Welcome back to rather wet, windy and snowy week, I hope you all had a wonderful half term.

On Monday all the staff had a training day and staff were offered a variety of training to support them in their role; there was First Aid training, curriculum leads attended a leadership course and staff also attended a session with Professor Barry Carpenter who came to talk to the staff about how we create mental wealth.

This week seems to have gone so quickly. On Thursday, I met with our chair of governors Cathy and key staff to undertake this term’s management board. One of the areas we looked at was how the school enterprise on offer had grown over the years. I spoke to Cathy about how we are using a design company to help the students create and design a portable event space. Jon Large and his team came into college last term but only worked with a select group of students, who thought about how this type of enterprise could be used and the value it would offer. The students have adopted the name ‘FlexiSpace’ for the project. Following on from this, Jon and his team will be coming into college on Friday 6th and Monday 9th March to work with all the students. The work they do with the students will be very hands on and creative and hopefully after the 2 days we will have a better understanding of how the event space will work and enhance the enterprise that the college runs. I will be sending a letter out with more details as some of the students may wish to stay longer on Friday afternoon.

Now let’s go to Activ8, Digit4ll and our Pre Interns for an update of what they have been up to, starting with our job coach Nicola who has news of Jade..

A Day in the Life of Jade 
Pre Internship Pathway

To get to Medtia I travel on transport with some of my friends and get to Medtia for about 8:20. I like to have a brew and some breakfast, then I go into my form room and do some work. I’ve been working on my handwriting and using the iPad.

I walk to my placement with my friends and job coach and get to the Atrium for 9:20. I say hello to Sammy and Toni and Sharron, then I put on a clean apron and hat and I wash my hands.

The first job I do is to check the sauces and to fill up any that are low. I like doing this job, I like organising and making the display neat and tidy..

Next I help to load the items onto the trolley and get the money ready for the trolley run. Then I input the items sold on the trolley run into the iPad and put the money back in the till..

After my break I sort the desserts out for Medtia. I like counting out the mousses and jellies and when that’s done I polish the knives and forks then wrap them in a napkin ready for the customers..

After my dinner I jump on the potwash. This is my favourite job, I like it because it’s hard work but I like seeing the sinks clean and tidy after I have washed all the pots and used the dishwasher because I know I am helping the staff..

In the afternoon I help to bake some biscuits. This is a really good job because I love baking at home and it feels good to know I am making food that will be given to the students and customers..

Next I replenish the crisps, I check the dates on the crisp to see that they are in date then I put them on the self. It takes a while to do this job because all the old crips have to be moved off the shelf so the new crisps can go on first..

I finish my placement at 14:45 and walk back to Medtia where I have some free time on my iPad until 15:10. I wait with my friends for my bus then I go home and rest, ready for another day.

Our Activ8 students have been busy too, as Mr Thornton explains..

After a well-deserved rest, both staff and students were back on it and raring to go on their return.

Our focus this term has been Goalball. After much hard work in the last half term, our students now have the necessary skills allowing them to deliver Goalball sessions to primary school children.

This week, Activ8 attended Hollinwood Academy to deliver their first session. The main objective was to give the young people within our care an introduction into Goalball. Our leaders showed great confidence and a fantastic work ethic to deliver what was an absolutely fantastic session for the children..

Myself, Mr Lawrence and Mr Newton are thrilled to say that our first session was a success, and we look forward to seeing our leaders develop further and deliver with the same enthusiasm in the future.

All of the children involved in the session thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the Activ8 students would like to take this opportunity to thank Miss Halkyard and all of the young people who took part.

The Activ8 students have also been working closely with their Key Stage 4 counterparts, leading them during their basketball sessions in preparation for a primary school basketball tournament later on this half term.

Mr Slater has exciting news of our Digit4ll students..

DRAGONS’ DEN!

This first week back has been an extremely exciting one for the DIGIT4LL Pathways. Before the holidays, both groups had to prepare a presentation (including their own on-screen presentation) about the products that they have been making for this year’s Young Enterprise project. From DIGIT4LL 1 there was Abigail, Jordan, Kevin and Paddy while from DIGIT4LL 2, Thomas, Arron, Joseph and Jake were presenting. They had been preparing their scripts and presentations well before the holidays and during the days leading up to Thursday 27th they practised in front of their colleagues.

Then Thursday 27th was the big day! All 8 students went to Spinningfields, Manchester to do the real thing – present their products in front of the Dragons! This is also preparation for an even bigger event next year when they will be doing this for the Young Enterprise Award which DIGIT4LL have taken part in over recent years and come away with some fantastic results and awards. The Dragons gave both groups some advice and tips on how they might improve their presentations and both teams came away feeling motivated and confident! Especially as the Cozy Cuddlers heat pad was announced as the best product the Dragons had seen this year!

Production

As well as the Dragons’ Den preparation, this week there has been a lot of work on getting products ready for sale as we had pretty much sold out of all of the Cozy Cuddlers heat pads, which did a roaring trade over the week of Valentine’s Day – as did our frames containing Scrabble letters with personalised messages. With Mother’s Day coming up in March, be sure to look out for this product again!

With this many products now being made here at Medtia (as well as our personalised mugs, canvases and filming/video editing services), lots of the DIGIT4LL students are really finding their niche and putting their own individual talents to work, whether it be on the manual side of things (canvas making, badge/key ring production), artistic (frames) or even things such as getting to grips with the sewing machines which we use to make the Cozy Cuddlers. Not forgetting using the spreadsheets to keep the books in order and up to date! There is something that everyone can be involved in.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, DIGIT4LL

Now our job coach Tisha has news from our Pre Interns on their placements at the David Lloyd Club and our exciting new cafe..

Ethan has started to work towards his personal training journey. He has started to train Kien, learning to be a Personal Assistant and building up his customer service skills as you can see..

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The Pre Interns have been learning how to do a shop sticking to a budget during Living Skills. Each group were given a set budget and this is what Josie came up with – not a bad shop Josie… very sensible..

Over to our work experience placements at the Guinness Partnership’s newly opened cafe, The Roxy.

It was another successful trolley run at The Roxy on its opening day! Here you can see Sarah tallying up items sold from the trolley run with Umer.

Finally, congratulations to Summer who was awarded ‘Worker of the Week’..

I hope you 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