Well, we have had another busy week at Medtia Square which has ended on a high with our Children in Need non-uniform day today. You won’t be surprised to hear that there were also plenty of delicious cakes on sale and I’m delighted to say that Lesley has counted up a brilliant total of £94.89! Thank you all for your support.

On Wednesday we held an open evening for students interested in accessing Future Finders next year. If you didn’t manage to make the open evening but would like more information about the course, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Our Activ8 lads have been over to Eccles to compete in a football competition and our Lumenus students are continuing their rehearsals for the Christmas showcase over at Oldham Theatre Workshop! All in all a great week, but don’t take my word for it – here’s Mrs Preston with an update from Lumenus..

This is a busy period for Lumenus as we are preparing for the Christmas concert, as well as fulfilling our usual curriculum work.

We took part in a song writing workshop last week with James Atherton, the Artistic Director of Oldham Theatre Workshop..

We created an upbeat piece entitled, ‘Just a little EXTRA – ordinary.’ The students were fabulous coming up with lyrics and a tune, here’s a sample of their work:

Just believe and you will see
That a Hero’s just like you and me
They don’t wear a mask with a matching T
Just a little EXTRA – ordinary

This will feature in our ‘Everyday Heroes’ piece that we will be performing to the New Bridge Group primary schools in the New Year, although those who come to the Christmas concert will have a preview of the piece. This week the students have been practising the song, ready for recording and choreographing a lyrical dance..

 On Wednesday we went to Oldham Theatre Workshop as usual and met up with Lumenus Key Stage 4. In the morning we worked with Chrysalis delivering drama games and working on our theme of Super Heroes. Next week the Digit4ll team will come and film our collaborative work for presentation in the Christmas Concert.

In the afternoon we worked on a big number for our main school show after Easter. Again this can be seen at the Christmas concert as a taster for next year..

So, all systems go until Christmas!

Mr Handrick brings us this week’s ‘Day in the Life’ feature..

Danielle joined the Key Stage 5 Digit4ll pathway this year and is already proving to be a brilliant role model to the other students. She continues to learn new skills and is always eager to help with the many jobs that our New Bridge Enterprise undertake.

On Wednesday 14th November, we followed Danielle in her daily activities to give you a little insight into what is involved during a day in the life of a student on the pathway..

A day in the life of Danielle
Digit4ll Key Stage 5 pathway at Medtia Square

I arrive at Medtia ready for the day ahead, already looking keen to find out what I will be doing today..

One of my main tasks as part of the New Bridge enterprise is to manage the finances. As you can see, I am going to deposit some of the cash into our business account and ask for a statement. When I get back in class I’ll need to check to make sure that all the money in the account is correct..

Back from the bank and there has been a delivery. Lots of our new cotton bags have arrived that will need to be printed with our Sea Clear logo ready for sale. Before all that, the bags need to be unpacked and all placed flat to help remove the creases..

In the afternoon, I jump in to help the lads in the printing room to ease the load of ironing all the bags. I am always good to help when needed and it’s a hard task to get all the bags ironed ready for printing..

We hope you enjoyed reading what Danielle did this week. As you can see, it is full on from walking through the door but, like all the students on the pathway, Danielle rises to the challenge.

Our Digit4ll students have also been busy with their work experience at the Atrium Café as our job coach Nicola explains..

Over the past couple of weeks, Josh, Eliot and Matthew have been continuing to develop their employability skills by accessing work experience at the Atrium Café..

 Some new work tasks they have been working on are..

Replenishing and rotating stock
For the first part of the task, the students look at the stock in the fridge and on the shelves and decide what needs to filled up. Josh enjoys checking the drinks in the fridge and asking Eliot and Matthew to collect the drinks that need replenishing..

Next they check the dates on the drinks to make sure they are in date then they start to rotate the stock. They take off the old stock and place the new stock in the fridge first, filling up from the back to the front of the shelves..

Sorting and removing waste
The next job the lads have learnt to do is safely removing the rubbish. First they flatten and fold the cardboard, next they load the cage by putting the heaviest/bulkiest waste on first then they load the cardboard. That’s the easy part done! The second and trickiest part of the job is to push and navigate the cage into the lift then outside to the bins – the cage is quite heavy and not easy to move. When they are at the bins, the students have to place the rubbish into the correct bins..

Learning the fire evacuation procedures
The students have learnt the fire evacuation procedures, making their way to the fire assembly points via the different fire exits in the Atrium. They understand that they are not allowed to use the lifts when the fire alarm goes off and have to leave the building using the nearest safest fire exit and, no matter what route they take, they must get to and wait at the fire assembly point which is located next to the BT building..

Well done Matthew, Eliot and Josh, keep up the good work!

This afternoon I met with all of our pathways students to discuss the future and their career aspirations. We have animators, actors, football managers and set designers amongst us! This discussion led to a presentation on our Bridging the Gap programme at The Royal Oldham Hospital and Manchester Metropolitan University. This is a one year work internship course open to Year 13 and Year 14 students. We will have a presentation for parents in the new year but it was great to see today how many students are interested in this pathway and how many have aspirations to work in the future.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

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