Autumn has definitely reached Dean Street. The leaves are beginning to fall and the mornings are getting crisper.

This week some of the Year 11 GCSE Art and Photography group went out to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park looking for inspiration and to research different artists for their next portfolio piece based in sculpture. It was a beautiful day with great natural lighting and the learners got some stunning shots (and sore feet after a 3 hour walk around the park!!). Here are some of the amazing pictures taken by Jason and Corey..

We have also spent the week with Mr Quinn looking at the Dean Street site and how we can improve the learning environment for all our young people. Year 10 have been extremely proactive in making both their room and the Key Stage 4 common room lighter – they have been hard at work taking down some of the outside foliage with the help of Mr Sefton, our site manager..

Miss Rodgers and I ventured out this week to look at a bike project we are hoping to use in Key Stage 3 and 4. The ‘Pimp My Bike’ project based at Positive Steps in Oldham is a work based project that rebuilds bikes so they become fit for use. We think this is an amazing project and are looking to access this for both Key Stages. The team leaders, Marin and Sag, even offered to take myself and Miss Rodgers for a spin!!! Unfortunately time was not on our side but please watch out for future blogs where we may take up the offer (watch out Victoria Pendleton)..

Finally, I was fortunate enough to see the fantastic work that happens within some of our other project work. I went out with Mr Roscoe to see how some of our pupils access Oldham Library. It was also brilliant to see some of the other young people from Future Finders who are actively working within the library and are particularly popular with staff in the ‘Naked Bean’ café..

This week’s Duke of Edinburgh’s trip saw a 6 mile hike all the way past Kinder Reservoir and up to Kinder Downfall. This was a test of fitness for the group and they all coped brilliantly with the distance and terrain involved with the walk. Along the way the group were introduced to basic map reading skills such as map orientation and being able to identify the different symbols that are displayed on Ordnance Survey maps..

Away from D of E, the Key Stage 4 groups are completing AQA Unit Awards in gym, weight training and trampolining. These awards help our pupils to learn about health, fitness and gym etiquette as well as improving co-ordination, strength and fitness..

That’s nearly all for this week. We are collecting for the Harvest Festival and would welcome any tins, packets of food etc. that we can donate to the homeless. Just a quick reminder to all our families and carers that we also have a school lottery which is drawn weekly. For a £1 ticket you can help support all our young people across our Group and be in with a chance to win the £25,000 weekly jackpot too! If you sign up today, you could also win an Amazon Echo Dot – please click here for details.

This weekend I’m off to cheer on the mighty Leeds Rhinos in the Grand Final at Old Trafford – fingers crossed!

Have a good week everyone,

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project

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