On Monday we held our very first ‘Employability Awards’ at New Bridge School, which saw 40 guests from local businesses and over 100 students and family members come together to celebrate all of the work that we have done this year on our work experience and internship programmes. It really was the most inspirational and incredible evening and I left feeling so incredibly humble and proud of our amazing staff and students. We handed out over 80 awards from ‘Worker of the Year’ to ‘Best Friend’. We handed out awards to employers for special recognition and also dedicated a special achievement award to The Royal Oldham Hospital for supporting our students with placements for TEN YEARS!

Having worked at New Bridge now for nearly 13 years, the evening felt like a celebration of the journey that we have come on! Incredible stories from students and employers who all work so hard to ensure that our young people reach an appropriate destination. ‘Creating Meaningful Futures’ couldn’t have been presented in a more appropriate way. A few special thank you’s from me… firstly to our job coach Genna and Bridging the Gap student Reece for planning the whole evening. From the invites to the films and certificates presented, they did the most incredible job! Thank you to Maria, our Work Placement Co-ordinator for organising the guests and for co-ordinating all of our work placements over the past year. To our amazing Atrium staff Becki and Toni for providing our employers and VIPs with a fantastic meal before the awards and finally to the amazing staff and students who have worked so incredibly hard this year! You’re all wonderful!

We have also held a number of transition visits this week, with Digit4ll Key Stage 4 visiting us on Wednesday and our new Pre-Interns and Bridging the Gap students at MMU joining us for the day on Thursday. We have a final open evening event next Tuesday for families and students joining us next year and we look forward to seeing more of you then.

On Thursday evening, I attended the Sports Awards and WOW – I was so impressed. Mr Smith and our Digit4ll team give the BBC Sports Personality of the Year a run for their money! It was another incredible evening of celebrations with over 100 awards given out in many, many sports. The presentation was impressive with videos on the big screens of every student – it looked so professional! Well done to our Digit4ll pathway students for supporting with this and a huge well done to Mr Smith and all of the PE team for another incredible year. It was mind-blowing to see how many opportunities our students have had. From playing football at the Etihad to playing cricket at Old Trafford, the team work so hard to provide the best possible opportunities for our students. Congratulations to you all!

Now for an update from our job coach Colin on our work experience placements..

This week has seen another year of work experience come to an end at Dr Kershaw’s Charity Shop in Oldham.

Dr Kershaw’s has been a great experience for the students who have attended and has given them the opportunity to understand working life within a busy shop on the indoor market in Oldham.

The students have completed lots of different tasks whist at the shop such as general cleaning duties, stock rotation, organising clothes, quality control, pricing and supporting staff with various other different tasks.

Joe and Sabeel have been accessing Dr Kershaw’s Charity Shop and have grown in maturity and confidence on the placement, as well as building on and improving their life skills.

Darren, Dr Kershaw’s shop manager, had this to say about them..

We have been working with New Bridge for a while now and we have a great relationship over the past 3 – 4 years.

It’s been fantastic to work with the students, they are amazing human beings and have shown great work ethic and understanding.

Joe has grown in confidence and is working independently around the shop with less prompts since he started.

Sabeel hasn’t been here as long as Joe. We have been able to create a great sensory experience for Sabeel when working in the shop and it’s fantastic to see him not let anything stop him from succeeding.

We would like love to see more students coming to Dr Kershaw’s Oldham Shop in September and we look forward to continuing to build our relationship with New Bridge.

It’s been a pleasure Dr Kershaw’s, thank you for the opportunities and support – we will see you in September!! 

Tomorrow I shall be representing the New Bridge Multi Academy Trust at London Pride, an event which celebrates and fights for the rights of LGBTQ+ people across the world. I am honoured to be representing our trust and our own LGBTQ+ community at the event and we have even had a flag made for the occasion…

More updates to follow over the weekend on our social media pages!

Have a great weekend,

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

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

Click here for this week’s news from Graham