Some very exciting news!

We are extremely lucky at the LC to be blessed with lovely outside spaces, much of them green. What we are missing however is an outside space which students can utilise for sports, and we are restricted to using the car park areas.

I would like to share, albeit tentatively, some very exciting news!

This week I had the pleasure of meeting with the local police, and the amazing team who run the Fitton Hill bulldogs situated next door to the Learning Centre.

Here’s a little background information…

“David Hughes (Vice Chairman & Head Coach) has been a coach at the club since 2000. He received the Pride of Oldham award in 2011 in recognition of his services to Rugby League, especially in training and looking after the welfare of young people with learning disabilities. David is an accredited coach and has been training new coaches over his long career. He is highly respected by the Rugby League, committee, and members of the club. David has given presentations to over 200 coaches on working with children with ADHD.”

There is also a dedicated team of volunteers who are working tirelessly to provide for the young people in the local community.

The Learning Centre are looking to work in partnership with the club and police to apply for a special grant which will fund a new all-weather pitch which will be used by the bulldogs, ourselves and local clubs.

“We will offer other sports clubs the use of our facilities such as hockey, rounders, karate & judo teams.

We hope to bring the community together and work with all of the young people to stop any anti-social behaviour by showing them positive behaviours and skills in interacting with their peers.

We work closely with local police officers to prevent crime in the area by encouraging young people to participate in sporting activities.”

The club are also exploring the option of us utilising their current tarmacked area for sports, this will be fully accessible to all our students regardless of need or ability.

This is an exciting opportunity and partnership which will help embed community cohesion and will benefit both the young people in the local area and our students. I look forward to sharing updates with everyone in the weeks to come.

Monday afternoons sees our first ‘Parents group’ of the year and we are looking forward to welcoming families old and new.

Our Employability pathway students will be providing refreshments and we hope this will be a helpful time when families can meet up and share experiences / concerns or ideas.

Next week also sees our student council election process.

We have asked our previous year 13 & 14 representatives to continue with their role as the process could not really take place effectively due to covid restrictions.

We have, however, asked our year 12 students to consider putting themselves forward as candidates.

Can I please ask that families talk to students about this process and encourage them to consider whether they would like to be on the council? All candidates will be asked to prepare a short election speech, this can either be recorded or written. This will then be shared with the year 12-year group who will then vote.

I will be announcing the results at next Friday’s half-termly assembly.

Now to news form the Learning Centre…

It’s so good to see students back in the kitchen cooking all sorts of lovely dishes. I must say thanks for the very tasty apple crumble(s)!

Unfortunately, I will need to get on my exercise bike if I’m going to make it through this year without putting on stones!!

Shahmuneer has been doing work experience in the food technology room. He has been checking the orders and making sure that all the ingredients are there, putting all the food in the correct places, sorting all the aprons out and generally being a fantastic help.

Well done, Shahmuneer!

Here’s a few updates from Mr Blackman…

Cutting back the Berberis hedge at the rear of the Learning Centre.

The students took turns using the powered hedge trimmers under the watchful eye of Mr Blackman.

I split the class into 2 groups one group sanding down furniture and one group learning how to lay laminate flooring.

Here are the students from yr12 filling containers with compost before planting dwarf narcissi in them. We then had to water them and put them into darkness to trick them into growing.

It was then the turn of the Nurture group to have a go at preparing a bed for the sowing of Raddish seeds, hoping it would stay nice enough for them to germinate and grow.

See, I told you we liked being outside at the Learning Centre!

Have a lovely weekend all, stay safe.

Dawn