Why do we do this?

A young person has been kicked out of school, they are misunderstood, they are rejected, they don’t fit, they can’t cope in the environment.

So why do we do this? – The answer:

One father said thank you this week…That’s why we do this!

“…again just want to express how much I appreciate the help and support you are providing our young person. I can see her truly thriving, and becoming her true self. She was a shadow of herself when she was at school, and out of school for so long.” 

Pushforward Education allow young people that don’t fit that standard academic system to sparkle, shine, build their confidence and find their path.

Why do we do these blogs? We love to shout about the amazing work we can do for young people and isn’t it great for parents/carers to see how their young people are now thriving in education!

So lets take a look at some of the amazing work completed this week:

• Photography
• Maths
• Decorating
• Music
• Cooking
• Reading
• Educational Trips
• Bike mechanics
• Car mechanics
• Hairdressing
• Arts & Crafts
• Science experiements
• Georgraphy
• Visiting the Park

But we are going to start the week off with a look at our Newmarket 2 unit – it has finally completed and allows young people to work on: Arts & Crafts, Construction, Bricklaying, Plumbing, Bike Mechanics and Carpentry.

This came in handy to have our bike mechanic area ready, with a young person sanding down his bike ready for painting.

Talking of getting units ready – we opened Lowestoft recently and now our team and young people are getting it ready. Young people that have a passion for construction type activities love feeling a part of our team and knowing they have contributed positively to their location.

Work continues on the gates at NM1 and they are now ready for the next stage of powder coating ready to be painted.

WOW! homemade Sushi, purchasing the ingredients and making chocolate brownies, Cup Cakes..not sure a ‘cup in a cake tin’ is what we had in mind, but the end result with team work in the kitchen was Oreo Cheesecakes, and to finish off a Carmel Salted Cheesecake and more Chocolate Brownies.

Teaching our young people how to cook healthy is really important, but we also know that learning how to cook the fun stuff like the cakes and cheesecakes are great too. After all they are kids, they deserve a treat, but what a great achievement to make them yourself!

A different sort of baking now. Science & Arts experiments.

• Potion Station mixing liquids together and exploring what happens when oil and water is mixed.
• Making a body scrub
• Making wild seed bombs.

When young people participate in science activities, it nurtures their curiosity. Introducing children to science at a young age assists in their brain development. By using materials that children like to play with, it helps them to grow big ideas and be confident to experiment in a safe environment. Of course they learn lots to, for example when this young person was mixing water and oil together exploring the concept of density and heaviness of different liquids.

When you are able to experiment and make something like a body scrub, you end up with a tangible results to be proud of – body scrubs are so easy to make, they are practical and an economical way to keep your body moisturised and clean!

Seed bombing is an ancient practice that restores native wildflowers. Throw these bombs of soil and seeds to the earth and watch them grow into a feasting ground for bees, butterflies, birds and moths.

Over in our Ipswich unit we have some music being created.

Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.

Whether you work for someone or decide to set up your own business, a well-trained barber who is personable can earn good money and its a lasting profession.

In Moreton Hall this week we had a masterclass in cutting hair with a ‘willing’ victim! the end result was awesome.

Some educational visits now, a trip to the seaside, and whilst there had to have a go on the grab machine, after a little frustration to start with, a toy was won!

• Over in Jimmy’s Farm we were able to meet the baby lambs

• A trip to see and learn about different sorts of animals from snakes to rats!

• Over The Food Museum meeting horses and trying out new foods. A few faces were pulled, but the end result, our young person rated the lemon and nettle cake and gave it a 10/10. This young person was very kind today – making sure the lady that made the cakes felt appreciated.

• We also played some Adventure Golf and visited Lackford Lakes.

Being out and about is so important to a young persons education and mental wellbeing. Anxiety about meeting new people and going to new locations is a real issue with young people, so we want to show them in a positive, confident, calm way how being out and about, meeting new people, going to new locations, allows them to explore the amazing world around them and the possibilities open to them all.

A Geography trip for this young person, a visit to the beach, learning about sea defenses and erosion.

A different sort of trip for one of our older students, a trip to Waterstones to choose book her study book on Psychology.

What is psychology in simple words? – Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Psychologists are actively involved in studying and understanding mental processes, brain functions, and behavior.

Going to the library should not just be for older students, here a primary student choses his first book, he was super excited to be checking out his first book using his own library card!

Over in English & Maths we have:

• A young person visiting a local park and in doing so reading and then writing sentences, Year 7 for spellings and building confidence in writing.

• Writing our lyrics for Matilda (Revolting Children).

• We had manual solving number sequences, designing an algorithm, programming and changing between km and miles and calculating speed / seconds.

• This led on to computer programming to provide calculations into a spreadsheet to help predict lengths using a ladder method for swimming.

• Reading about some gruesome local history around Suffolk for English & History.

Why do you have to just use pen and paper to write with – here this young person is spelling out their name using stamps and another sounding out the alphabet with foam letters.

In Primary we were learning about tessellation shapes to make a picture and learning the shape names.

Did you know?….A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps. Another word for a tessellation is a tiling. Only three regular polygons (shapes with all sides and angles equal) can form a tessellation by themselves – triangles, squares, and hexagons – well this young person does now!

And blocks to learn 2,3 and 4 x timetables.

Learning comes in many different forms. Here we have children working together in a group, learning to play nicely. Using their English & reading skills to read the rules of the game to others.

We also did some bug hunting…

A bug hunt is a great way for children to get up close to nature. It gets them out in the fresh air, encourages them to use their observation skills, and gives them a chance to get hands-on with wildlife. Children will gain skills in identification, numeracy, speech, language and communication.

An impromptu lesson on how to change a bulb in a car today in Newmarket 1.

And when you lose a bet when playing pool, you get to help clean the tutors car!

A different type of vehicle now – our resident Bus Expert gets to take a ride on one of his favourite forms of transport.

This young man was being very creative this week and making a shield and sign using real tools such as saw and hammer (don’t worry always under supervision!).

Talking of getting creative we also:

• Collected the results of our glazed pottery painting from last weeks session

• Made a micro fuse beaded keyring

• Learnt how to use a sewing machine practicing stitch options

• Made a crochet a baby hat

• Created a playdough snowman with some Googly eyes

• Made cards for the staff using hearts and fake money

In Photography we were looking for a Cuckoo this week.

Facts: With their sleek body, long tail and pointed wings, they are not unlike kestrels or sparrowhawks. Cuckoos are summer visitors and are well-known brood parasites. Instead of building their own nest, the females lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, especially meadow pipits, dunnocks and reed warblers.

Looking for and learning about fossils and crystals.

Fossils are the geologically altered remains of a once-living organism and/or its behaviour. There are two main types: body fossils represent all or part of the organism’s body, and trace fossils show evidence of the organism’s behaviour.

Whereas a crystal is a solid whose atoms are arranged in a “highly ordered” repeating pattern. These patterns are called crystal systems. If a mineral has its atoms arranged in one of them, then that mineral is a crystal.

We have carried on outside and we have been looking for Otter prints and learning about them in our book.

Fun Fact About Otters: An otter’s lung capacity is 2.5 times greater than that of similar-sized land mammals. Sea otters have been known to stay submerged for more than 5 minutes at a time. River otters, however, can hold their breath for up to 8 minutes.

We also took a trip to the park. It was important teddy got a ride on the swing!

We need this week with a massive congratulations to this young man that passed his theory test and we were able to provide him with a car. Well done!

The car was worked on by young people in our Newmarket 1 unit and passed its MOT.

Made possible by an amazing local donation to us specifically for this young man. Thank You.

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.