Welcome Back…

Hello everyone, it has been lovely to get back to College this week after half term and see all the students again.

I would like to share with you a message from our new Head of College, Scott McKeown, who will start on 4th January 2022:

“I am really looking forward to this great opportunity to be part of the New Bridge family. I will be working closely with students and staff, and the wider community of Oldham and surrounding areas, building strong relations with employers, other educational providers and organisations to ensure that we all work together to be the best that we can be, succeed and really make a vital difference.

Oldham is an area with exciting prospects, and I look forward to becoming a member of the community and forging strong and important relationships.

I am extremely thrilled about my new role and I am very enthusiastic to lead the College to enhance student progress, progression and experience during a time of significant change.

Prior to joining New Bridge, I have held teaching and leadership positions across colleges in the North-West and North and South Yorkshire, and I have substantial experience in driving high quality education and outstanding outcomes.

Excellent education and enhancing student experience are areas in which I feel extremely passionate about.

Best wishes

Scott”

FFS Update:

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a lovely half term and got some rest.

This time of year is usually quite settled, everyone back in placements, all established with employers, but the start of this term feels a little different with all the offers that our students are looking in to and getting interviews for, and this is a great achievement so early in the academic year.

I mentioned before half term about Alan, gaining paid employment, well enthusiasm and proudness of Alan gaining this employment has clearly spurred the others in the group on to get where they want to be.

We have Summer attending an interview for a meet and greet position for over the festive period, Grace has been applying for jobs with the local theatre company, Jordan will be doing some work experience with Northern Roots, with hopefully a positive outcome for him, and then we have JoJo, who has been working with a new company that has just come on board with us and the future looks very bright for him there – So everyone keep your fingers crossed for them all.

I mentioned earlier that JoJo has been working at a new placement – This is a company called TXL & Freedom Fire based over in Pilsworth. TXL & Freedom Fire are a company that provide PPE and Fire Extinguishers around the country.

JoJo has settled in so well, they are pushing him to learn the jobs that he needs and are so supportive of him, adapting to make sure he learns in the way that suits him best, enabling him to achieve his goals, they just get him!

Now I could have taken loads of photos of JoJo, but he is a little camera shy, so I only managed to get a couple…….

I even received a message late on Wednesday asking if JoJo would like to go in and do an extra day – which of course JoJo jumped at the opportunity.

Feedback from the guys at TXL has been positive…

“He is definitely a good worker, and he is asking all the right questions which is what this is all about. He likes to think about the next steps which is great.”

We will also be holding Parent’s Meetings next week – One of our job coaches will be in touch to talk to you about how all our Future Finders are getting on and what their next steps will be.

On Wednesday our Job Coach Tisha managed to catch up with Luka, an ex Future Finders student…

Luka secured employment at David Lloyd Clubs as part of their Housekeeping team.

It was nice to see Luka thriving in his job role and he even offered to show our new students various work tasks as a Housekeeping assistant.

Luka had a few words to say…

YouTube Link to Message from Luka

Have wonderful weekend, everyone!

Rebeckah & the FFS Team