“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.

This quote from Hamlet serves as a reminder to all of us that our

own individual mind set can alter the way that we perceive

ourselves, other people or situations. In a time when social

media provides many people with a constant stream of

perceived criticism and unrealistic expectations to live up to, it

would serve us all well to remember this quote! In line with this,

our “Know Stigma” day for Year 8 on World Mental Health Day last week was a

perfect example of how we are educating our students around understanding the

importance of being mentally healthy and looking after themselves, both mentally and

physically. Please see page two in this newsletter to see more information about this.

This half term has been a real whirlwind of activity with a multitude of positives

having occurred, not least the enhanced communication with parents via Synergy. It

has been a real pleasure to engage more with more parents who have been outwardly

supportive of the school and, most importantly, their children’s learning.

Also, we have recently learnt that we have been nominated again for two Educate

Awards: Most Inspirational Secondary School, and the WOW Recognition Award. A

huge congratulations to all staff and students at our school, these are well deserved

nominations and testament to all the hard work that we put into getting the most out

of our students. And this has paid off – this half term an impressive 19,398 merits

have been awarded which is indicative of the fantastic attitude that our student body

has shown so far this year!

I hope you all have a restful half term break and enjoy spending quality time with

friends and family making happy memories. We look forward to seeing our students

refreshed and revived on Monday 28th October 2019.

With every best wish,

Mrs S Haydock

Acting Headteacher

Dear Parents

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THE HOLLINS

C O N T A C T U S

The Hollins

Hollins Lane

Accrington

BB5 2QY

Tel: 01254 233500

Fax: 01254 236970

Web:

www.thehollins.com

Email:

enquiries@thehollins.com

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Newsletter

Warning - Please Be Careful!

We have been reminded by the local Police to urge all

students to be extremely careful when travelling to and

from school. Do not place yourselves in any danger ie stay

on well lit paths and in groups.

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Thursday 10th October 2019 was world mental health day. We work very closely with the charity "Y Not Aspire", who arranged for a number of visitors to run workshops for all of our Year 8 students. The workshops were aimed at understanding the importance of mental health, and helping students to look after themselves both physically and mentally. The range of sessions which students benefitted from ranged from sporting information provided by Accrington Stanley, to drug/alcohol awareness. We really hope that all of Year 8 learnt a lot, and understand how to look after themselves and others.

The students gained enormously from the day and now understand that it is okay not to be okay!

Mrs Dougan, Deputy Headteacher

YEAR 8 ‘KNOW STIGMA’ DAY

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ADA LOVELACE DAY 8th October 2019

By Ellie Reynolds, Year 7

Why do we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day?

Long after her death, Ada Lovelace has become an ambassador for women in STEM. Born in 1815, her Father was a famous poet called Byron but her parents divorced before she was a year old and she never met him. She was raised by Nannies and Tutors under the care of her Mother.

Unusually for Women of this time, she was highly educated. She was very clever like her Mother and very imaginative like her Father. When she grew up she became friends with Charles Babbage, who invented the first computer, the Analytical Engine, for accurately processing complex mathematical problems. Ada wrote what is now considered to be the first computer programme, for this machine. But more importantly Ada was the only person of her time who foresaw ways in which the ‘computer’ could be used for more than just maths. Sadly though women of her time were not taken seriously and all of her work was disregarded for more than a century. Imagine how far computers could have evolved if she had been listened to….this is why she became the ambassador for Women in STEM

When I first arrived at the NHSBT (NHS BLOOD & TRANSPLANT) building in Manchester, I had to sign in as a visitor. I arrived at my mum’s office and set up my camera. The room that we used to host the event looks quite small but in reality it was big , it was the Lecture Theatre. We all wore black and each had a purple scarf. At ten o'clock, a few people came in, mostly people from external colleges and some internal staff who wanted to learn more, and in the slot of two hours, we had about twenty people.

I went for my dinner, ham sandwich and chips, in the cafeteria and the food was good. It took about an hour for everyone to finish so we just tidied the room and made it look like it did when we started.

At 1.30pm, more people started coming in. There was one lady from Whalley Range who stayed all afternoon learning more about ladies in STEM and how she could get the girls at her school into STEM. One of the stalls was “Know your type” it was to find out what your blood type was, did you know if your type is O- your blood can be given to anyone, and they helped you book an appointment to donate near you. Sadly, they wouldn’t test my type because I’m under seventeen years old. The slot between 1:30pm and 3:30pm was busiest with people, but it wasn’t packed.

It didn’t take long for us all to tidy the meeting room up and it was soon back to normal. After we tidied up, I packed up my camera and was ready to go home and tell my friends all about what I’d learnt.

All the ladies in the team created a slideshow of how they got in to ICT and their different career pathways were shown.

My favourite part of the day was the light box, this demonstrated how important it is to wash your hands, this was under the Engineering section and was a UV bulb that was within a black box and special cream was used to 'glow’ to demonstrate germs.

The ART of Happiness - over 700 participants from our school

The Hollins came together to produce a large scale public

exhibition about positive mental health and well being.

The aim was to use art and creativity as a vehicle to

facilitate dialogue and discussion about positive mental

health, well being and happiness.

