This week has been an extremely busy week at Medtia as we prepare for our due diligence visit next week by the Department for Education. I have worked closely with Mr Quinn, Mrs Righini and our business teams this week to prepare the relevant documentation for our visit. Whilst it has taken many hours to complete, we are extremely excited to have the opportunity to promote what we do here so well on Wednesday with our visitor from the DfE. Wish us luck! We will find out the outcome of the visit over the Easter holidays so hopefully in my first blog back after the Easter break I will have good news!

I have also spent quite bit of time this week supporting the Creative Arts team with the school show, The Jungle Book! Many of you may remember that I started at New Bridge 11 years ago as a drama teacher, so it is always very tempting to get involved in the school productions. I have loved seeing the show this week and seeing how amazingly hard the staff and students have worked to put on such an incredible production. Well done to you all! It was also lovely to work alongside one of our pre-internship students, Steven, who is currently on placement as a teaching assistant in the Creative Arts department. It was clear to see what valuable support he has offered this week and he was independently running the sound desk for all the shows!

Well done Steven… for all of your hard work this week I am thrilled to award you with this week’s ‘Worker of the Week’ certificate..

And now time for our ‘A day in the life of…’ feature, which this week comes from Tony who is working over at  David Lloyd Gym in Middleton. Over to you, Tony…

A day in the life of Tony
Gym Assistant – David Lloyd Manchester North

This week I have been working in the gym at David Lloyd, North Manchester. I make sure that I am on time and when I enter the building I greet all staff and members and hold the doors open for members as I must deliver a high level of service..

This is where I work!

My duties include making sure that all the equipment and weights are always put away when not in use..

I have also had to increase my knowledge of the equipment as I would love to work as a fitness instructor..

This is Alex who I work with, he is one of the Personal Trainers/Fitness Coach and the whole team help me a lot..

I also make sure that I re-set the machines and keep the screens clean for the next members..

I work in the café here on other weeks, so I make sure that when I leave I say goodbye to all my work colleagues. This is Hannah who I work in the café with….where I will be working again next week!

We recently had a visit from The Oldham Coliseum who worked with our Pre-Internship and Future Finders students on presentation and interview skills, as our job coach Genna explains..

Carly from The Coliseum Theatre came to visit the Pre-Interns and Future Finders. It was a fun interactive session that all the students enjoyed! 

They had to demonstrate how to correctly stand when in the workplace to look and feel more professional..

All the students took part in various activities on how to present themselves whilst on a job interview or meeting new people, including mastering the art of a good handshake whilst making eye contact and building confidence..

Carly explained how confidence does not necessarily come from knowing everything about what you are saying but you can exude confidence through taking a step forward when speaking or presenting and projecting your voice so that you can be heard clearly. The students were then asked to step out in front of the class and talk for 30 seconds about a given subject e.g. chicken nuggets! (chosen by the students) and thinking on the spot of all the things they could say..

The students found the session extremely beneficial and they will be using the skills learnt moving forward in the workplace and in interviews. Carly will return to New Bridge next term for another session and all the students are looking forward to having her back.

Over at the Atrium in First Choice Homes, a visual reality session was being given to all staff during lunch. Tom, Helal and Chris were able to participate and thoroughly enjoyed their 3D experience of being on a rollercoaster, although some of them were a bit wobbly on their feet afterwards!!

Mr Greenway now has an update on our Activ8 pathway..

Activ8 have had another gruelling half term including fitness work, OCR accreditation work focusing on basketball and trampolining…..and plenty of laughs along the way.

For the fitness aspect we have made great use of the hills in Alexandra Park. Starting with a warm up consisting of one loop of the park run circuit (1.5km) followed by a series of 10 hill sprints in pairs, it’s fair to say the lads put plenty in..

We then looked at some team building exercises by asking the lads to piggy back each other up (a slightly less steep) hill. All of this coming after they’d spent the morning in the gym with the KS5 boys using the OCL public gym and the KS4 boys making good use of the gym at Mahdlo. The lads have put equal amounts of effort into their qualification work. The intensity of the basketball sessions is amazing with the skill level matching it – 3 pointers and ‘alley oops’ all the way. The Thursday session has started to look at using the trampoline and the lads are showing no fear and are really coming along in their basic shapes..

On Wednesday we visited Manchester City’s training complex to take part in the One City league once more, a fantastic event that the teams really enjoy taking part in. We thank Paul Kelly at MCFC for inviting us along. We are well represented at the event with 3 teams taking part and it is great to welcome along some of the Year 9s who will be joining Activ8 next year to give them a flavour of what to expect..

Just this afternoon the KS5 boys have taken part on a ‘spinathon’ hosted by OCL instead of our regular Friday gym session. The event, which was put on for Sport Relief, was a 12 hour marathon where the wheels of the bike cannot stop. Again, we thank Kelly Tattersall at OCL for including us in the event..

Don’t forget that our Medtia Square coffee morning is on Monday at 10am, we hope you will be able to come and join us! (the young people at the Learning Centre and New Bridge School site will be hosting their coffee morning on Tuesday.)

On Wednesday we finish the term with our ‘City of Tomorrow’ day for Activ8 and Digit4ll (more information on the event can be found here.) Please remember to send in those recyclable items so that the young people have plenty of materials to build their models with – I’m looking forward to sharing the finished results with you next week!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Daniel
Director of Employment & Co Head of Site at Medtia Square

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham