I know I start my blog most weeks with ‘it has been another busy week here at Medtia…’ but this week, it really has! On Monday afternoons I attend a weekly meeting with all of the heads of schools/colleges across our MAT and this week, the meeting began with a presentation from our Digit4ll students on their Sea Clear business. To say that they were brilliant is an understatement! I was amazed by their confidence and professionalism, presenting for 15 minutes without any cues or scripts! They absolutely blew our socks off! They were there to ask heads for opportunities to talk to students in their schools about plastic in the ocean and to see if there were any events that they could attend to sell their Sea Clear environmentally friendly bags. All the heads offered a number of events and opportunities and, most importantly, they all bought a bag! Well done to you all, I was extremely proud!

Now on to Tuesday, where after months and months of preparation, our students along with students from across our trust, joined forces to present the biggest and by far the best production the New Bridge theatre has ever seen! I have been lucky enough to see the show 3 times this week and all I can say is WOW! I, along with many, many others, have shed a tear and cheered with joy as our inspirational students performed ‘The Greatest Show’. When I started at New Bridge 11 years ago, I was a drama teacher and I know only too well what an undertaking it is to produce a show on such a scale! Our staff well and truly pulled it off! It was just incredible to see so many students on the stage from all of the schools within our MAT! The set and costumes were incredible, we had a live band with two professional singers but, of course, that was all there just to support our talented students. The professionalism was second to none, and as always, we have such high expectations and aspirations for our students that it would outshine any high school production I have ever seen!

I can’t single people out, but I want to acknowledge all of our talented and dedicated staff who have truly given up their lives this week to put this show on! We are absolutely privileged to have such amazing teachers and advisors within our trust who can have such vision and drive to pull this off! How you will top this in the future I don’t know, but you will! Thank you to everyone who has given up their time this week and most importantly congratulations to our students! You are all truly AMAZING! I also want to thank Digit4ll who filmed the show and sold their products front of house! They also edited the films featured in the show! What a great team effort! The show was enjoyed by all of our students when we took them to see it on Thursday morning..

On top of all of that this week, some of our students were also out on their Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s practice expedition! Mr Taylor will be bringing us his report next week but we have a few pictures to share with you today..

Our job coach Colin has a work experience update for us..

This week the placement at the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice charity shop in Royton has been attended by Ewan.

Ewan works here on a Wednesday morning from 10am to 12pm and has been here for the past 6 weeks. Ewan completes various different cleaning tasks including the general cleaning of the shop upstairs and downstairs..

..upkeep of the car park, stock rotation, sorting and organising clothes, pricing and working on the shop floor..

The Shop Manager’s feedback has been very positive, saying ‘It’s brilliant to have Ewan with us at Forget Me Not and to see him have the opportunity to experience different jobs. Ewan is a huge help and always willing to have a go at all the tasks asked of him’

It’s great to see Ewan access work experience as this gives him the opportunity to understand and experience working life in a fully functional work place and build positive working relationships with new people. Work experience has a highly positive effect on our students, enabling them to learn new skills, boosting their confidence and building on current skills.

So, after an incredible week, I would like to wish all of our staff and students a restful Bank Holiday weekend! It came at the right time for you all. I am looking forward to a few days away with friends in Scotland. Don’t forget that our Medtia parents’ evening is next Tuesday 7th May from 4pm to 6pm. Please ensure that you arrive no later than 5.30pm. I look forward to chatting to you there.

Daniel
Head of Key Stage 5 Pathways

You can view our previous blog entries here

News from the Learning Centre and New Bridge School can be found here

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