Please click on the link below for an exclusive experience.

https://youtu.be/-7c61yP8rME

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Attendance / Appointments Please be aware you must provide appointment cards from your son/daughter’s GP, Dentist, Hospital or Physiotherapist. Hand written notes / letters from parents will not be accepted as an acceptable method of an official appointment. We do accept that emergency appointments are necessary so please provide the above when your son/daughter returns to school.

Some facts

98% attendance = fewer than 4 days absent from school

95% attendance = fewer than 10 days absent from school

90% attendance = 4 weeks absent from school

85% attendance = 5 ½ weeks absent from school

80% attendance = 7 ½ weeks absent from school

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The Great Elderly Tea Party 2019

This year’s annual tea party for our local community was a huge success with around 150 attendees, guest appearances from Taylor Paisley-French, Mr Ahmed’s primary teacher and the 100th birthday celebration of Mabel!

A huge thank you to the Dunkenhalgh Hotel and Spa for their hospitality, The Hollins choir for their fantastic singing, Al-Hamza for a great fruit extravaganza, The Great Bake On for providing delicious muffins and a very big ‘Well Done’ to our Let’s Be team of volunteers for creating a day of community and inspiration.

When community, family & love came to visit!

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The Hollins have

been shortlisted:

Most Inspirational Secondary School

WOW! Recognition Award

A big thank you to all the judges and the

team at Educate Awards

Take a look at some of our work and

projects

www.letsbefoundation.org

www.cohesionthroughcreativity.co.uk

www.beyondlabels.co.uk

The Hollins 'Inspire and Motivate' The Hollins 2019 - 2020 'Inspire and Motivate' programme

kicked off with a visit to Manchester City Football Club for

the Champions League group qualifier against Dinemo

Zagreb. We also had our group meal prior to the big game.

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On Tuesday 15th October 2019 the Year 9 students studying DT Textiles went for an exciting day out in Blackburn, learning all about textiles; techniques, the industry and job opportunities.

The students learnt about screen printing and looked at a range of t-shirts that have been screen printed with thought provoking slogans by some very famous designers

including Vivienne Westwood and produced an actual sample to take away. They also met artists and designers in the textile industry, namely Gary Aspden the famous Adidas trainer designer and collector of vintage Adidas trainers. He was very inspirational and told us all about how he came from a very ordinary working class background in Darwen to become a

world famous trainer designer who has travelled the world and worked with some very famous people along the way.

All had a fantastic day and were a credit to the school. We are now looking forward to putting these new skills into practice in the classroom very soon.

Mrs Barnett, Teacher of Textiles

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October

Monday 28th — School re-opens

Wednesday 30th — Ski Trip Parents’ Evening, 6pm

November

Thursday 7th — Y10 & Y11 Careers Fair & Mock Interview Day

Monday 11th — Anti-Bullying & Alcohol Awareness Week & Y11 London Trip

Monday 18th — Global Enterprise Day & Road Safety Week

Tuesday 19th — Y8 Multi Faith Trip

Thursday 21st — GCSE Awards Evening, 6.30pm

Wednesday 27th — Y11 Parents’ Evening, 4pm

Friday 29th — School closed

December

Sunday 1st — World Aids Day

Monday 2nd — School Closed

Tuesday 3rd — Y7 & Y8 Form Tutor evening, 4pm & Y10 Citizenship Day

Wednesday 4th — Y9 & Y10 Form Tutor Evening, 4pm

Thursday 5th — Y7 & Y8 London Visit

Friday 6th — Y7 & Y8 London Visit

Tuesday 10th — Y9 Solution not Sides, Grease Morning matinee & Grease Performance, 7pm

Wednesday 11th — Grease Performance, 7pm

Tuesday 17th — Y11 PSHE, Citizenship Day & Christmas Concert (provisional)

Wednesday 18th — Christmas Lunch

Friday 20th — School closes, 1pm (non-uniform)

January

Monday 6th — School Re-opens

Thursday 9th — Y7 Learn To Learn

Monday 20th — Y8 Options Assemblies all week

Saturday 25th — Ski Trip

Sunday 26th — Holocaust Memorial Day

Tuesday 28th — Y9 Immunisations

Friday 31st — Ski Trip return

February

Thursday 6th — KS3 & KS4 ‘Kooth’ Assemblies

Friday 14th — School closes

Saturday 15th—The Hollins Fun Run

Monday 24th — School re-opens & Tower Wood Trip

Wednesday 26th — Tower Wood Trip returns

Thursday 27th — Y8 Parents’ Options Evening, 4pm

Friday 28th — Y10 “Know Fear” Day

March Sunday 1st — National Careers Week

Thursday 5th — World Book Day

Friday 6th — Science Week begins

Sunday 8th — International Women’s Day

Tuesday 10th — Y9 & Y10 Iceland Trip

Wednesday 11th — Y11 Form Tutor Parents’ Evening, 4pm

Friday 13th — Sport Relief (tbc) & Rotary Tournament All Day

Saturday 14th — Y9 & Y10 Iceland Trip Return

Wednesday 25th — Visual & Performing Arts Evening