It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We are certainly in a very festive mood at the Learning Centre ~ the Christmas trees and decorations are up, the Christmas dinner is planned and we’re all getting a bit excited! Me included!

The festive fun was very much apparent in the Interactive Bases this week as Mr Newport explains..

As part of our Christmas themed work, IB decided we should have a snowball afternoon. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any snow so we transformed the old Horizons room into our own winter wonderland for the afternoon, setting up targets for our snowballs and then having an all-out snowball showdown..

Some may have seen the frantic figure of Miss Allison running around the Learning Centre trying to avoid the snowballs from Michael and Adil (sorry Mr Jackson, you’ll have to be quicker with your camera next time!)

EBase have also been getting suitably festive..

As part of their Community Access lessons and as a little treat for Christmas, the students in Ebase 1 have been for a “chippy dinner” in Oldham. Louis, Usayd, Junaid and Sarah Jane had a fantastic time and really enjoyed their dinners (although I’m not sure that Louis’s touched the sides, it was gone before Miss Thornhill had started hers!). Their behaviour was impeccable and Junaid took it upon himself to thank the waitress and tell her that the food was good. I can honestly say that all four students were a pleasure to be with, whilst out in the community..

After dinner, we went for a walk around Oldham. Louis, Junaid and Sarah Jane enjoyed looking at the Christmas Display whilst Usayd copied and sang along with the snowman..

Well Done EBase 1! The staff and students would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We had some more ‘Wow!’ moments this week. Special mentions went to Abbie who worked particularly hard during her rebound session..

Also Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Wright have both been to see Mrs Robinson this week to say how fantastic Claire has been in their lessons..

Well done Abbie and Claire!

This morning we were visited by Mr Handrick and his team of Digit4ll students from Medtia; here’s his report:

It was great this morning to go and show our new Sea Clear Enterprise bag to the staff and students at the Learning Centre. It was good for our students to chat with their old friends and teachers, as well as telling people about all the hard work that Digit4ll Key Stage 5 as a team have been working so hard on. We sold lots of Reindeer Food and lots and lots and lots of our Sea Clear bag..

For every one of the cotton shopping bags that the students sell, we donate 10% to Plastic Oceans UK Charity. If you want more information about what we are up to and all our other products that we sell please click on the link here and take a look at our new website..

We are really trying hard this year to do lots around social media to help promote the awareness about plastic in our oceans by selling our bag, so if you would like to follow, like and interact with us that would be ace! So go on click the links and don’t forget to #wavethebag

Follow us on Facebook here @SeaClearEnterprise, on Instagram here _seaclear and on Twitter here _SeaClear

https://twitter.com/_seaclear

Thanks to Dyme for the lovely decorated ginger biscuit..

Kade produced his own festive treat in the form of ‘The Grinch’! What can you say!

The sporting battle continued this week as Jermaine managed to beat Mr Hagan at table tennis ~ and that was even with Hannah helping him..

Mr Barker was also feeling rather chuffed with himself when he beat Mr Smith! (poor Mr Smith!)

Next week we will be holding our very own mini Christmas Olympics with table tennis, pool, volleyball & Boccia competitions. I’ll let you know the results next week.

This Christmas, we are supporting the Oldham foodbank as part of the Super Learning Day multi-faith theme ‘The Joy of Giving’ and as our chosen Christmas charity. Today the student council (Kyle, Sophie O, Nathan W, Bobby-Joe, Omar and Imnann), Miss Kindon and myself met with Danielle and Paul from Oldham foodbank. It was an extremely interesting and insightful meeting and, as Kyle put it, “It makes you realise some people are far worse off than ourselves.”

Within our assembly we learnt how the foodbank supports a wide range of people and families and what we can do to help. A simple box of food makes a big difference, with foodbanks helping prevent crime, housing loss, family breakdown and mental health problems. Non-perishable, in-date food is donated by the public at a range of places such as schools, churches and businesses, as well as at supermarket collection points. It is then sorted into emergency food parcels by over 40,000 volunteers to be given to people in need. Care professionals such as health visitors, schools and social workers identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher which entitles them to receive a parcel of three days’ nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food.

Foodbanks also offer a lot more than food. Volunteers provide a listening ear to clients over a warm drink, and signpost people to other charities and agencies who can help resolve the underlying cause of the crisis. You can visit their website here for more information about the work they do and if you would like to offer your support, here are some ideas of items you can donate:

• Cereal
• Soup
• Pasta
• Rice
• Tinned tomatoes/ pasta sauce
• Lentils, beans and pulses
• Tinned fruit
• Tea/coffee
• Tinned fruit
• Biscuits
• UHT milk
• Fruit juice
• Mince pies and Christmas puddings
• Crackers

Oldham foodbank would also like essential non-food items such as toiletries and hygiene products, helping people in crisis to maintain dignity. At this time of year they would also appreciate donations of toys for families who cannot afford presents this Christmas.

We are asking all our Learning Centre staff, students, parents and carers if they could donate whatever they can afford. We will be collecting donations at the Learning Centre and then next Thursday Miss Kindon’s Supporting Others group will be joined by our student council members and Miss Thornhill’s EBase 1 students in taking everything that has been donated to Oldham foodbank ready to be distributed in time for Christmas.

Please give whatever you can for this worthwhile cause. As the closing lines of our assembly read,

Let’s all show kindness to others
Let’s make a difference to someone’s life this Christmas

Have a lovely 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