Well, it’s been another busy week here at Medtia Square which ended in a brilliant day out with Mr Bright to discover where we can go next with our Employability strategy! More about that later!

As you may be aware, New Bridge School are due to be visited by Ofsted – quite likely before half term but certainly this term. With this in mind, we have been talking with staff around exactly what we want to showcase when the Ofsted inspectors visit. There are three areas of our work that we will focus on: our outstanding curriculum, our outstanding destinations and our outstanding dashboard assessment model.

As many of you know, I have worked at New Bridge for 12 years now and I am so proud to be a part of such a forward thinking, innovative organisation. We are always one step ahead and move at a lightning pace to ensure that our students have the best possible opportunities to achieve their goals. Our curriculum is destination led, to ensure that all of our students are adequately prepared for their next step in life. Some may panic at the thought of an Ofsted inspection but I say, bring it on! Let’s showcase what we do so well every single day!

Talking of innovation, on Friday Mr Bright, our ICT Advisor, took me to Chester to show me some state-of-the-art equipment that will further enhance our careers and employability strategy. We visited a company called Tenstar Simulation.

Tenstar Simulation offers a wide range of professional machine education simulators divided into three industrial segments – Construction, Transportation and Agriculture. Each machine type has a set of carefully developed excercises, optimised to train the students in areas of maintenance, driving skills, manouvering skills, safety and special handling. Select your simulator segment of interest. You can get an idea of our fun day out from the pictures below..

It was such an incredible experience to drive the machinery in a virtual learning environment. We also tested out the latest Virtual Reality headsets to get a true 360 experience of operating machinery within an industrial setting. We heard many examples of the impact of this equipment and software, from training apprentice machinery operatives in colleges to training prisoners so that they have opportunities to move back into the world of work at the end of their sentence! It’s just amazing and Mr Bright is hoping to secure funds from The Ian Karten Charitable Trust to implement this exciting VR technology. We currently have one student on placement within the building industry and he is our youngest ever student to move into a paid job. This is such a huge industry area with many possibilities and the simulator would offer so many opportunities to test out and prepare for a job within this area. How exciting!!!

Now for more news; this week we had a lovely Facebook review from one of our placement providers, ‘Clean Plate Kitchen’. Here it is..

We have two students doing work experience with us at the moment. They are both fantastic and lovely to work alongside. Watching a young person grow in confidence and settle into their role within your business is so rewarding. The staff at New Bridge are really well organised, approachable and always on hand to offer support. If you have a business and are considering providing a placement opportunity for a young person please do. 

It’s so lovely to get feedback from our employers and once again, if you know any businesses who may wish to work with us, please do get in touch with our work placement coordinator Maria Statham based here at Medtia Square.

To finish today’s blog, here is an update on some of our work experience students from job coach Hayley..

One of our internal work experience placements is on Hortus pathway which is based at the Learning Centre within the New Bridge Group. This particular session of work experience takes place on a weekly basis and on arrival at the Learning Centre, the four students who attend get prepared for the work ahead by swapping their shoes for gardening boots with steel toe caps for safety, work overalls and gloves which are called Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Once this is done we sit with Mr Blackman who will then explain what the day’s session will entail. He will also recap the previous week’s session and ask quiz questions of what work we completed for the lads to recap on their growing knowledge. Mr Blackman then takes the students outside to gather all equipment which is needed and we can then begin the session.

During the 6 weeks of last term we completed numerous jobs around the Learning Centre site, including planting potatoes to sell and daffodils to make the grounds look pretty. The students have also cut out and tidied up the planting beds as well and cleared the paths of overgrown trees and leaves to make them safe for staff and students to walk on. Mr Blackman has also shown the students the easiest way to dig up the compost heap and move it around the yard to the flower beds it is needed at, using a wheelbarrow in a safe way.

As you can see, Jason, Adeel, Umer and Subhan have been hard at work..

The students will continue this placement for this term and tell me that they are enjoying the work. Mr Blackman who teaches them has bags of knowledge and is very helpful and a fantastic support to the lads. Thank you Mr Blackman!!!

Have a fantastic weekend,

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham