Another busy week here at NBC…

I am really proud of the students’ efforts this week, particularly their team work.

Activ8 update: A day in the life of Sophie J.

In this week’s Activ8 blog, we’ll be taking a closer look into a day in the life of one of our students.

Sophie.J is now into her 2nd year at the college. She has developed her leadership skills during her time in the Activ8 pathway, and has now become the matriarch of the group. Sophie often displays a kind, genuine nature to support her Activ8 team mates wherever she can.

Here’s a peek into her day…

Following on from our work on nutrition last week, Sophie and the team were chuffed to find out they’d be making smoothies.

Sophie is always keen to try new things, she loves to cook and prepare food. With smoothies on the menu, as you can imagine, she was absolutely buzzing! Her confidence was beaming and she couldn’t wait to get going!

Banana and strawberry was Sophie’s choice of flavour; let me tell you, it went down an absolute treat.

Later on, during P.E theory, Sophie recapped ‘ Maintaining a balanced diet’ and discussed a number of her favourite snacks. Sophie was able to identify which of her favourites are healthy, showing tons of confidence and bags of understanding throughout the lesson.

Sophie often undertakes jobs around the pathway and loves to help the staff. Sophie loves to help staff prep lunches for her peers. In addition to the responsibilities she has taken on within Activ8, in recent weeks, Sophie has undertaken work experience! She has shown incredible maturity and work ethic, working closely with Shanaye, on reception. Shanaye is really happy with the progress Sophie has made and has welcomed Sophie to continue her work experience, every Friday.

After a long time away, Activ8 finally visited David Lloyd gym again.

To kick things off, Sophie and the team took on the dreaded bleep test! Sophie was ‘ The steady Eddie’ in the group, scoring 5. Sophie is looking forward to improving on this throughout the year.

Netball was next on the list, and the team were very much looking forward to the coaching expertise of Miss Shirley. Activ8 had an assessment game and Miss Shirley was extremely impressed with the commitment of our students. In the next few weeks, Miss Shirley will work with students and give them a better understanding of the positional laws of the sport.

 Finally, here’s what Sophie had to say…….

“I love to help people, especially my team.”

“When I leave college, I want to be a police officer. I have enjoyed working on Reception and I think it will help me to become a police officer. Shanaye has shown me lots of different things, I’m looking forward to Friday afternoon.”

“Thank you for taking the time to read about my day. Have a nice weekend, everyone!”

Lumenus update…

This week our Lumenus students are settling in to the pathway and getting a feel of their new timetables. Our pathway days this year are still Wednesdays and Thursdays.

On Wednesday we started off with playing lots off drama games, such as rubber chicken, wink murder, hoola hoola and splat.

 After break the students continued to work on their Bronze and Silver Arts Award. Year 12s have started on the bronze arts award and they have designed some beautiful covers. Year 13s have made a start on their unit 2 on their silver arts award. We also had a little photo shoot and students had to do some serious posing. We have got some amazing pictures of the class.

 On Thursday Mrs Preston introduced Physical Theatre. This form of theatre emphasises the use of physical movement, as in dance and mime, for expression. The students had to work as an ensemble following Mrs Preston’s commands.

 The students worked brilliantly in sync together. Using the word Connection, they created a short movement piece.

Next week we are going to be going Oldham Theatre Workshop on Wednesday and Thursday and we are all so excited to be getting back out in the community.

Pre-Internship 1 update…

It has been a busy but productive week for the Pre-internship group. We have been working with students to support them around prepping for the week ahead ready to start various different work placements.

Students have had a visit to the Roxy cafe at Guinness to gain a better understanding of expectations and of the jobs that need to be completed. The students also had a walk around the building and were shown some of the other aspects of work they will undertake while on placement.

Alongside this, students have been to visit the RSPCA that should hopefully be starting next week.

 Here, students met staff they will be supporting, had a tour around the building, and had a look at the animals they will be working with.

During the classroom sessions we have been looking at stress management and identifying positive behaviour, looking at triggers and finding solutions. Students have looked at different techniques that they will be able to implement such as tone, words, posture and gestures. All these will be put into practice when experiencing different workplace scenarios as they use the skills they have learnt in a real-life working environment.

Over the upcoming weeks we will look to put together our own “A day/week in the life of our students on work placements”. The students will be pushed out of their comfort zones with all the support needed from staff, BUT…

…you know what they say…

“your comfort zone is a wonderful place, but nothing ever grows there!”

Take care.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Rebeckah & the NBC Team