A very Christmassy feel to the blog this week as we get ourselves ready for the festive break.

On Monday I had the pleasure of leading the College Council meeting. We discussed some of the elements that came up in the last meeting and continued to discuss in the open forum what is working well and what changes need to happen. That evening I attended my first governors meeting with the rest of the New Bridge Heads and it was lovely to talk about the positive feedback we received from last week’s inspection.

It was great to hear that all the pathway destinations are working well, and from Danielle and Michael how well the businesses are going. The Digit4ll pathway are extremely busy at the moment – either filming shows or running Christmas markets.

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, our Key Stage 5 Lumenus pathway took part in the Christmas Showcase at the school site – what a wonderful event!

Today was our Christmas Jumper day where pupils and staff put on their festive jumpers and raised £37 for Save the Children. It was very difficult to get some pictures from this reluctant lot but I managed a couple..

Our Pre Interns have been spreading lots of festive cheer over at The Atrium at First Choices Homes, as our job coach Nicola explains..

Over the past few weeks our Pre-Interns have been working hard to make decorations for the Tenants’ Christmas Dinner at FCHO. Sarah led the way helping her peers to make wreaths, paper chains and Christmas trees..

They still found time to do their regular jobs though – Jade found a comfortable way to clean the fridges..

..and Nathan helped her to replenish the crisps..

They then had to help decorate and prepare the Atrium ready for the customers..

On the day we borrowed Dominic from David Lloyd so he could help with the food preparations. He helped to make breakfast, frying eggs and sausages and egg washed all the pies before they went into the oven..

The lunch was a huge success! Nathan helped to make teas and coffees for the customers then volunteered to sit and keep Vinny (the chief executive) company while they discussed Emmerdale with the customers..

Jade was amazing at serving the cold drinks and did so well lifting the heavy jugs..

What a team – well done everyone!

Our job coach Tisha has an update from the David Lloyd Crew!

What an amazing term it has been! All the students have exceeded my expectations. Josie has begun her paid training whilst she is on placement. Here Clement is showing her where the accident book is kept..

After any training, Josie will sign the staff timesheet kept at reception to ensure she will be paid. Josie is very happy and looking forwards to her first pay packet!

Josie has already drawn up a list of what she needs to do..

Ethan is thriving, he has been working back of house in the DLicious restaurant. Ethan prefers this and he is improving his customer service skills serving customers and liasing with staff. He has learnt so many new skills and he using his initiative and keeping busy at all times. Next term Ethan hopes to continue his personal training venture.

Alan… what can I say! Brilliant! He has exceeded the most and seems a lot more mature. He has enjoyed his time at David Lloyd Middleton and he is looking forward to his next work experience venture.

Here he is working as a team with Ethan, sorting out the function room. Both Ethan and Alan worked really well together..

Ethan front of house with Josie, making smoothies..

Completing Health and Safety training with Johnny the new Health and Safety manager..

Our job coach Maria accompanied Jordan to his new placement this week..

Wednesday saw Jordan back at Tameside Radio on work experience. He has been asked to be creative and put a piece together ‘My life story’ and he has been tapping away to create his autobiography, fame is definitely on the horizon. He is also working on a day in the life at New Bridge which is clearly a busy day as he hasn’t come up for air yet, I have to keep peering over his shoulder to keep up..

Now for news of our Bridging the Gap project from our job coach Hayley..

Hello from Bridging the Gap at the Royal Oldham Hospital. Our ‘day in the life of’ this week features Mr Patrick B. who is based in the laundry and also recycling on the porters team. Over to you Patrick..

A day in the life of Patrick
Bridging the Gap at the Royal Oldham Hospital

In the morning I have to arrive at the base room at 8.40am. I spend time in class then at 8.50am I go on my morning placement which is working in the laundry and I work with Colin and Neil most of the time. I work sorting where I sort all the hospital laundry into different crates.

I then work folding away police blankets and sorting them into bags of 5 or 4 depending on which police station they are for.

I then go on my break from 10.30am till 10.50am. I go back to the laundry and work through till 11.25am before returning to class to finish off any work which ! need to for my qualification. When on my laundry placement I wear a green t-shirt, black pants and black steel toe cap shoes to protect my toes in case I or someone else drops something heavy on them.

At around 12.00pm I go on my dinner break, which I spend in the café where I sit with the Bridging the Gap team and we chat to John from cleaning services. We tell John what we have been up to and how our job placements are going and we head back to class at 12.45pm.

I go and work with Julie from 1pm until 2pm and I have to change my shirt into a blue chequered porters uniform shirt. I work recycling the cardboard and I swap the full blue bins for empty ones. I take the full bins to the basement to get the cardboard compacted by the waste team. We then replace the empty blue bins on the wards.

I go back to class at 2pm and do some work in the base room. I finish at 3pm Monday to Thursday and on Friday I finish at 12.30pm. I have learnt a lot of new skills on my placements and I am now trusted to do the police blankets, towels and stabproof vests.

As Patrick comes to the end of his first term, he has gained lots of skills from working in the mix of the two placements. Patrick is doing a fantastic job and has received two brilliant sets of feedback for his efforts. We are so proud of you Pat, keep up the good work!!!

Our job coach Nicola has a work experience update from the Atrium for us..

Beth and Grace have been working in the Atrium and over the past few weeks, they have increased their speed when completing tasks, done the trolley run and managed to do some stock replenishment. Not bad at all for an hour and a half a week.

Grace has worked so hard to help support Beth and is always keen to lend a hand. Beth enjoyed making the staff at FCHO smile with her enthusiasm and confidence when speaking on the trolley run. Well done and thank you to both of you for all your hard work, you have been amazing..

Last Friday students from Medtia and the Learning Centre went to Oldham Hulme Grammar with Mr Lawrence to participate in a table tennis competition. All the students were very nervous prior to the games beginning, however they had nothing to worry about as they showed really good technical skills on the table..

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New Bridge finished second in a four group league. Well done to all the players and thanks to Mr Hagan for supporting the students.

Finally, a word from Miss Begum about our Lumenus stars..

What a week it’s been! This week was the Christmas Extravaganza, that’s a total 4 performances morning and evening! In the show Lumenus showcased a piece called ‘Instagran’ which they will develop throughout the year to perform at the Secondary School Partnership in July. Ks5 Lumenus also performed a piece called connections which is a Physical Theatre piece inspired by the work of Frantic Assembly.

As a well deserved reward, Lumenus Ks5 have gone to the cinema to watch Jumanji as their end of term reward trip. It’s safe to say that we are all very tired!
We hope you all have a Lumenus lovely Christmas and New Year, from Lumenus

Next week, we have some great things planned:

•  Tuesday 17th – Mrs Nelson and the Girls Group are visiting the Royal Oldham Hospital with staff to hand over Christmas gifts for sick children; they will be travelling by car and will return in time for lunch.
• Wednesday 18th – we are off to the Atrium for our Christmas Dinner.
• Thursday 19th December, it’s pantomime time (oh yes, it is!). We are taking our students to watch ‘The Secret of Christmas Eve’ at Oldham Library.

I am taking my little boy to visit Father Christmas this Saturday – let’s hope he isn’t scared of him.

Have a lovely weekend,

Jaina
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

You can view our previous blog entries here

News from the Learning Centre and New Bridge School can be found here