Redwood wins national award

Mr Pidgeon, Headteacher of Redwood Secondary School; Hannah Cockroft, Double Paralympic Gold Medallist; Mr Barker and Mr Butterworth from Redwood Sports Development Team

Redwood Secondary School has received the national award for the most Excellent Special School PE and Sports Department.

Mr Pidgeon, Headteacher of Redwood Secondary School attended the Youth Sports Trust annual conference in Telford with two members of the Sports Development Team, Mr Barker and Mr Butterworth. Many Olympic and Paralympic Athletes were also at the event.

Redwood had been shortlisted by the Youth Sports Trust in the category of 'Excellent Special School PE and Sports Department', an honour in itself considering how many special schools there are nationally.

They were delighted to be were judged the best and received the national award.

It is a true reflection of the passion, support and creativity staff put into the delivery of PE, sports and leisure opportunities for pupils of all abilities! What an achievement for Redwood, and in particular, the Sports Team! Well done to all concerned!

Winter Games Day – Friday 15 February Redwood will transform into an arena of winter sports activities, as a variety of original games and fun activities are put into place by the staff. A review of the day will be put on the website for everybody to see.

6th Form Opportunities Event - 6th form students had the opportunity to learn some basic instructions in the many vocational areas, such as construction and catering, led by members of the local business communities. Well done to all those who organised such an interesting day.

Bridging Year Students - Congratulations to our Bridging Year students who created their own power point presentation to show to members of the senior team in school and senior officers from the SEN department within the authority. A very informative session delivered with confidence! Well done to those students and Dawn.

Key Stage 3 Pupils P2P event ! A team of our Key Stage 3 pupils took part in the `Playground to Podium` activities day which included running and indoor javelin, they performed extremely well! Well done to those who took part and represented the school so well. All received a medal. The aim of the day was to choose pupils from Redwood to take part in the Greater Manchester Summer Games.

After School Clubs & Youth Clubs A reminder that our varied club programmes are in operation for after school and evening youth clubs. For a full list of the clubs and to see the recently produced clubs brochure, please visit www.redwood-school.com.

Key Stage 3 News - Year 8/9 made butterfly buns for ‘Grandma’ part of Revolting Rhymes— Red Riding Hood lesson. Pupils in the Lilac room are looking at Native Americans as part of Peter Pan English lessons they made headdresses and tepees. Year 8/9 Blue and Purple have been learning about Symmetry and Tesselation in Maths, as well as working very hard! Year 7 Red have been trying wheelchair aerobics in their PE lessons!

6th form news - The Sensory Sports group have been combining with the Wheelchair dancing group this term. They have had a lot of fun with big balls, trumpets and danced themselves dizzy to a variety of fast and slow songs. Everyone has had lots of fun! The Swimming group have been making a huge splash in their sessions. The group has been practising various swimming strokes including the breast stroke and front crawl as well as being allowed to have some free time where they can just chill and enjoy being in the water.

In Football skills the group have been practising their basic football skills such as passing, ball control and shooting. The students have been splitting in to two teams and playing mini games and penalty shootouts. Due to the recent bad weather the group have been staying indoors and as a treat played FIFA football on the new Xbox. The students thoroughly enjoy the sessions and work really well together.

We have been continuing with our Zumba classes, but have also added a bit of Combat dance, which has gone down well with the boys.

One thing that some students find quite difficult is the relaxation session at the end of the lesson. However, we have been learning how to keep quiet whilst concentrating on our breathing.

Some students took part in our annual Employment Day. We had representatives from various establishments come in and give an insight into their company and tell us about the jobs people do. Students took part in small workshops and discussions.

In the Transport for Greater Manchester workshop students learnt about the jobs people do around the bus station and see the plans for the new bus station in Rochdale. Students in the Carillion workshop learnt about the building trade.

Students also learnt how the British Red Cross help others, how they sort out clothes in the shop and how some of the clothes are given away and used to raise funds.

Radpac gave students information about the role of volunteers and played circle games to help build relationships.

A big thank you to Transport for Greater Manchester, Carillion, The British Red Cross and RADPAC for taking time out and supporting this event.