We hope everyone had a great Easter Break – back to it for our Summer Term. First couple weeks have already been packed with great adventures for our young people. Learning new skills and trying out new experiences.
So what did week starting the 17th April have in store for us:
- Maths & English
- Cooking
- Education Trips
- Mechanics
- Carpentry & plumbing
- Arts, Crafts & Photography
- First Aid Training
- Football Winners
- First Aid
- ….a much more
Lets start with some awesome trips out and about:
Firstly a historical visit to explore the Dinosaur Park!.. Look up, look down..but whatever you do, look out!
Zoos offer opportunities to educate visitors on animal welfare, history, habitats etc. Not only do emotions assist in creating memorable experiences, they also affect how people think about wildlife. So a trip to the Zoo (this was actually last term but we don’t want to miss out on sharing this trip too!), this young person who loves animals (in particular bearded dragons!) was a great educational trip.
Next we get to feed the animals – slightly smaller than the elephants at the Zoo but just as much fun to be with!
A trip to Languard Fort – having a go at Morse Code!
History Time…..Languard Fort was the site of the last opposed seaborne invasion of England, by the Dutch in 1667, who were repulsed by the Royal Marines in their first land battle. The current fort was built in the 18th century, and modified in the 19th century, with substantial additional 19th and 20th-century outside batteries.
And what is Morse code? It is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of the inventors of the telegraph
And a trip to Christchurch Park where we saw the World War 1 & 2 Memorial. And talking to a dog walker about her dogs a-lesser identified breed apparently!
Normally we take young people out on their own – but this week saw our biggest adventure – a group educational field trip to Imperial War Museum Duxford. And it was a great success!…so watch this space for more group educational field trips for our young people…
IWM Duxford played a central role in some of the most dramatic days in 20th century history – serving as a base for many of the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots during the Second World War.
Why visit IWM Duxford: Inside every hangar and exhibition – and outside them too – there are hundreds of large aircraft, vehicles, boats and more. Walk around them, inside them, above and below them and get the chance to see aircraft take off from our historic runway.
Back to some more practical subjects. Lots of young people like the more hands on practical work. And plumbing is a popular subject. On of our young people is working towards his qualification. So not only some life experience, work experience but also learning great skills this week with a visit to a local cafe in Newmarket that needed some new taps fitted.
We also worked on creating and fitting a new boarding for the electrics board.
The plumbing work has now been possible as Newmarket 2 makes great headway and providing a space for: Arts & Crafts, Plumbing, Bricklaying, Carpentry and Bike Mechanics – still lots to do but its coming along nicely
Newmarket 1 Is looking awesome now – with Tyre Balance Machines, Ramps and projects well underway from the MX5 project, new Motorbike project and the awesome steam train:
Getting Creative
Try out new ideas and ways of doing things
- When they take materials and manipulate and transform them
- Take things apart and then put them back together again
- Using imagination
- Solve problems and figure things out
Here we see painting, creating posters, sand art and nail art.
We love when our young people want to get active and try new sports and challenges:
- Climbing
- Outside Games
- Playing Tag
- Ninja Challenge
- MMA
- Football
- Gym Work
We also had a go at a different type of sport – Axe Throwing!
It is a fun, social sport that provides an excellent upper body workout.
By the end of the session, our young people felt less stress and brimming with confidence.
Finishing the sporting activities off with a win for the team we support!
In the Moreton Hall Kitchens we baked cookies and after visiting the local supermarket (learning how to buy on a budget and purchase the right ingredients) we made some gorgeous sausage rolls (which smelled and tasted very good!) and a very happy young person having made Spag Bowl! Teaching our young people how to cook for themselves and not live off Pot Noodles is a huge life skill.
Writing, reading and maths this week – what an awesome job from our young people from writing on whiteboards, paper to computers – completing beautiful writing work, complicated maths fractions, Number bonds to 10, to 100 and up to 1000! And working towards GSCE Maths, Foundation level questions. Well done!
Many of us take for granted how easy it is to pop to the shops to get those personal hygiene products needed, but for some young people doing this every day task can be a challenge for many reasons whether its money, knowing how to navigate the shops, knowing what is the right things to buy, being confident to get them. So at Pushforward we created a care package to help them along their way.
Building friendships and engaging with others….
Worm hunting!
Drumming Improves Motor Skills. Developing hand-eye coordination is important for playing the drums, and can help sharpen motor control in a younger child much like sports, video games and physical activities can. Drumming also introduces rhythm and timing alongside fine motor control. And a little breakdancing to move to the music!
A game of snooker to unwind during the week.
We finish this week’s blog with a look at the staff working hard in their First Aid training.
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.