It’s been another busy and eventful week at the Learning Centre! Here’s what’s been going on..

On Monday 13th May our Learning Centre Parents Group were due to have a meeting with Kevin Howarth, the social care lead for the Adult Learning Difficulty and Autism team. Unfortunately Kevin was unable to come but he has asked us pass on his apologies to all concerned and we have rescheduled his talk to the group for Monday 10th June commencing at 2pm. Kevin will be talking about the transition process to adult services and will be able to answer any queries you may have around personal budgets. A big “thank you” to Michelle Lane, our Year 14 Pastoral Lead, who stepped in on Monday to talk to the group at short notice.

At the last meeting parents requested a visit from Trusha Velti of Touch Solicitors, Oldham to come in again and talk to the group. Trusha is a very experienced solicitor who has previously come into the Learning Centre to provide valuable advice regarding wills, trust funds, power of attorney and other pertinent information for our families. We have arranged for Trusha to come to talk to the Parent Group on Monday 1st July at 2pm.

Please put both of these dates in your diaries as I am sure they will be well worth attending.

The theme of this term’s Super Learning Day on Thursday was kindness in different religions.

EBase 1 looked at “kindness” and what this means. The staff and students thought it would be a nice idea to show their kindness by donating some clothes to a local charity shop. The staff at The British Heart Foundation were lovely and were really grateful, thanking each student individually for their donation. Well done EBase 1 for your act of kindness in helping others..

Here’s an extra note from Mrs Thornhill..

The staff in EBase 1 would like to thank Ryan Jones for all his help. Ryan often asks to support the students in EBase 1 and does a fantastic job. Ryan always uses his initiative, and carries out tasks to a good standard. Ryan has built and maintained good relationships with both staff and students in EBase 1 and is a pleasure to have within the group. Thank you Ryan!

I received a lovely invite to the ‘Kindness Café’ in Mrs Peacock’s room – needless to say, I just had to say yes to the cakes and tea on offer, it would have been rude not to!! Here’s a report from Mrs Peacock herself..

We had a very busy day on Thursday when we opened up our Kindness Café. We sent out invites to every class and the staff, including those important people who keep things ticking over like Jill and Val. Our first visitor was Kelly Lockwood. She made the most of taking a time out, and obviously enjoyed the biscuits!

We had a production line on the go which included Shihab, Sarah and Conor decorating the gingerbread men..

The morning was exhausting but thankfully the afternoon flow of students and staff slowed down. Some students chose to stay with us until it was time to go home.

There was a challenge to say what students and staff thought kindnesses meant. We had some really thoughtful responses to the question ‘What is kindness?’

• A willingness to help others
• Being a beautiful person
• Caring
• Sharing
• Being invited to spend time with our lovely students
• And finally – cake! You know who you are but we’re sure you meant giving and sharing cake

A brilliant time was had by all!  I’m not sure what kind of face Mr Hagan is pulling! 

Mrs Keane’s Year 12 group wrote words or phrases that they felt were kind such as ‘You are amazing!’ or ‘You are terrific!’ on post it notes. The class then went and posted them in the other students’ lockers as a nice surprise. They also stuck them on the front of some of the staff lockers.

We then wrote the same phrases on brightly coloured card and tied them to the willow tree outside. The students thought that the wind might blow them away and they might be found by people who need cheering up..

The post it I received should, however, be sent to all our students – it read “You are kind and wonderful.”

Miss Kindon took a group of students out and about in the local area. They decided to demonstrate an act of kindness to the wider community by collecting any rubbish they found in the streets and Alexandra Park.

As you may be aware if you’ve seen any of the news reports, this week has been Mental Health Awareness Week and the chosen topic has been ‘Body Image.’ Body image is an issue that can impact us in several different ways. To gain an insight into it, we set up a mental health workshop. Students asked each other ‘What do we know about mental health and body image?’ Miss Wright reports..

We discussed what we really like about our looks and bodies and focused on what our bodies can do. After lots of chatting, we took some time to be aware of our bodies and did a mindfulness activity.

It was then time to talk about the images we see in the media and if they are realistic. We also looked at the variety of ways people look different – we even had a go at airbrushing our faces to show how easy it is to change an image.

Healthy eating and getting a good night’s sleep are important for a healthy body so we discussed a good sleep routine and what kinds and how much food we should be eating.

It was great to talk with each other to find out how we all feel about this issue and, as usual, the Learning Centre students spoke confidently and informatively about their own personal experiences and thoughts. 

Kyle, Cherrie, Nathan, Liam and Ryan joined Mrs Lane for a fun Art Therapy session exploring how we see each other and then began to paint each other! All the young people found it great fun and debated the differences in how we may see each other.

Well done to everyone this week, I’m very proud of you all for the character you have shown and the kindness you have demonstrated to others both within the Learning Centre and the community.

Our Interactive Base students made it back safely, albeit very tired, from their Silver DofE expedition. I look forward to giving a full report soon.

I absolutely love my job on weeks like this!! Have a great weekend,

Dawn

You can find Gavin’s blog for the school site here

For news on our Key Stage 5 pathway groups at Medtia Square please click here

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham

You can find my previous blog posts here