This week I would like to dedicate my blog to my fantastic staff team. Time and time again they go above and beyond to ensure that our students have the best possible opportunities, and that goes further than the classroom. They offer outstanding support pastorally and are continuously looking for opportunities to further develop their skills to ensure that each of our students reach an appropriate destination. So, Future Finders staff, if you are reading this (which I hope you are!), you are wonderful! On behalf of our students and families, thank you for everything that you do.

A few weeks ago in my blog, I mentioned a peer to peer review that we participated in at Medtia where head teachers and professionals from other schools within our Trust spent the day looking at our curriculum. I fed back the full report to our staff team this week and once again, I would like to highlight some of their findings to you all:

• ‘There was a real sense of family and support within all of the placements, with trusting, solid relationships clearly formed’
• Respect and trust from members of the wider community had been expressed within each placement and a comment from a member of the public which captured this was, “He is a credit to your school/organisation and we love having him here.”
• The amount of dedication and hard work that had been invested from staff and young people along their journeys with New Bridge absolutely confirmed our ‘Learning Together, Learning for All and Learning for Life’ ethos and values
• Staff were wholly supportive and equally passionate about their work and roles and shared the same levels of enjoyment supporting our young people, which was powerful to see.
• The curriculum at Medtia can be characterised as:

Aspirational

Inspirational

Personalised

Destination Focused

Influential

Life Changing!!

Rigorous

Collaborative

Holistic

Empowering

Ever Evolving

Once again, this truly shows how fantastic our staff and students are and what a difference we are making. I feel extremely proud!

Now over to our staff and students for an update on another busy week for us here at Medtia…

Another week goes by and another success story!!!

Monday, as ever, is our college day. In English we have been busy completing our presentations for our Functional Skills Speaking and Listening assessments and in Maths we have been busy preparing for our up and coming exams!!!

Employability has had us focusing on Healthy Lifestyles and looking at what we do in our own lives that has both a positive and negative effect on our bodies and minds. Next week we will be looking at creating an action plan to help us remain as healthy as we can be!

We are still continuing with our Job Club – dedicated time for the young people to look for jobs and apply for them with support of a Job Coach to aid in the young people’s destinations.

As always, Tuesday to Thursday sees us out on placement and this week we have had some great news..

Sebastian continues to impress at Stoneswood Retirement Home on a Tuesday and Thursday!

“He gets on with his tasks and he is great! He likes chatting and it is really nice to see some of the relationships that he is building with the people here.”

Colette has been busy this week, saying goodbye to her current work placement..

..and completing her trial at Dr Kershaw’s Hospice café for her new placement that starts next week!! We’ve had some lovely feedback from Dr Kershaw’s:

“She is a fab worker and we can tell she knows her way around a café.”

Here’s what Colette thinks about her new role..

[fvplayer id=”3″]

Well done Colette, another great achievement!! Good luck for next week Colette!

Afsana is doing a brilliant job at The Childcare Village in Shaw. The manager told us..

“Afsana has been working hard on learning how we complete child observations using photographs and writing what it is we see. Well done Afsana, keep up the good work!!”

Helal is doing brilliantly over at David Lloyd Gym. The feedback from his Job Coach is..

“He is great worker, gets on with what he needs to do and does it to a good standard.”

Tara is excelling at the Clean Plate Kitchen in Oldham..

“It has been great with Tara over the past week or so, it’s like someone has flicked a switch. She is keen to learn new things and get more and more involved in what is going on in the café and trying extremely hard at everything she does, not that she ever didn’t, but this past week she has just got better!”

Well done Tara!!

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Kyra is now working at NSL and they are really pleased with the progress she is making..

“She is certainly keen and we seem to be in more of a routine now in terms of what tasks she does and when she does them.”

Again, well done Kyra!!!

Edward is working over at the Atrium and the feedback from Becky, the Atrium Manager, is that..

“He’s fabulous!”

See you all soon. Have a great weekend!

This weekend, in my other role as a theatre producer, I shall be rocking out at The O2 Ritz in Manchester with my show ‘The Power Ballad Orchestra’. Thankfully I have Sunday to recover before the start of another exciting week at Medtia.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Daniel

You can view our previous blog entries here

Click here for this week’s news from Graham