CEO's Blog - 24th March 2023 Our Organisation... The weeks are flying by and we're nearly at the end of the Spring term, so here's a snapshot of life at every one of our schools and settings. We're growing all the time, but our offer remains the best in special...
Gallery
Our gallery shows a selection of photographs from across our Academy.
CEO’s Blog – 17th March 2023 – ‘Thank You!’
CEO's Blog - 17th March 2023 'Thank You!' Well, if you've been following the updates on social media this week, you might just have noticed that almost 100 of our young people have been lucky enough to travel to Disneyland Paris. A trip that started on Monday...
CEO’s Blog (10th March 2023)
CEO's Blog (10th March 2023) It was International Women's Day this week, and it was great to see our schools and settings marking the occasion with their activities and learning opportunities. Of course, we shouldn't only celebrate our women and girls for just...
We are looking for our next CEO…
We are looking for our next CEO... It's probably been the worst kept secret for a while, but I'm writing my blog this week to let everyone know that we are actively looking for the next CEO of the New Bridge Multi Academy Group and MAT. After many years working as...
CEO’s Blog – Student Voice (24th February 2023)
CEO's Blog - Student Voice (24th February 2023) A few weeks ago, before the half term break, I said I would be reporting on how we listen to the Student Voice across our MAT and wider Group. Well, this week, I'm able to do just that, as some of our schools and...
This week I have spent time working alongside our colleagues in the Tameside Pupil Referral Service.
A few months ago our trust was approached to explore the value of joint working. As you know, I absolutely see the value of partnership working. Working together gives us the opportunity to be more creative and, often, allows us to source better solutions.
We are fortunate that between the organisations we have staff who want to be innovative and solution focused.
This week, young people who do not attend schools have been prominent in the news. The media have started to make links between knife crime and young people not attending schools. We know that the numbers of young people permanently excluded from schools is rising. We can make an assumption that too many of these children are “turned off” by what can only be described as an “academic driven” curriculum. Not every child shines in the traditional subjects.
Our trust is at the forefront of innovative curriculum design. We’ve been personalising our curriculum for over 10 years now. In brief, we have our curriculum pathways, our employment matrix, our Apple 1:1 project, our pre internship programmes, our nurture groups, our intervention teams and our specialised groupings, to name just a few. The children in all our schools benefit from this approach. We wrap an offer around the individual. Too many organisations do totally the opposite. Too many schools have a curriculum “on offer” and the young people have to try and take what they can from it!
Our teams in the Tameside PRU, alongside those at Spring Brook and Springboard, have been working to ensure that the young people are able to access provision including The Prince’s Trust, outdoor education, forest skills and Duke of Edinburgh’s etc. We will design a 21st century curriculum offer that is fit for purpose. We will be bold and innovative. We will design all of these offers alongside appropriate key skills work. Our teams are making sure our offer is meaningful and has currency in the real world.
I’d been asked a while ago to join a working party with colleagues from the Department for Work and Pensions. Government is exploring the issue of the transition from school to work and ensuring that work “always pays”! This is going to be a huge agenda! At our first meeting we explored the significant challenge of ensuring the workplace is more appropriate for our learners. As you can imagine, it’s going to be quite a slog! I feel it is a real positive that our children are at last being represented. I’ll keep you informed.
Have a great weekend,
Graham
You can find all Graham’s previous blog entries here
Location
New Bridge Multi Academy Trust
Roman Road
Hollinwood
Oldham
OL8 3PH
School Hours
Weekends: Closed
Phone & Email
0161 870 9386
info@newbridgegroup.org