It can be more beneficial in the long run to teach a person how to do something than to do that something for them. The full proverb (though the wording does vary) goes like this: ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’

This is what we do at Pushforward – giving young people the tools to look after themselves, whether this be academic subjects, practical skills towards their career, employability skills or life skills such as cooking.

Here we are trying our hand at fishing…

And then once we have taught young people how to fish, we need to teach them how to cook and what an amazing couple weeks of food delights we have prepared:

in no particular order…..cheesy Nachos, M&M chocolate chip cookies, Rocky Road, Victoria sponge, pizza, blackberry jam, cupcakes, edible Xmas trees, making bread at the Food Museum learning from seed to flatbread process milling water mill and by hand, burritos, profiteroles and eclairs, spring rolls, homemade burgers and wedges, smoothies, Kiwi jam and chocolate brownie, Beef Wellington!!

And as always we like to make sure the young people know the importance of exercise – from climbing to football, to walks in the forest, playing in the park, cycling in our gym or even time on the VR headset, skating at Curve Motion and winning four footballs!. As long as they are getting an opportunity to get their heart rate up, using their co-ordination skills, and having fun.

Regular exercise has lots of health benefits for young people including;

• Improving fitness
• Improving hand-eye co-ordination
• Increasing concentration
• Building a stronger heart, bones and healthier muscles
• Encouraging healthy growth and development
• Improving attention and memory
• Reducing risk of depression

Trips to Banham Zoo, Colchester Castle, Nowton Park, Jimmy’s Farm, Moyes Hall and a special trip for a car enthusiast to Lamborghini garage.

The way young people learn while travelling is in many respects comparable to what educational researchers call play-based learning. Play-based learning and travel stimulate young people’s minds by boosting their creativity and imagination. Both can also help develop social and emotional skills and encourage language development.

Why learn about animals and history in a classroom when you can experience it on a trip. #learning #memories #fun #education

Project Train Journeys. These young people have learnt how to plan destinations, buy train tickets, made the most of their time on the train playing games, and why not wear a Royal Army Engineers hat on the trip!

What have they learned? socialisation skills, independent skills, communication, building confidence and ultimately a life skill that will help them moving into adulthood, when needing to travel for work or meeting friends.

Loads of academic work carried out this last two weeks, from paper based to computer work. No matter the age learning maths and English is super important – especially if it is learned in a relaxed environment, with no pressure and loads of encouragement and praise for the amazing work our young people achieve every week.

• Working on area and circumference of circles
• Algebra
• Addition, counting using Numicon
• Co-ordinates
• Solving shape problems
• Shooting number targets
• GCSE work
• Number plates
• Number blocks
• Timestables
• Learning about money
• Employability
• Learning about Banksy art

Over to Newmarket 1, Newmarket 2 and Lowestoft 1 for our hands on practical learning. Building side tables, benches, welding, making rolling pins, continuation of the guitar project, soldering sculpture and making building blocks for younger children to play with.

• Practical work promotes experiential learning.
• Practical work familiarises young people with tools and equipment that they will be required to use if they choose this as a career choice.
• Understanding that practice makes perfect. You can’t be an expert in practical subjects overnight, greater the practice, greater the expertise.
• Practical work has clear benefits, helping young people acquire the essential skills that not only give a fluid transition to higher-study, but open the doors to career choices
• Seeing the fruit of your labour – having a tangible end result can provide young people with huge confidence in their ability.

And some of those smiles on faces shows they are having fun whilst learning…

Over in the Beauty Room we have been practicing:

• Make Up
• Patch testing (as being safe is important)
• Acrylic nails
• Brow tinting
• And mirroring makeup – replicating one side done by someone else.

Artwork using different mediums from building a wire sculpture elephant, creating layers for a sketch book, to drawing faces on paper

Learning about trees from their roots.

Did you know….The roots anchor the trunk and crown of the tree and make them stable. They also take up water and nutrients from the soil and serve as a store for carbohydrates. The trunk, branches and stems of the tree give the tree height so the leaves can capture as much light energy as possible. (The-Tree-Council-Module-2-Tree-biology.pdf (treecouncil.org.uk)

This week we also celebrated a birthday…

“Your birthday is the beginning of your own personal new year.” – Wilfred Peterson

Playing a game of Risk – a strategy game that is played in turns, with the primary objective being world domination. To achieve this, players are required to defeat their adversaries in battle and seize their territories.

Playing this game necessitates: strategic foresight, tactical decision-making, and a measure of good fortune!

A big empty box is a great starting point for creative and imaginative play. Young people can decide how to change the box into something they can use for pretend play, like a castle. Then they can use their imagination and problem-solving skills to turn ideas into reality. Cardboard boxes can also encourage physical play.

We also did some Lego building and using a reference book to make dinosaur eggs. And working together as a team has amazing benefits for young people as part of their imaginative play.

What are the benefits of imaginative play?

Imaginative play has a number of benefits. We list a few of these below.

• Imaginative play encourages your child to be independent. In their imaginative play, they can incorporate their observations of the world around them, which can help them to start to make sense of their world.
• Imaginative play can help your child to develop their social skills, as they learn to adapt their play around other people’s ideas.
• Imaginative play can also help your child to build emotional skills, as they may act out situations that require them to be kind and caring.
• Imaginative play can nurture your child’s creativity as they think about different and new experiences.
• Imaginative play can give your child the opportunity to work through a number of situations when encountering problems and finding solutions.
• It also encourages language development through exploring and narrating stories or scenarios.

What Are Some Imaginative Play Activities? – Twinkl

Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” But, what exactly is the true self and where did this idea come from? Here we are working on “What I know to be true about myself”. “What people who don’t know me – may think about me”.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again with candy canes and silver lanes aglow. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, toys in every store, but the prettiest sight to see, is the holly that will be, on your own front door…”

Our Ethos

No one can begin to affect the world around them until they are CONFIDENT , COMFORTABLE, happy in their own skin and have found their SPARK! We take the time to understand and develop programmes from where the learner is in the world not where we think they should be.