Our students from every Year Group have just completed a week of activities for British Science Week around this years’ theme of ‘Growth’ 🌱.

The week-long programme of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths events was designed to inspire our future minds and our students really excelled themselves. From planting seeds and monitoring their progress, to building spaghetti towers, quizzes and designing posters, it’s certainly been a fun packed week.

You can see from these photos that they have really enjoyed the activities and we’re told their favourite task was to grow a plant…with some seeds already starting to sprout!

Yesterday our Year 7 students took part in a ‘World of Work Day’ as part of National Careers Week.

In rotation the students visited seven presenters from different sectors of the world of work. These included; the Dakota Hotel for hospitality and HR and a chef for catering, Greater Manchester Police, Manchester United Foundation, Digital Bees from the Co-operative Bank, B&K Business and Salford College. The presenters told them all about the places where they work, how they got into their chosen career and the opportunities available to our students. 

We would like to offer a huge thank you to all of the presenters for giving up their time to share their knowledge and experience with us. Our Year 7 cohort really enjoyed the sessions.

During our February half-term we will be holding History and English Literature revision sessions open to all students in Year 11.

This is a great opportunity to revise, in-person with our teachers from these faculties.

On Monday 21 February Mr Greenhalgh and Mr Jones will be delivering a History workshop between 9am and 11am

On Tuesday 22 February Mr Hood and Mrs Fagan will be delivering an English Literature workshop between 10am-12noon

Please encourage your child to attend.

Yesterday we held our Year 7 assembly and the judging of their MFL Chinese New Year Dragon Challenge.

What an amazing showcase of their creativity, commitment and resilience and the culmination of weeks of hard work from all Form Groups.

In honour of Chinese New Year our entire Year 7 cohort were tasked with creating their very own Chinese dragon using a minimum of ten cardboard boxes. Their brief stated they must be prepared to explain how they created and decorated their dragon and also use some Chinese symbols.

In front of a strict judging panel, including Head of Academy Mrs Ali and our guest Mr Rob Neal from Swire Chinese Language Centre Manchester, each of our Form Groups stepped up to present their wonderfully elaborate and colourful creations.

Mr Dodd is currently acting as our SENDCo at the academy in the absence of Mr Daly.

He is now inviting identified parents/carers of children into the academy to meet him and some of the SEND support staff to discuss any concerns they may have around their child’s provision in school, their strengths and areas where we can support them further.

During the visits parents/carers will be able to look at their child’s ‘Learning Passport’ and discuss any changes you would like to see implemented. They will be able to see the online packages their child has access to in school, and at home to improve their numeracy and literacy. These packages have been paid for by school and are aimed at consolidating and extending students’ understanding of numeracy and literacy. Ideally students should spend at least 20-30 minutes on this per day. We cannot stress enough the importance of utilising these online programmes.

After February half term we are also introducing some new Intervention Sessions before school, during lunch and after school. The clubs are listed below and more information will be given during the drop-in sessions in February.

Letters have been posted home to those students who Mr Dodd needs to meet with. When you receive your letter, please could you indicate which session you plan to attend, this will help us with staffing the different times. You can arrive at our Main Reception at any time during the allocated times and we envisage your visit to be around 15-30 minutes.

We look forward to meeting you and working with both yourself and child in our SEND department.

New Intervention Sessions from Monday 28 February 2022

Handwriting Club
Monday 8am-8:25am in TE6
Tuesday 8am-8:25am in TE6

Dyslexia Gold / IDL / Private Study
Every morning 8am-8:25am in TE5 and the STRIVE Centre

Homework Club
Every day after school 2:55pm-3:30pm

Lunchtime Club
Every lunch in the STRIVE Centre (option of social and learning time)

Existing Intervention Sessions for Identified Students

Nurture
Two lessons per week during curriculum time

EAL
Five lessons per week for intense English intervention

Reading Club
1:1 sessions aimed at improving literacy and understanding texts

Year 7 Dyslexia Gold
Each student on SEN register attends one afternoon form time session

Earlier this week a small group of our Year 10s were the very first to take part in an exciting new project to provide Co-op Academy Swinton students with some amazing opportunities, learning about catering and hospitality in person, from people already enjoying careers in the industry.

The group, accompanied by Food and Technology Teacher Miss Peters were warmly welcomed by the team at Dakota Hotel Manchester for a day packed with activities and real life experience.

Split into groups and shown around the many areas of this fantastic venue our lucky group packed so much into their visit. Here’s just a snippet from their day…

• Menu Masterclass : The group were treated to a food masterclass on seasonality and food trends, how the team at Dakota select their grill menu and the processes the chefs use to create their menus. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, after learning all about the food, the students were thrilled to sample some of Dakota’s signature dishes during a 3 course lunch!
• Kitchen Tour with Sous Chef : A whistle-stop tour around the amazing kitchen learning about safe preparation and storage of food, roles and responsibilities of the kitchen brigade. Identifying specialist equipment and witnessing the fast paced buzz of a ‘live lunch service’
• Room Tour : Following a fascinating tour of Dakota’s many luxurious rooms the students took part in a Q&A on guest experience and complaints, including a insight of the level of service experienced by all Dakota guests (not to mention some of their regular celebrity guests…Liam Gallagher, Wayne Rooney, Tom Hardy and Simon Cowell!) 
• Beverage Masterclass : Next it was off to the glamorous bar where students were asked to create and garnish their own mocktails! Once the group were familiarised with the bar they competed in a speed round which was judged by Dakota’s top Barista and mixologist Dominique!

It really was a fantastic trip and a real insight into the industry for our Year 10s. Every one of them said it had been amazing. We even received the most lovely of comments from a parent of a child who attended and it couldn’t have summed up the day better:

Hello, my daughter has been to Dakota today with her Food Technology group. I just wanted to say how much she loved it. Not just the food, the experience. Getting out of school and seeing life as it really happens and where food comes from etc. She says everyone had a brilliant time. Just wanted to say thanks for the trip and opportunity, especially after Covid…just what kids need after these past two years

Huge thanks to the team at Dakota Hotel Manchester, our students were really inspired by your enthusiasm and talents!