Did you know?……February is the only month to have a length of fewer than 30 days! Though it’s usually 28 days, February is 29 days long in leap years such as 2020 and 2024. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar (c. 713 BC); originally, winter was considered a month-less period.

But even though we had less days in the month we still got a lot of work done. A lot of learning and new experiences for our young people.

Talking of history….. This week we visited an Anglo Saxon Village, Bawdsey Radar and Bunkers, explored history at Ipswich Mansion and Framlingham Castle

Welding is an essential component of many industries such as the automotive industry, the construction industry, the aviation industry, and more. Without this form of metal work, so many things, including many buildings, gates, and fences, small kitchen appliances, vehicles – and even space travel – would not exist.

Over in Newmarket 1 our young people have been learning this valuable skill and busy getting the unit ready for new equipment being delivered and making the site lovely and secure with some named gates….

For an occupation that has been thousands of years old, Carpentry is still very much valued today within the building industry. Having such an integral role within construction, Carpentry is an ideal role for you if you are good with your hands and take pride in completing projects that will be used for years to come. What a great skill for this young man to learn!

In most situations, a CV is the first contact you have with a prospective employer and it is your chance to make a good first impression. You use it to show your prospective employer why they should hire you and what the benefits of having you on their team will be. So this week some of our older students have been working on their CV’s and some work on our moral compass – our inner sense that distinguishes right from wrong. Well done on some fantastic work guys!

The next stage of a young persons career from CV writing would be to try some work experience.

Why? Well the benefits of work experience include:

• Employability Skills

• Insight into the work place

• Increases your knowledge of your chosen industry

• Maximises your changes of finding employment

• Improves communication skills

• Optimises your CV

• Boosts confidence

But lets take a big step back. Sitting down doing Maths and English – those core skills that will help with CV writing and getting work experience can be really challenging for some young people. So we have to find a way to help them engage with this core life skill – not by sitting in a stuffy overcrowded classroom that for some of them could be too challenging to cope with, but in a safe environment, supportive 1-2-1 location that helps them to build their confidence and wow look at these guys, everything from GCSE English, to Psychology and Square Numbers, Times Tables and Pythagoras!

Now lets take an even bigger step back and look at how we can engage children from a much younger age – showing them how science, maths and reading can be super fun.

After all that hard work we need some play time and what better than playing nicely with your new friends. But playing is also about learning too…Playing chase. Kinetic Sand play – brilliant team work. Phonics Car Parking. Zones of regulation, looking at expected and unexpected behaviors.

Some sporting activities this week included; golf, football, boxing. Boxing is an awesome sport for fitness, it builds your mental and physical ability. Improves cardiovascular health, builds muscle and definition, strong bones and joints, improves hand-eye co-ordination, confidence booster, gets you in shape and just an excellent stress reliever.

In photography this week we concentrated on drone work. Stunning sky’s captured.

And wildlife – just stunning photography, well done to our young people for capturing some beautiful shots!

We finish this week off with a group hug!

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.