This is my first blog for a long time as I’ve been really busy working on the curriculum and also on our Springboard Project, but more about this later.

So, where do I begin? Key Stage 4 and 5 continue to work hard and play harder. Since half term they have settled well into the structure of different classes with a slightly different timetable. Whilst we have had to change things around, the students have really worked well.

The Springboard building has now been bought and I’m continuing to work with both building teams and ICT..

Key Stage 5 have been working on an ‘Enterprise’ module in our favourite subject at Dean Street … food! Every Friday morning they’ve been busy cooking and baking for staff and students and, as a reward for all their hard work, they enjoyed a day out at the pictures. On top of this, both Chloe and Corey have been working hard at the Atrium café..

We also really enjoyed all the Spring Brook fundraising for Children in Need – with a great team!

Key stage 4 have a brilliant term out and about. The boys have played at City in the Community tournament at the Etihad and really enjoyed playing against their New Bridge counterparts..

Both Bronze and Silver groups continue to brave the elements for Duke of Edinburgh and have been out and about walking in various hilly locations in the North West..

Both groups are also beginning to ‘climb to new heights’ at Manchester Climbing Wall and the Climbing Experience at Stockport. Both groups have thoroughly enjoyed this and we are hoping to get out and about in the new year.

I also ventured out to Fermain Academy in Macclesfield to see how they set up their outstanding free school. It certainly gave me plenty of food for thought as to what our Springboard vision will look like..

Finally, Miss Rodgers and I went on a brilliant course, ‘When Adults Change, Everything Changes’ delivered by Pivotal Education which centred around the importance of changing hearts and minds. This included having a ‘hot choc Friday’ as quality time for us as leaders of the school to spend time with students who have worked hard. So watch this space for our hot chockers (Spring Brook students – please don’t panic that this will replace SLT lunch).

We also got a selfie with the main man, Paul Dix..

Paul is a national leader in education and has worked with lots of schools like ours throughout the country. We are looking forward to working with Pivotal and the team.

Here is Kian having his choc of the week..

I’d like to finish this week by sharing a message from Daniel Wood, head of the Future Finders Employability College and the Key Stage 5 Pathways at Medtia..

We would like to set up a parent employer network where parents and representatives from business meet termly to discuss how we can extend our range of work experience placements and employer encounters. This could be co-ordinating visits to your place of work or arranging work experience placements for students within our Group. We are looking for parents to join this forum who are employed in ANY sector. If you are interested, please contact our work placement co-ordinator Maria for further information. Her email is mstatham@newbridgegroup.org or you can call her on 0161 883 2403.

Please do contact Maria if you would be interested in finding out more about employer encounters or work experience placements.

So here we go into Advent and getting ready for Christmas!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project

You can find all our previous blog entries here

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