This week we have very much been planning for the future with a number of things imminent… choosing pathways for next year and Ofsted! At the beginning of the week we had a Parents’ Evening, with a record number of parents attending. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to speak to many of you about your child’s progress. If you couldn’t make it and would like to talk with us, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

On Wednesday I visited the Learning Centre to talk about Bridging the Gap with students. We will be arranging visits to both the Royal Oldham Hospital and Manchester Metropolitan University in the coming weeks and will of course keep you updated via a letter home, should this be of interest to your child.

On Thursday I spent the day at an Ofsted briefing in Manchester to be briefed on current requirements by Ofsted. It was an extremely informative day but what was so reassuring is that we are ready to go, we have a fantastic innovative college and I am looking forward to sharing our successes when we get ‘the phone call’!

This morning, I have met with all of our curriculum leaders to discuss progress across our site. Again, I was blown away by what our students have achieved in the Summer term. Record numbers of students moving into employment, residential visits, record number of exam entries and results! A huge thank you to all of the staff here at Medtia who continually provide outstanding opportunities and support for our students.

Now to our usual weekly updates, starting with Amanda, our job coach based at the hospital…

Bridging the Gap at the Royal Oldham Hospital

Ellis and Dominic have had a busy week on placements.

Dominic has been working hard in the shop and works full hours in the mornings and afternoons. He has learnt to do all the different jobs and has recently started spending some time working on the till with the other staff. He has good customer service skills and members of the public have commented on how helpful and polite he is. Dominic is enjoying his placement, he likes to be kept busy and gets on well with all the staff and customers..

Ellis has a fast paced placement as a pharmacy porter. He delivers pharmacy bags with medication in to wards and clinics around the hospital. He also works full hours and does a morning and an afternoon in the post room, sorting the mail and working on the post round. Ellis is enjoying his placement as a pharmacy porter, he likes meeting new people and keeping busy..

John, a pharmacy porter who is currently supporting Ellis, was nominated for a special award for working with our students. On Friday evening, I was invited to attend the NHS Patient Choice awards with John. We had a fantastic time! John was in a category with three other people and the public voted him as the winner..

In our classroom sessions, Dominic and Ellis have been busy doing work towards their Employability qualification. On a Wednesday afternoon they go to Medtia to do Maths and English and on a Friday morning to join our other Bridging the Gap students from MMU to do their qualification work..

Activ8 have also been busy on placements, as our job coach Tish explains..

The Activ8 students Daniel, Jamie and Connor have started their work experience placement on Thursday afternoons at The Learning Centre, taking part in the Hortus pathway. The students have to learn how to safely use a range of horticultural machinery and equipment including ride-on mowers, fly mowers/lawn mowers, strimmers and brush cutters, grass rakes, tractors and secateurs.

The students have learned about Health and Safety when gardening and the uniform requirements. They were provided with some gloves, an overall and steel toecap boots and Mr Blackman explained some Health and Safety rules they needed to follow..

Their first task was to collect the grass rakes from the shed; Mr Blackman showed them the best way to hold the rakes as they can be sharp. They were placed in the back of the tractor and driven around the Learning Centre so the lads could do some grounds maintenance. Each of the students learned to drive the tractor under Mr Blackman’s guidance! Here is Daniel driving the tractor for the first time… a little nervous but he did very well..

Connor drove the tractor to the front of the Learning Centre so all the students could begin the task of raking up the leaves..

Mr Blackman demonstrated how to rake up the leaves, explaining how it’s important to have good posture in order to look after your back..

All the leaves needed to be gathered up..

..before Jamie drove the tractor to the compost area to deposit the leaves, which is a terrific way to recycle and create a nutrient rich garden soil..

This week Mr Blackman has taught the students how to use secateurs safely, enabling them to cut their own blackcurrant buds and sticks to plant..

The students also mixed some compost with perlite and dipped the branches into rooting powder..

The students are enjoying Hortus and they look forward to learning more about gardening and seeing their plant buds grow!!

Have a fantastic weekend,

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

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