Many children can not be part of the standard academic one size fits all system. So when our young people turn up, engage and learn, we remind them of how proud they should be of themselves to fight back at a system that rejected them, to show how they can achieve their dreams, they can be confident and comfortable in their environment, happy in their own skin and find their spark!
Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins).
We tend to celebrate with Pancakes! so of course we made sure our young people used this as part of their education this week. Measuring, making, cooking and eating!
We cooked pancakes indoors, we cooked outdoors, we made homemade Chicken Kiev’s and some delicious chocolate treats and one young man was treated to his favorite extremely large burrito!
With all that lovely food, we need to make sure we do some exercise. We visited an outdoor gym, we spent time walking and navigating and we visited High Lodge for some clambering.
It does not matter how old you are, exercise is important for not just our health, but also our mental well being. It improves brain health, mange weight, reduce risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, improves your ability to do every day activities. It can boost self-esteem, mood and sleep quality and energy.
Spending time walking among or simply looking at nature, trees, wildlife etc can lower blood pressure and reduce the stress-related hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Researchers have found that nature simply makes us happy 🙂
Photography was invented by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce in 1822. Niépce developed a technique called heliography, which he used to create the world’s oldest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras (1827). Heliography was conceived in response to camera obscura theories dating back to ancient history.
How photography has advanced. Our photography department is another way to enjoy being outside and see nature. This week our young people have been out and about taking pictures from above and on the ground. I wonder what Nicéphore Niépce would make of our buddy photographers, I think like the team at Pushforward he would be super impressed!
Whether you are on the bus or driving a tractor our young people are learning all the time. Here we see one young man practicing his spellings whilst travelling on the bus. The next young man who is one of our older students is building a tree house and having some fun on his tractor.
Newmarket 1 has been super busy this week. Our new signs arrived! We are also making new gates which our young people have got super involved with; from the design, measuring, cutting, welding – can’t wait to see the end result.
Maths! you either love it or hate it, but whatever your thoughts on adding and subtracting it’s a life skill that is so important for our young people to learn. Sometimes doing a functional skills test is possible and we encourage that when it is. But other times we want to learn in a different way – whether its games, using your phone, using materials, playing card games. Every young person here was doing maths without realising it, because it was done in a fun way!
You get a delivery. Its a small item in a massive box – what a waste of cardboard. But this week we have made really good use it! Here our young person is creating a rollercoaster for her sister’s Barbies.
Being creative like this is not only fun, its learning skills such as measuring, which requires dexterity, exactness and co-ordination as well as basic number sense skills and on this occasion its also being kind – doing something nice for someone you care about.
Like Maths, Reading is an important skill to learn at a young age. Here we visited the library and enjoyed reading books about our favorite computer game and why not have a little play on that game too as a treat for doing so well. Reading with someone else can be great fun, you can share the story, your thoughts and ideas.
After all the hard work this week a game of Star wars was is order.
Make-believe play allows your child to practice critical social skills, such as sharing, turn-taking, and communication. It also enables them to express their emotions in a safe and controlled environment. As they play, your child can develop empathy and understand the perspectives of others.
Historical visits to Lavenham Church learning about the history of the town.
Did you know….Although Lavenham goes back to Saxon times, it is best known as a medieval wool town. It was granted its market charter in 1257 and started exporting its famous blue broadcloth as far afield as Russia. In the 14th century Edward III encouraged the English weaving industry and Lavenham began to prosper.
We love animals – whether it’s celebrating your dogs birthday, to feeding lamas and goats or stroking a red bearded dragon!
The most common colors of beaded dragons are tan, yellow, olive-green and red and they can live for 10-15 years or more!
Our new Hairdressing area has had some practice this week with some barbering skills and hair styling.
In terms of job security, hairdressers and undertakers are pretty much guaranteed a job for life! Keep up your training and education, stay up to speed with trends and you’ll never be short of work.
Lego building – resulting in a super Sponge Bob Square Pants model – well done on staying focused and completing the task, you should be very proud of yourself.
We also had some beautiful surrealism art being created this week.
When a young person shows an interest in a particular career we harness that, we research the possibilities, we get hands on to provide real experiences. The beauty industry is massive, getting into this as a career holds amazing opportunities for our young people.
They say Cash Is King. This young man certainly feels like a King with all his money. Of course we take this excitement and we find a way he can be educated at the same time, so we are learning how to count, we are learning about different currencies – all great life skills for his future.
Hundreds of years ago, European sailors told of a sea monster called the kraken that could toss ships into the air with its many long arms.
Where would a sea monster live – lets take a look at the Globe to find out.
Maybe you don’t think sea monsters exist – did you know the giant squid, has 10 arms and can grow longer than a school bus! – I think that’s a pretty impressive sea monster!
Sensory play is any activity that stimulates our senses – touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. It helps children interact with and make sense of the world that surrounds them. Here we can see our young people making stress balls with balloons and flour, games of darts on brightly coloured boards, magnetic cubes and eating lunch in a sensory tent.
Actively participating in making music, actually making the sounds either by yourself or with a group, has been found to boost executive brain function, strengthen speech processing, improve memory and promote empathy
Laying down the first guitar part for another of this young persons own songs and practicing for a live performance! We hope it went really well.
We leave this week with words from our own young people about what Pushforward do for young people – written beautifully, clearly said so eloquently:
“Pushforward is a company run for young students who struggle to work in mainstream school.
What’s special? Our staff are very professional and kind to everyone around us and we have so much time for the children we will happily give our students the freedom to chose themselves what they’d like to do in their future career. You can buy things to try new things which could lead onto future ideas for the kids.”
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