Happy New Year. I can’t believe we are into the year 2020 already. Springboard has completed its first term and we are now planning the year ahead. In our Trust, nothing stays still. In Graham’s blog this week he has mentioned some exciting new initiatives for the new year and we will be playing an instrumental part in some of the new things to come – more about that in the new year ……

We are also welcoming a new member of staff, Miss Cooney, who has come to support all our young people.

We started the week with a slight technical hitch. Luckily support services were on hand and one of our key partners, MAHDLO, came to the rescue. Unfortunately our site manager Phil lost his dad after a long illness, so he is presently not with us. We are thinking of him and his family at this sad time.

At the end of last year I wrote to all families about what we had achieved in the past term. The aim of Springboard is to ensure we give ALL our young people the skills ready for employment. This term we have looked at our fundamental college rules:

• To be ready to learn. To be on time, with uniform and ready to be challenged. Uniform is key; in all areas of work, a uniform is required – whether it is PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) or uniform that tells customers or clients they are part of the company (think Tesco’s blue tops). Miss Taylor is ensuring that at the start of the day everyone is wearing uniform.
• To be safe. We live and work in a busy town centre. It’s important for our students to know that at any one time there can be 4000 students in the town. If students leave site, it is our responsibility to inform parents and then the police. We trust and value our students’ safety more than any other priority in college. Miss Ainsworth is working with families around community access and being safe on transport.
• To be respectful. On Monday morning the Springboard staff greeted everyone with a handshake, a ‘welcome back’ and a ‘Happy New Year’. It’s time to start again.

This week some of our students returned to their work placements. Marcell has worked so well that he is now placed at David Lloyd and his work placement coach Tisha is really pleased at the progress he has made..

Marcell has been awarded this week’s ‘Worker of the Week’ in recognition of how hard he has worked..

We are always looking to develop placement opportunities for our young people as this is excellent preparation for working life.

Next week we start the preparations for the roll out of the iPad 1:1 project and we have finally received our ICT hardware, so our ICT teams will be busy on the installation of that. A big ‘thanks’ to those teams who have been amazing since our opening and beyond.

I’ve also begun my new year by finally getting my trainers out again. My main passion is swimming but, encouraged by Mr and Mrs Wilkes (Mr Wilkes is our ICT deliverer), I completed my first park run (and actually did my second yesterday). The park run is free and I have to say so encouraging. I know quite a lot of our Trust staff run and I can’t wait for the run where our Trust volunteers.

So that’s it from me. Have a great week,

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project

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