Aren’t they just the best photo’s, those accidental selfies that capture something natural.. here a beautiful photo of tutor and student having fun, they were trying to take a picture of a ladybird but accidently turned the camera around on themselves – what an awesome picture!

This week we start off in the Gym. A group of students that regularly attend together, this is great for socialisation, keeping healthy, learning the correct way to use the gym equipment.

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.

I wonder if all that gym work is why our tutor Daisy thinks she might win at an arm wrestling competition with one of our young people?!

Bet Daisy wouldn’t be able to beat this dragon slaying young man, who must be really strong!

Keeping active outside is also fantastic for young people. Playing football and other sports encourages strong bones and muscles and helps build a child’s immune system.

Sports like football help massively with improving a child’s balance, flexibility, strength, and coordination. Its great for team work, positive social skills, teaching about respect of others.

These guys are enjoying a game of football – no dives on this football pitch!

There are some great locations you can visit when the weather is not great but still allow you to keep active. Here we have a bit of soft play, flipping at Jump in Ipswich, taking on a new meaning to the leap of faith trying to land on the trampoline and a I’m hoping a friendly game of laser tag – although our tutor looks like he means business!

We finish this week’s sporting activities with some cycling

When we have a bike its great to know how to fix it ourselves, a brilliant life skill. Over in Newmarket 2 our Bike Mechanics section is busy fixing bikes to get them back in use.

To continue with our practical skills here we are learning about loft boarding.

Over in Newmarket 1 we have carrying out practice cuts on the saw before this young person begins doing the cutting list for his project. Keeping the young people safe in a workshop is paramount, so this is a practice run. The challenge this week was to cut the thinnest slice possible….. 0.3mm

We also made a few repairs to the building…can you spot what went wrong with this!…..

So how do we help young people engage with subjects that in a standard academic environment they may not have been able to?

Our team are trained to unpick barriers to education through conversational education in a structured way – this happens with either 1-2-1 or planned small groups of students.

Student-centered learning that encourages conversations, promotes choice and learner identity. In this type of environment, students feel supported, safe, and have an opportunity to find their spark and build their confidence.

Maths & English are one of the hardest subjects to keep young people engaged in, as they are your more typical sit down classroom style subjects, but they can incorporate so much more.

Here you see young people working on firstly a couple games of cards to warm up the brain, then able to complete unit conversions.

We also tackled beautifully; Paper 1 English Language, Socialism communism capitalism work in the group workshop this week – Blue Jobs vs Pink Jobs and personal values. Reading, percentage questions without a calculator! Mock maths papers, maths classes. Zen colouring, algebra and a game of maths using a dart board.

History can also be a subject that at school is hard to engage young people in. So why not learn by doing educational visits. Here we visited an Anglo Saxon Village.

Lots of baking has been happening again over in Moreton Hall Home made pizza, chocolate treats and pie!

Whether its watching the waves at Felixstowe or fishing in a little river – young people love water! (unless its having a shower of course!).

Watching video clips – is that really learning? ….. Yes! because here we are identifying emotions of the characters and what zone they are in. This is such a valuable lesson, young people who can learn how to understand emotions in themselves and others are better able to regulate their own responses to strong emotions. Helping children to identify and label emotions is an important first step.

What busy bees in Primary this week; from retelling stories, making and playing beautifully with putty, painting pictures for the fairy garden, copying a picture and replicating it into art and building circuits needing lots of concentration. And of course Captain America keeping his strength up eating a bacon sarnie!

Chasing the tape measure as it reeled in – who new measuring could be so much fun!

Learning lots about animals at the Zoo…with enough time for play too.

I’m looking forward to seeing what image this young man captured in photography this week…

As our young people start to find the career of choice, we are there to help, support and guide them.

Big thank you to Deez Cutz in Bury St Edmunds were fantastic this week by giving this young man some information and details about a career in barbering, which he is hoping to start studying at college soon.

In Carpentry this week we made some owl boxes.

Owl boxes are great for attracting owls to nest in your yard and for giving them a safe haven, but there are benefits to getting an owl box too. If you like owls and own a home that has a few trees in the backyard, installing an owl box is a great way to get up-close and personal with a friendly owl.

Maybe the photography sessions could try and capture some owl images once these are installed?

We leave this week with Music. Music can boost your mood when you are down, give you energy when you feel low, and inspire you to bring out your creativity. Science has already proven that music has an intense yet positive impact on physical and mental health. It can help increase focus, clear our minds, and improve our overall well-being.

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.