Tried to find a theme for this week’s blog, but it was such an eclectic mix of learning I couldn’t, but isn’t that great! – to have so many different activities, so much learning in different ways; from fishing, climbing, trampolining, cooking writing, art drawings, woodwork, maths, English, photography, birthdays, tree climbing, assembling furniture, chess playing, welding, making fairy doors, sensory play, more baking, washing cars and so much more!

Lets start with making fairy doors, that sounds awesome….what a great way to spend an afternoon – outdoors, getting creative, planting flowers, using our imagination.

Next lets go fishing. How great for a young person to be outside, enjoying nature and not just watching telly, or sat in front of a computer!….Hope he caught something exciting!

Before we head back inside lets see what else we got up to outside, away from the computer…. Washing the van (very handy life skill to learn!) and helping us keep out cabin clean and sparkling.

Who doesn’t like to climb a tree (don’t worry it looks higher up than it was!)

And over in photography what a way to really capture the outdoors and what an honor to have a Robin on your hand!

You all know that at Pushforward we believe in life skills as an important tool to help young people entering into adulthood be better prepared for what life may throw at them. Flat pack furniture has to be a life skill worth learning?! Confusing instructions, parts missing, parts that don’t look like the picture on the instructions or that one screw left over when you thought you had finished!

But well done to this young lady who put together some of our new furniture over in Newmarket 2 with no problem – now the Arts & Crafts area have something to work on.

As we know cooking is a life skill all of us should have, no one wants to (or can) live on Pot Noodles every day! Learning how to cook, understanding budgeting; healthy (but tasty) foods, the health and safety side is so important.

“9 REASONS EVERY CHILD SHOULD LEARN TO COOK extract from https://www.backto thebooknutrition.com/12-reasons-every-child-should-learn-cook/

1. IT’S AN IMPORTANT LIFE SKILL

2. BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS 

3. GIVES APPRECIATION FOR REAL FOOD – Preparing foods from scratch allows children to see for themselves the difference between real foods and processed ones.

4. CUTS DOWN ON PICKY EATING – Even the pickiest eaters will come around to trying new foods if they were involved in cooking them. If you’ve got a picky eater, bring them into the kitchen. Be patient – even if it doesn’t work right away, it will eventually!

5. DEVELOPS FINE MOTOR SKILLS – Stirring, rolling, measuring, sprinkling are just a few kitchen tasks that allow young children to hone their fine motor skills. 

6. REQUIRES FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS  – What child couldn’t use a little more practice in this area? They’re motivated to get it right because dinner may taste bad if they don’t!

7. PRACTICES READING

8. PRACTICES MATH

9. CREATIVE OUTLET“

This week an abundance of food was created from home made breakfast muffins to Chinese and of course we could not let our Mum’s go forgotten with a homemade mum’s day cake…made with love.

Maybe they would like to be a writer, mathematician or just want an opportunity to do their GCSE exams – this week our young people have been working super hard on their academic subjects:

• Crime & Deviance module – use of key words and interpretations.
• Facing your nemesis and doing division!
• Planning English essays
• Describing life as you imagine it would be in 200 years time.
• Poetry.
• Prime numbers coloring, learning subconsciously through art.
• Putting pen to paper to write a story – fantastically creative ideas
• Square numbers, factors, primes and multiples ready for exams,
• Year 7 reading comprehension activities.

This week we have also been learning about farming in East Anglia over the years. Looking at rooms as they would have been in the 50s. What better way to round up the visit to the Food Museum than demolishing a chocolate cupcake!

Woodwork incorporates mathematical thinking, scientific investigation, developing knowledge of technology, a deepening understanding of the world, as well as physical development and coordination, communication and language, and personal and social development.

So over in Newmarket 2 our young people have been working hard building our new work benches. Think our tutor Fred is pleased with the end result!

And we’ve been learning about Brick Laying skills. English playwright, John Heywood’s saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. One brick at a time”, is a reminder of the fact that it requires time and patience to create something big and great.

Over in Newmarket 1 we have been busy working on a car that needed some tender loving welding! Our tutor Oli is showing our young person how to remove a brake disc and our tutor Jaz is showing us her massive PPE hands!

Climbing can be a great activity for young people to get into. It engages the entire body, sharpens visual perception, helps with coordination, agility and balance.

Bowling, climbing and trampolining were our sporting activities this week, as well as some visits to the gym – but they were too busy pumping iron to take some photo’s!

We celebrated a birthday…..

We had some sensory play with water beads and sand.

We created beautiful art designs.

And we finish this week with some games of Connect 4 and Chess.

I think you will agree with me that it has certainly be stupendous week. That our young people have gone away having learnt new skills, improved existing skills, gained new experiences and found their spark!

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.