Today was the day we welcomed our students back after 2 weeks of virtual learning through our iPads. It was a great relief to see one another face to face and catch up this morning over breakfast sandwiches in the canteen.

After a couple of weeks of not leaving the house, a lot of the boys had lots of energy they needed to burn off. We had 2 groups for Duke of Edinburgh today and despite the cold, spirits were high. One group paid a visit to Middle Black Clough Waterfall is High Peak, and Jayden tried his best to guide us back the muddiest way possible. We just about made it in one piece, whilst the other group paid a visit to Crompton Moor where the boys were chased off by a little French Bulldog.

This week during the PSHE virtual offer, students were asked to think about what things they could do to help lead a healthy lifestyle. We focused on a healthy balanced diet, looking into the different food groups, then asked students to find food labels from within their homes. We will be looking into these in more detail next week.

Levi, Lewis and Shaun from our engagement pathway paid a visit to the Saddleworth Cookery School this week where they tried their hand at making a chicken curry with naan bread. Fingers crossed they’ve got their eyes on a job in the kitchen here as it looked absolutely delicious.

During their virtual Maths classes this week, the students were working on their percentages and fractions of amount. As you can see, our virtual offer worked absolutely fantastically and allowed us to overcome the latest obstacle thrown our way whilst still ensuring our young people received their education. I just hope they can now work out what percentage of them look like they’ve only just woken up!!

Over the past 2 weeks, as part of our English class, our students have been carrying out a research project of the horrific case of Rhys Jones. They were asked to look into the case and provide a report on not only the case itself but to write a review of the programme that followed called Little Boy Blue. Here are some examples that have been submitted for marking, which make a fascinating but upsetting read, well done everybody.

Today has been a terrific end to a different and turbulent couple of weeks, but if there’s one thing it has taught us, it is that we can overcome anything when we work together. We can’t wait to get going again on Monday full time and welcome December in next week as we approach Christmas.

Enjoy your weekend everybody.

Mr Garbutt
Springboard Project

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