local produce

Variety in menu - seasonal, constantly changing

Healthy food which your child enjoys

From September 2014 we will also offer choices for halal, non-halal and vegetarian and hope to further

develop with increased meal options. We also plan to carry out a survey of pupils to further enhance the

provision. Please visit our website or Wisepay to view the menu choices that are on offer.

Dear Readers,

On Sunday 21st September 2014, we will be holding the first EVER “Mayor of Rochdale’s Charity Country

Fete” at Rochdale Riding Club’s Showground on Roch Valley Way, Rochdale between 10am and 4 pm.

There will be a whole range of fun competitions for children and adults (and pets!) to enter from cake

bake, cup cake decorating, dog show, pony classes, box gardens, pets corner, stone/pebble

decorating and much, much more. Your pupils may wish to enter the competitions and begin work on

their entries during the summer holidays; entries to be received by 13th September 2014. Full details can

be found on our website at www.rochdalecountryfete.co.uk.

A flyer will be distributed in September amongst your pupils in order to publicise this further.

So please come along and join in the fun at this family focused event and help to raise money for three

amazing local charities at the same time. Thanking you in anticipation of your kind support.

With warmest wishes,

Lauren Sullivan

On behalf of Councillor Carol Wardle, Mayor of Rochdale