It’s been another busy and creative week for the guys in the hub, here’s a report from Miss Keane..

I have to admit, going in to a new way of working with our young people, in a new environment made me a little nervous. But the staff team had a wealth of experience, ideas and enthusiasm to bring and we knew that as a small but strong team we could create a positive and meaningful experience for our students.

Working with our young people we created a temporary timetable to give some structure to the day and ensure we were covering everything we needed to. We started each day with a reminder about social distancing and hand washing and I have to say that our young people took to the new rules very well. This was followed by some outdoor exercise (weather permitting) which included some aerobic work, stretching and football passing skills..

Every day as a group we watched Newsround to catch up on current affairs and then we discussed the issues raised, thankfully the news is no longer just about the virus and it was good to see some positive news stories coming through.

We then knuckled down to some English and Maths using our iPads and work set remotely on the apps Showbie and SeeSaw. Doing Maths on an iPad is not my strong point so it was very much a learning curve for us all!

Break time was followed by some ICT and Lifeskills. We made a short film using iMovie and did a virtual tour using our iPads around Anne Frank’s house and Buckingham Palace. For Lifeskills we used our iPads to work out the cost of furnishing different rooms in a house and we planned a trip to London, working out the cost and times of the transport to get us there.

Lunchtime gave everyone a chance to eat and relax for a while with an option to go outside in our own yard for some fresh air. We spent our afternoons being creative as Mr Taylor is very artistic and full of imaginative ideas. Creating art individually which we could then put together to make one big piece was a bit of a challenge but the group succeeded in making some beautiful works of art..

Using plastic milk bottles we created African style heads and we used plastic drinks bottles to make a bouquet of flowers..

We drew around Sabeel and made a life size portrait of him which we decorated with printing..

..and the students made individual portraits of themselves using photocopies of themselves..

Mrs Brierley and Miss Knox made a heart of connected hands with the quote, ‘The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.’ They also made a beautiful rainbow with inspirational quotes surrounding it..

Working in this new way brought its challenges and both staff and students had to learn to work quite differently. The students rose to the challenge though and their positive behaviour, adaptability and willingness to learn made our time together very enjoyable.

I was hoping to be able to share our plans for September, however we are still working on these. As you can imagine, it’s a big piece of work and we want to ensure we get it right and as safe as possible. We will be sharing the details for September with all our families shortly.

The virtual transition process is well under way and staff teams are in the process of contacting families to introduce themselves. This week we sent home the Options booklet and the Year 11 teams have been speaking to families to go through the different choices on offer. As you can appreciate, there may be some changes due to Covid 19, however we will try to ensure students can access an option of their choice.

This week we will be sending out the Learning Centre Welcome booklet which will hopefully give families a feel of college life.

I’d like to finish with a picture of Joe and his sunflowers..

Watch this space next week for the announcement of who’s won the sunflower competition (I’m hoping for flowers!! 🌻🌻🌻)

Take care and stay safe,

Dawn

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

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

You can find my previous blog posts here