Welcome to this week’s blog! This week’s blog is written by myself, Miss Brown. I am the PSCHE teacher over at our Springboard Project. I have worked within the Group now for two years and previously as part of the Spring Brook School, before our amalgamation into the Academy Trust. This year has seen some great changes, we opened our new school in Oldham town centre and welcomed both new staff and pupils onboard our journey. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge and very warm welcome to both.

This week’s blog is the school term’s final week for Autumn one and I would like to say what a huge success it has been. The pupils of the Springboard Project have settled right into their new location and the attendance statistics for this term are at an all time high. This term has seen an array of changes; the location, the curriculum and the dynamics of learning. As a staff team we have witnessed the mature attitudes of all of the pupils attending the college and can confidently say “the pupils are making huge progress”.

In English this week Mrs. Fraser has been exploring creative writing; she has asked all students to watch crime related documentaries and produce a piece of creative writing based around specific language and vocabulary.

This project is one of many to come, based around Crime and Punishment throughout the English curriculum. Next term is going to introduce English based activities surrounding historic criminality; Jack the Ripper, The Moors murders, Heists week, murder mystery and much more. This topic fits nicely with the introduction to a fresh topic in PSCHE, ‘Criminal offenders and victims of crime’. Nice cross curricular link there Mrs. Fraser.

PSCHE this week has concluded the topic of ‘Family and home life.’ We have explored a vast array of information from the roles and responsibilities of a parent/carer, researching the laws around smacking and punishment of a child, discussing the rights parents/carers have when disciplining their children, moving on to the start of the introduction to ‘neighborhood and the environment, victims of crime/victim support’. Below are a few examples of some excellent pieces of work completed by our learners..

Next term our PSCHE curriculum is going to include a look into the Criminal Youth justice system and its links to the community. We are specifically going to be looking at the reasons why youths get caught up in criminality and the sociological classes of our society. We are going to explore the criminal justice process, from the act of criminality to alternate forms of punishment. Exciting new topic for our Springboarders to look forward to.

During Maths with Mr. Ward this week, the pupils have continued to work on simplifying fractions and equivalent fractions. The pupils have been revising and developing their division skills, whilst extending their mathematical knowledge a little further; using addition in decimals. In store for next half term will be a huge focus on data. The learners will be collecting their own live data, creating and reading charts, using ratio and looking at percentage increase and decrease ready for the Christmas period!! By the end of this next half term, Springboard students will know exactly what bargains to look for in the sales, great idea Mr. Ward.

Moving on, last but definitely not least to ICT with Mr. Wilkes. This last week has been the completion and, in the words of Mr. Wilkes, the ‘polishing off’ of imaging software. All learners are now up to date with the management of image software and re-touching. The software that has been used this term has been Serif PhotoPlus, where Mr. Wilkes has been able to assess progress through their online E-portfolio. Here is just an example of one of the pieces created using this software. Impressive!

Moving forward into next half term comes very exciting times…… we have had the delivery of our new simulator and cameras!!! The next new term is going to include work on a new client brief and Mr. Wilkes will be ‘dabbling’ in a bit of photography with our new equipment. I will look forward to seeing some of the results. You can find out more about our exciting new simulator here.

As always, I would like to give a shout out to our Key Stage 5 students, who have continued to work hard out on their placements this week, as well as recognising our learners who, alongside staff, work at our offsite provisions. These students have been out working at the Hortus project, a huge well done to all of those out in the ever-changing Autumn weather.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our pupils for maintaining extremely high standards in their attitudes to learning this term, whilst also thanking the new staff who have joined our team for all your hard work in the progressive strong relationships you are continuously building with our learners.

I would like to say “Happy Halloween” to all of our pupils, parents and staff. Happy half term, I will look forward to seeing everyone back after the holiday.

Miss Brown

Mrs Tootill also has a message..

Well, we made it and what a half term it’s been!!! When the doors opened in September, we really did not know how our young people were going to settle into a new building, with a new routine and a new set of staff. I’m delighted to say we’ve had a brilliant start to Springboard and to the new school year!

A new building is only as good as the people who are in it. The staff play a vital part in ensuring our young people are cared for, challenged and nurtured – both academically and emotionally. Our back room staff are amazing and have ensured that we’ve had a relatively ‘snag free’ start to the year. The communication and support from parents, carers and people around the students has been key to ensuring that, where difficulties have arisen, there have been positive solutions and outcomes . Our administration has played a vital part between home and school. A ‘thank you’ needs to go to Medtia staff and students who have welcomed us onto the Oldham campus and have helped us settle into the town centre .

Finally my thanks goes to our students, who bring something new to our door every day of the academic year. I’ll leave you with a plaque that sits in my office..

Have a safe holiday, happy Halloween and we will see you in November!

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

You can find our all blog entries here