Heywood Academy Blog - 10.10.25
🌼 Wearing Yellow for Mental Health Week: Know Yourself, Grow Yourself 🌼
At Heywood Academy, we believe in nurturing not just academic excellence but also emotional wellbeing. This Mental Health Week, our school community came together in a vibrant show of support by wearing yellow—a colour that symbolizes hope, happiness, and positivity.
The halls were filled with sunshine as students and staff proudly wore yellow to raise awareness and spark conversations around mental health. From bright t-shirts to subtle accessories, the message was clear: mental health matters.
🧠 Assembly Theme: Know Yourself, Grow Yourself
Our whole school assembly focused on the empowering theme: Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. Through thoughtful presentations, student reflections, and interactive moments, we explored how understanding our emotions, strengths, and challenges is the first step toward personal growth.
💬 Continuing the Conversation
Mental Health Week is just the beginning. At Heywood Academy, we’re committed to creating a culture where mental wellbeing is openly discussed, supported, and celebrated. Wearing yellow was a simple yet powerful act of unity, and a reminder that we all play a role in building a compassionate, understanding school environment
Miss Nicholson’s weekly update
It’s been a busy and inspiring week across the Creative Arts! In Art, Year 8 students have been creating expressive monoprints inspired by Jim Dine’s tool artwork, developing their mark-making skills.
Over in Food Technology, Year 9s have been consolidating their understanding of Food Safety and Hygiene through a fascinating mould growth experiment on bread.
Design Technology students in Year 7 have been investigating sustainable food packaging, brainstorming innovative ideas for their own eco-friendly product designs.
In Music, Year 8 have absolutely loved learning sign language and singing, taught by a member of the inspiring Sign Along with Us choir.
Meanwhile, in IT, our Year 7s have impressed everyone with their thoughtful discussions about Cyber Bullying and the importance of staying safe online.
Ms. Zobenica’s blog
🌿 Outdoor Education: Building Confidence and Community Connections
This week in Outdoor Education, our students have been actively developing their communication and life skills through engaging experiences in the local community.
Year 8 & 9: Café Confidence at Hopwood Park
Our Year 8 and 9 students visited Hopwood Park, where they had the opportunity to make purchases at the café. This wasn’t just a treat, it was a practical learning experience. The children used their mathematical skills to calculate costs and change, and demonstrated excellent manners when interacting with café staff. It was heartening to see them push through any nerves and show real confidence in a public setting. These moments help build independence and social awareness in a meaningful way.
Year 7: Exploring Leisure at Queen’s Park
Meanwhile, Year 7 explored Queen’s Park, discovering the variety of free leisure activities available to the community. As we walked through the park, we passed a bowling green, basketball courts, and tennis courts—all in use by skilled members of the public. The children were fascinated by the energy and talent on display. To finish off the visit, they enjoyed feeding the birds, connecting with nature in a peaceful and reflective moment.
These experiences are more than just outings—they’re opportunities for our students to grow in confidence, develop practical skills, and feel part of the wider community. We’re proud of how they represented themselves and our school.
Mr Lord’s weekly update
🔬📐 Learning in Action: Science & Maths Highlights This Week
Our classrooms have been buzzing with curiosity and creativity this week as students across Years 7 to 9 explored exciting new topics in Science and Maths. Here's a glimpse into what they've been learning:
🔬 Science Spotlight
Year 7: Exploring Cells
Year 7 have kicked off a brand-new topic on cells, diving into the fascinating world of biology. They've begun comparing the common and unique features of different types of cells, laying the foundation for understanding how living organisms function at a microscopic level.
Year 8: Atomic Structure
Year 8 have been investigating the structure of atoms, learning how atomic mass and atomic number determine an element’s position in the periodic table. This topic is helping students make connections between atomic theory and the building blocks of matter.
Year 9: Energy and Temperature
Year 9 students have been exploring how temperature changes affect energy stores in objects. Using real-life examples, like how a candle’s energy store decreases as it burns and transforms into heat and light, they’re gaining a deeper understanding of energy transfer and conservation.
📐 Maths Moments
Year 8: Ratios and Mocktails Year 8 have continued their work on ratios, learning how to calculate the whole when given only a part. To make things even more fun, they’ve started designing their own mocktail recipes, working out the perfect ratios for each ingredient. Stay tuned, there’s more to come on this creative project!
Year 9: Percentages and Interest
Year 9 have been tackling percentage increases and decreases, applying their skills to real-world scenarios. They’ve been calculating interest on loans, helping them understand how borrowing money works and what it means to pay back interest, a valuable life skill for the future.
🌟 Ms Pugh’s weekly update
It’s been another fun and engaging week for Year 8, filled with creativity, learning, and plenty of laughter! Here’s what we’ve been up to:
📚 English
This week, we’ve been diving deep into the thoughts and emotions of the narrator in Porphyria’s Lover. Students explored the poem through drawing, quote analysis, and discussion. We've also started developing the structure of our very own Gothic stories, watch this space for some spine-tingling tales!
➗ Maths
We’ve launched our new topic: Ratios! Students researched mocktail recipes and calculated ratio-based ingredients. Next week, we’ll be bringing the math to life by mixing our own mocktails based on the ratios we worked out!
🧬 Science
Year 8 have been exploring the Periodic Table, learning all about electrons, neutrons, and protons. Even Miss Pugh joined in on the learning as we discovered how elements are structured!
🛝 Outdoor Education
We took a trip to Hopwood Park where students visited the Treehouse Cafe and ordered their own food and drinks, practising independence and communication skills. Afterward, we enjoyed the park equipment and shared lots of laughs together!
🖍️ Art
This week we continued to develop our monogramming skills. Students chose various objects and used coloured crayons to create beautiful and unique monogram art pieces.
🐛 Forest School
We got creative (and a little muddy!) by making our very own grass caterpillars using tights, compost, and grass seed. We've placed them in sunny, damp spots to help them grow—and once they sprout, we’ll decorate them to bring our caterpillars to life!
🏞️ Geography
Using atlases, Year 8 researched famous rivers found across England, Wales, and Scotland. We enjoyed exploring how these rivers shape the land and their importance to human and wildlife habitats.
🎶 Music
With Mrs. Astley, we continued learning sign language through music. This week, we started learning the song ‘Rule the World’ by Take That—and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute!
🏀 PE – Netball
Our focus in PE this week was on passing skills. Through teamwork and drills, students built confidence in their technique and communication on the court.
Year 8 have shown fantastic engagement and enthusiasm across all subjects, well done, everyone! We’re excited to see what next week brings.
Ms Crossley’s weekly update
Poetry Magic with Dommy B
This week our school had the absolute joy of working with performance poet Dommy B.
From the start, Dommy’s energy and humour had everyone hooked. He encouraged students to play with words, take risks, and discover the power of their own voices. And they did just that. Some of the poems were funny, some moving, and some downright brilliant. Every single one showed creativity and courage.
It was wonderful to see students who don’t always see themselves as “writers” light up when they realised that poetry isn’t about getting it “right” – it’s about expression, rhythm, and connection. Dommy B is a fantastic poet and performer (you can check out his books here) and he left our Year 9s inspired, proud, and buzzing with ideas.
Year 8 have been developing their Gothic writing, using Porphyria’s Lover as a starting point. They’ve produced some really atmospheric pieces that capture the tension and drama of the Gothic style.
Year 9 are continuing their study of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. They’ve been looking closely at how Hill creates fear and suspense, and then trying out those techniques in their own writing.
It’s been great to see all year groups engaging so well with their work and producing writing to be proud of.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards
Mrs McManus
