Growing in Confidence!

Another busy week here at Future Finders…

I am really proud of the students, to hear how they are growing in confidence on their placements. I also enjoyed the yoga session, although I am not as flexible as Jojo!

Let’s start with an update from our job coach, Anne-Marie…

“Our Future Finders have had their first week back and it has been a very busy week. We have been busy working, we have been busy visiting placements, we have even had a couple of students apply for jobs already (fingers crossed they are selected for interview) What a great start to the year!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, Monday – Wednesday are placement days: A few of us have managed to get out this week and a few more will start next week.

I will hand over to our Job Coaches Mike and Diane, who can fill you in on our first week at Oldham Library and Avro Football Club…”

Oldham Library

“This was the first week of students returning to Oldham Library on placement. Grace, Abigail and Nathan visited the library on Monday and were given a tour of the building by a member of the library staff. They were shown all the public access areas, staffroom, kitchen and basement.

On Tuesday, Grace, Abigail and Nathan were excited about starting their new roles. We arrived at 10 am and the students signed in and collected their badges from the issue desk.

We went to the staffroom and left our belongings safely for the rest of the day. The students were introduced to Patrick who provided a timetable and what the roles involved. During the morning Patrick expected them to finish two boxes of children’s packs, however, our students worked really well as a team and completed five boxes. Abigail was excellent as a team leader. During the day, again students spent time revising and tidying the Children’s Library Non-fiction section.

After lunch, we had a tour of The Gallery Oldham, during which Nathan was quite mesmerised by one of the paintings.

Abigail, Grace and Nathan have now joined the library and have borrowed seven books each. We have also registered to use the computers and are now able to log on over lunch time.

Wednesday was also a great success again completing more packs for the children’s library.

It’s been a great start to returning to the library and our students have thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills, meeting new people and working alongside the public.

You have all been amazing and a pleasure to work with, well done Abigail, Nathan and Grace.”

Avro Football Club

“Students arrived at Avro on Tuesday, staff welcomed them back and are pleased that they are continuing to support and help out around the grounds. Things have changed at Avro, more changing rooms have been put in place, a new pop up gym, grounds are up and running and both pitches are ready for matches.

Ged, the site manager introduced himself and spent time with the lads, they had a really good chat. Yes, it was football related, a bit of rivalry, being a City or Manchester United fan, all good banter…

We did a tour of the site and showed the students what kind of work they will be doing and where all the equipment is kept. There is now a marquee boxing gym, which again we can work in and keep clean and tidy.

Lewis, Jordan and Alan worked really well this week, cleaning and keeping the grounds tidy. They cleaned changing rooms, the minibus and completed groundwork. Ged also mentioned the lads are quite welcome to join him on Saturdays for home games to help out, or just to watch the matches.

Avro was really busy this week with footballers, members of the public and other colleges all working on site. Our students met lots of new people and were polite and friendly to everyone they met. We’re really pleased with their commitment, politeness and willingness to get stuck in, well done lads.

In class this week, to start our lessons we did a little bit of yoga, getting in to the right mind set to carry out our work and to focus on the tasks ahead.

Alongside this, we have been working on our Employability qualifications, looking at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to our futures, and identifying how we can overcome these challenges and use our strengths to better ourselves, and make us stand out from the crowd to create our meaningful futures.

We have also spent time together, as a group. It has been great to see our students forming new friendships and building on existing ones.”

What a busy first week back! Sometimes you don’t realise how busy you have been until you put ‘pen to paper’ and have to write what you have achieved – Time flies when you’re having fun!!

Have a fab, restful weekend everyone!

Rebeckah and the FFS Team.