This week I went back to school and Digit4ll proved themselves once again to run the best student led business in Greater Manchester!!!

On Tuesday, I had my first day at Huddersfield University where I am studying a Post Graduate Certificate in Careers Education. I have to say it was quite daunting to go ‘back to school’ but it turned into an inspirational couple of days. I was joined by 48 other careers leaders from across the UK and the course has been funded for us all by central government.

Last year, the government released The Gatsby Benchmarks, putting careers education at the forefront of education for our students, up there with Maths and English! Quite right too, I say! We are so focused at New Bridge on preparing our students to reach an appropriate destination and we have had this at the forefront of our thoughts since we opened our new school 11 years ago… it’s about time everybody else caught up with us! I’ll be spending the next year planning an outstanding careers strategy for our MAT and reflecting on what amazing work we already do. It was a great start this week and an added bonus was getting my NUS card which gives me discounts at high street stores and restaurants for the next year!!

Talking of appropriate destinations… at New Bridge, we have a scale of 7 appropriate destinations for our learners and this week, we have been contacting past students to create a portfolio of New Bridge Destination Champions. It really is quite humbling to hear of the impact that New Bridge has had on the lives of so many young people and it was lovely to hear about what our former students are doing now. I’d like to share some of those stories with you now..

Now, back to our amazing students in Digit4ll who once again have made us all incredibly proud this week! Our students had to present at a Dragons’ Den Event in Manchester as part of the Young Enterprise Company programme, competing against mainstream colleges and schools from across Greater Manchester. The feedback from the panel of business professionals was OUTSTANDING but I am not the best person to tell you this, so I’ll hand you over to Abigail…

Abigail is a member of the Digit4ll pathway and is in her first year of Key Stage 5 based at the Medtia site. Abigail enjoys taking part in lots of aspects of ICT and plays a major role in the admin and social media site of the NB Enterprise business.

On Thursday 31st January, we followed Abigail in her daily activities which, as often happens on the Digit4ll pathway, can be very different from the previous day and full of new challenges..

A day in the life of Abigail 
Key Stage 5 Digit4ll Pathway

I have a very special day ahead! I am a member of the team of four that will be attending the Dragons’ Den Young Enterprise challenge. Before we head off down to Manchester I have time to rehearse my presentation at Medtia..

After arriving in Manchester and finding the building where we are going to present our pitch, we take a few minutes out and get some lunch..

The team are nearly ready to perform in front of the Dragons! We are there to tell the Dragons about our Sea Clear bag – not only to promote the bag as a sales pitch but also to spread the word about the damage that we are doing to our planet with our use of plastic. Our presentation is for the Dragons’ eyes only, no Digit4ll staff are allowed in the room with us to avoid any distractions, but here you can see us ready and waiting to brave the Dragons’ Den!

All done and we didn’t feel the wrath of the Dragons – in fact, to be honest it was the total opposite! The head Dragon asked Mr Handrick and Mr Bright to nip in for the feedback..

‘Without doubt this is the best pitch and presentation we have seen over the two days. Not only is the bag a great idea but the message about the vast use of plastic has really hit us. The message that the students are telling us is that we all need to think about our actions.’  Well done team!!!

After that brilliant presentation (well, we’re used to new challenges – just a run of the mill day for our Digit4ll KS5 pathway really!), it’s back off to Medtia for the team..

Thank you for reading our story and don’t forget you can keep up with all our latest news on our social media platforms and find lots more information on our NB Enterprise website here. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

Well done again to the students and a huge thank you to our amazing staff, Mr Handrick, Mr Slater and Mr Bright for their support. They work incredibly hard to ensure that our students really do get the best out of college life.

Congratulations also go to Josie who has been awarded ‘Worker of the Week’ for putting extra special effort in to helping run The Atrium Cafe. Well done Josie!

Now because of the heavy snow on Tuesday afternoon, we had to cancel our Bridging the Gap Open Evening. We will be sending out letters next week with a new date.

Something tells me I may also be in touch in the next two weeks regarding a visit from OFSTED! As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’re ready! Let’s show them why we are still an OUTSTANDING organisation.

Have a wonderful weekend… I do love my job!

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

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