First thing on Monday, we caught up with friends and then got stuck into our maths practice test papers. Going through them slowly together really helped us understand the questions better and feel more confident. After break, we had picture news, the question we explored was “should school uniform be the same for everyone”. There’s a school in Wales that has introduced a new rule saying students can no longer wear skirts. We imagined what it would be like if Mr Welsh told us there was something we couldn’t wear anymore, and we discussed how we might think and feel about that. We looked at different school uniforms around the world. Then, we had to imagine our parents got an email from Mr Welsh saying we all have to wear the same polished shoes that can only be bought from the school office for £100, we discussed the pros and cons of this. It’s careers week this week and we had Lee from DWP come in and speak to us about Jobs. Lee began by telling us about her self and what she enjoys. Lee asked us our favourite superhero’s and we discussed is as a group, we spoke about the quote “with great power comes great responsibility”. Then we spoke about our favourite foods, and then we got asked if we were an animal, what animal would we be. Then we discussed times when we have felt proud of ourselves. Then we got to spin the wheel, and the wheel would ask a question. Some of the questions were “what are you good at?”, “what’s your favourite colour?”, “who do we like to spend time with?”  we discussed these all together. Then we played a human bingo, we had to find someone “who has visited another country” some who “has a brother” we had to have a different person for each one. 

On Tuesday morning, Gary from TELENT visited to tell us about his job. He put on some of his work equipment, and we had to guess what his job was. After that, we got to try on some of the PPE ourselves. Gary explained that he is a training manager for highways. He told us what the highways team does and how important it is for everyone to work safely so they can go home safely every day. Gary’s job is to teach people how to stay safe while working. He also showed us a model called “Sammy the Spine,” which helped us understand what the spine looks like. Gary explained what the spine does. Gary explained about moving and handling and said there was a special way to pick things up, to prevent damaging our spine and bought a model that we could practice on. We had to put one foot behind us and one in front of us, keep our back straight and pick the item up. Then, we did a Kahoot!! quiz, to test ourselves on what we learnt. The winner of the quiz was Ollie! Ollie got a prize and everyone else got some haribos for taking part. After this we worked in our groups to go though our maths test papers. Today is World Hearing Day, so this afternoon we learned about deaf people and talked about different hearing impairments, we signed our names, and took part in some lip‑reading activities. We spoke about different accents and how this can effect lip reading.

On Wednesday morning, we had three ex‑Astley Park pupils come in to talk to us about their time at Newman College. Connor spoke first and told us about Mondays. He explained that they stay mostly in the main building and do life skills, which help with independence. He said it was really good because it helps you for the future. He also talked about Work Skills lessons, where they learn different skills to help them get a job, and he explained how they sometimes do this work on the computer and what skills he wanted to build. JJ then talked about Tuesdays. He said he does maths and that they sometimes play board games. He also explained that Newman College gives students a lot more freedom, which he really enjoys. Josh spoke about Wednesdays. He said he really enjoys PE and that they play football. He also explained what they do in RE, including learning about relationships and talking about what is happening in the world. They also talked about learning new skills based on the NHS wellbeing strands. They explained that every learner has a key worker, and that they can go to their key worker if they have any worries. They also said that on Thursdays they do maths and then go out on work experience. At the end, we all had some questions for them. The three of them answered everything we asked and explained things really clearly. They made sure we all understood what college is like and what to expect. They covered all the questions and gave honest answers, and because of that, some of us now feel more confident about going to Newman College. After this, we continued our practice maths. After lunch we continued with our KS4 options.

On Thursday morning, some of us went swimming while the rest stayed at school to complete maths and English puzzles. After that, we travelled to Knowsley to visit Keepmoat. When we arrived, we gathered around a table and were shown the PPE we needed to wear. Then we headed to the plastering area, where we each had the chance to plaster a wall. The workers demonstrated what to do, and everyone did a fantastic job. It was such a great day! 

On Friday morning we did our enterprise and made our breakfast barms for all staff. Then, we did some 1:1 reading. This afternoon we had well-being time. Then we had celebration assembly, this weeks star of the week is Aaron, for having a fantastic week, working hard in maths and in swimming and for being great when we visited Keepmoat academy!