Well, this is a week of warm welcomes! Firstly welcome to Tom, a new student on our Pre Internship pathway who has joined us from Hollinwood Academy. Tom has settled in brilliantly and is already cooking up a storm over at The Atrium Café where he is on placement in the kitchen..

Secondly, a very warm welcome to David Lloyd Gym! David Lloyd have offered two full time internship placements and Tony and Abu are absolutely loving their new work. In Tony’s words,

I knew it would be good but I didn’t know it would be this good!

The gym is absolutely huge with an indoor and outdoor pool, squash courts, 12 tennis courts, a nursery, studios, a large gym, spa, hairdressers and a café! The guys are going to get to try all elements of the business and they already feel very much a part of the team, so thank you to all of the staff for making them feel so welcome!

Finally, a very warm welcome to Corey and Jason, our first students from Spring Brook to access a work placement over at The Atrium Café. They both worked incredibly hard on the first week of their placements and we are so impressed with them that this week they get my ‘Worker of the Week’ award! Well done to you both..

Today we had our second assessment day for our potential Bridging the Gap and Pre Internship students who are currently based at Medtia Square. The students enjoyed completing a range of practical tasks and finding out more about their options for September..

Parents of these students have been invited to our employability pathways open evening which will be held on Tuesday 30th January at 5.30pm here at Medtia Square. If you haven’t received a letter or you require any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me directly on 0161 883 2403.

You may remember that the first of our Future Finders students to get a job this year was Niamh, who moved into paid work at a nursery in Shaw before Christmas..

The nursey have been so impressed with the success of Niamh’s placement that they asked us for another student! So this term, joining Niamh at the nursery is Afsana, one of our Pre Internship students, and here she is with an insight into her day – over to you, Afsana..

A day in the life of Afsana, Nursery Assistant

East Crompton St James Child Care Village, Shaw

I arrive at East Crompton St James Child Care Village after travelling independently and greet everyone with a ‘Good morning!’

I speak to the staff to find out what jobs I am to do that shift. This morning we have been doing painting, using the animals to help make different patterns..

After all the excitement of the morning, we are now having circle time, getting ready for dinner..

After a busy morning playing with the children, painting and playing games, singing and dancing I have tidied up the Book Corner, ready to read a story after dinner..

It’s dinner time now. I am helping to sort the dinners out for the children – they all bring packed lunches and we serve them their dinners..

My manager says, “Afsana is a lovely girl who is settling in well and is building some good relationships with the children”

Well, it’s been a busy but exciting day here! I’m off for my break where I will sit with Anne-Marie, my job coach, and the nursery manager to go through my diary for the week and set my weekly targets.

I am really enjoying my time here at East Crompton St James Child Care Village. The staff are lovely and I enjoy working with the children. See you all back at Medtia!!

Our Digit4ll students have also had a busy start to the year, as Mr Handrick explains..

Happy New Year to all from the Digit4ll Key Stage 5 Pathway! It seems like the festive season is well and truly behind us and the ‘Unite’ business is back up and running at full steam. We arrived back after the holidays to a very large order of canvas prints to be made. Members of the team took on different roles such as organising the images in folders, editing the images to black and white and adding text. Emails were constantly being exchanged to finalise the images ready for print. Once the ‘thumbs up’ was received it was printer machine on, canvas roll fixed and go, go, go! Each student had a very important role to play, from cutting canvas and building frames..

..to attaching print, wrapping up and sealing with a smile..

..while the next canvas was waiting in the wings to do it all again! Well, we have nearly finished the massive order of 28 canvases and it won’t be long before the list grows again.

Remember folks, we do canvas prints in a range of sizes of your own image, mugs with your personalised text and image and also a wide range of phone covers you can individualise and stand out in the crowd with. Just drop us an email to nbprinters@newbridgegroup.org to find out more and place your order.

Finally this week, a bit of an update on our application to become an independent college. We met with trustees last week and we have agreed to explore the possibility of opening an Employability Hub in Oldham town centre which will be home to our Future Finders Internship course, our Pre Internship Pathway and a new provision that will start in September, a post-19 employability pathway funded through social care for those with an individualised budget. We are currently looking at building very close to Medtia and I will, of course, keep you updated with our plans as and when things are confirmed. As always, things are developing and expanding constantly which is really exciting and keeps me busy and out of mischief!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Daniel
Director of Employment & Co Head of Site at Medtia Square

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham