This week I joined a number of colleagues in attending a seminar on the draft proposal for the new Ofsted framework which is focused more on the quality of education rather than exam results. This comes as good news for us at New Bridge as we are continuously developing our curriculum offer in order to ensure our students can be as independent as possible and reach their desired destination.
Within Employability lessons, many activities are linked to achieving the Gatsby benchmarks including ‘Encounters with Employers and Employees’. Over the last few weeks we have had a number of visitors talking to our students about their jobs and the skills they have developed.
This week, Karen Mee from the Department for Work and Pensions support for schools visited the Learning Centre to talk to the Year 12/13 Employability group about the various jobs different celebrities used to do before becoming famous. The group were shown a variety of portraits from singers, actors and actresses to football managers and an American president. The students really enjoyed trying to guess their jobs and listening to Karen talk about different jobs and the skills needed for them. If you would like to find out more, please do ask our students what they have learnt..
In addition to our academic offer, another key aspect of Learning Centre life is developing the essential social and emotional skills students will need when they leave New Bridge. Our Pastoral teams have been completing mental health and well-being questionnaires with all those students who access either individual or group interventions. These help highlight key areas where students may need more support, whilst also showing the progress they are making. This week some students have completed assessments and I look forward to seeing their expressions when they realise just how far they have progressed.
Mr Barker and myself have been popping into lessons to catch up with what the students are learning. In Mr Newport’s Science option, the students were taking part in a Science experiment about gravity using eggs, which was of course interactive and messy…and the students clearly enjoyed it!
Miss Joubert would like to share another ICT ‘Wow!’ moment from Kyle, Nathan W. and Kade who have created outstanding magazines. The students used publisher to format their own magazine using a range of ICT skills. I look forward to sharing some examples with you soon.
Mrs Peacock would like to mention Jacob from her Year 12 Maths group. The class were looking at coordinates and moved on to 4 quadrants. Jacob successfully identified a minus, minus coordinate. Mrs Peacock reported, “I was so impressed, I actually did say ‘WOW!’ to him!”
On Monday we are looking forward to welcoming families to our Learning Centre Parents and Carers group. This week there will be an opportunity to just meet up and chat; refreshments will, of course, be available and the meeting starts at 2pm. Please note for your diary that for the February meeting on Monday 11th we have invited Andrea Greenwood (Parent Carer Development Manager) from POINT and Dianne Martin from SENDIASS to talk to families about a range of services. Shamin Akhtar, our Family Liaison Officer, will also be present at the February meeting.
In the meantime, you may also be interested in attending a special SEND event for families on Sunday 3rd February at Oasis Academy..
I could not go without mentioning the ‘Battle Royal’ between Mr Hagan and Kade, our Learning Centre Table Tennis expert. Even when using a ‘frying pan,’ Kade was still able to win!!
I believe Mr Barker would also like to get in on the action, so watch this space!
Have a great weekend,
Dawn
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