Welcome to Springboard!

After 3 long years the wait is finally over and on Wednesday 4th September we open our doors to our Springboard students. The building was handed over on Friday to Mr Quinn and Mrs Righini and as you will see from the photos, it’s looking impressive!!

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”2″ gal_title=”August 19″]

We’ve had some technological issues over the past few weeks but our brilliant ICT heroes have come to the rescue to ensure our building is ready to meet our students, some new and some old.

We wrote to everyone at the start of the holiday but here is a quick reminder as to what is happening next week:

• Wednesday 4th September ~ Year 10 and Year 11 students and families are invited into the Project to see the new rooms and meet the Springboard staff. There will be a presentation by myself and Mr Pidlyskyj to talk about the new curriculum, the layout of the building and the day to day routines. We will also talk about our plans for Springboard and our expectations, both in and out of the college.
• Thursday 5th September ~ Year 12 and Year 13 students will have the same tour and talk. All families and carers are welcome.
• Friday 6th September ~ we will be organising team building activities and familiarisation with the local community amenities.

The students will be given a set of uniform at the start of the year and if parents and carers want to purchase any additional uniform, this can be done through Mrs Shannon, our administrator.

Mr Molloy will also be on hand to answer any questions on pastoral care and issues such as transport.

I would like to say a massive thanks to my staff who have been amazing and supported me during the build-up to Springboard. We have welcomed a few new additions (which I’ll be blogging about next week). Our line-up is:

• Mr Pidlyskyj – Deputy Head for Springboard Project and also for Medtia
• Mrs Shannon – Administrator
• Mrs Burrows – PSCHE
• Mr Wilkes – ICT
• Mr Molloy – Pastoral Support/PE/OAA
• Mr Hopkins – PE/OAA
• Mr Roscoe – Transition team
• Mr Clough – Transition team
• Miss Caines – Transition team
• Mr Daly – Support
• Mr Oughton – Support
• Mrs Roberts – Support
• Mr Jones – Site Manager

..and we are saying a big warm welcome to..

• Mr Ward – Maths
• Mrs Fraser – English
• Mrs Taylor – support

There are some key people that have been with us every step of the way – Frank, Phil, Kevin and Damien – plus the whole Conlon’s construction and build team. You said you would deliver us a building ON TIME and you did!!!

To Linsey Stansfield, Sharon Thornton and Andrew Wild from the DfE, again a massive thank you for your support throughout the Project.

To colleagues from Arcadia and Mace – Tom and Will – who put up with our change of plans and have designed a fantastic building which will benefit our students in the next part of their journey.

My last ‘thank you’ goes to Mrs Righini and Mr Quinn who have supported us on this journey and always kept our vision at the centre of the Project.

And finally to my family who have listened to endless talk around building specification, timelines and FFNE!!!!

So it’s nearly HAPPY NEW SCHOOL YEAR time – good luck to everyone starting in September and to my colleagues in the rest of the Trust who are starting something new and exciting.

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project