Happy New Year from the Springboard Project!! I’m obviously a little behind with my blog (I know it’s now February!) but that’s because we’ve had so much happening down at Dean Street.

We began this year looking at how we can document work experience. The New Bridge Group are part of the Greater Manchester drive to get young people into the world of work, so our Key Stage 4 staff have been looking for lots of opportunities around working within school. This initiative is called ‘Gatsby’ and has several benchmarks to fulfil. The first is working/volunteering in your present setting, so we have Ewan working with the administrators and Mark with the site team..

Ewan did such a good job, he also made it to having ‘Hot Choc Friday’ with me for all his hard work..

Thanks also need to go to Lucy, Natalie and Harvey for showing our young people a working environment.

We’ve also been working hard on living skills (especially cooking – as you know, we love to cook down here!) and January has proved no exception (the diet resolution did not work for some of us!) Here Jameel is showing us some of his work, along with DJ – both boys are the next up and coming Jamie Olivers!!!

Some of the staff here have more determination to stick to their diet and fitness regimes, however. This has really paid off for Mr Wilkes who came second place in a local cross fit competition. Here he is receiving his award from another finely trained athlete – Mr Daly..

Well done Mr Wilkes and keep going!

Last week I went to London to the Pre-Opening event of the Free Schools. This was a 2 day conference and it was good to hear how many Trusts have set up their free school and the impact it’s had on their young people..

We have 8 months until the Springboard Project finally opens its doors and one resolution I’m determined to keep is that it will produce the BEST outcomes for all our young people. There is one particular slide from the conference which I want to share. The guest speaker talked about some key principles, namely:

• Head – that knowledge matters
• Heart – we do what we do because we care
• Hands – the world needs leaders who can shape society for the better

And that’s what we are going to do in 2019. It’s our New Year’s Resolution.

Mrs Tootill
Head of Springboard Project

You can find all our previous blog entries here

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