College Blog - 30.1.26

Activ8

Monday was an extremely active day for the Activ8 team. We started the day heading to a gym located in Saddleworth named The Unit. As the class prepared to participate in their first gym session lead by a fitness instructor named Callum, who was fantastic on arrival, put their bodies and minds to the test and introduced them to a very solid and vigorous circuit training session. They fully enjoyed and engaged in all the exercises pushing themselves to their limits whilst also having friendly competition with their peers and staff. The exercises given to them by Callum were the sledge push, plate lifts, sandbag squats and medicine ball slams and carries.

All the students and staff involved really enjoyed these friendly competitions and are really looking forward to next week's session to see what awaits them.

 

Activ8 1

 

On Wednesday, we met with Gemma for the first time at Mahdlo for our wellness session introduction, this is where we spoke about finding coping techniques and different ways to destress. Everyone has different ways on how they spend their down time. Some like to play video games and others like to play sports such as football and boxing. During this session, we also discussed how to diet and maintain a nutritional balance. Gemma mentioned a “80% - 20%” rule, in which 80% of what you eat should be stuff that is good for you, whilst the other 20% can be snacks and other stuff you may fancy. Whilst Gemma was delivering her expertise, we received the fantastic news that Amy had passed in her Maths exam which was great

news and such a relief not only for herself but for the class and staff as a whole, we have seen the extra work and efforts in the build-up to the exam and after a tough, emotional week leading to the day of the exam its extremely gratifying to see that it's all paid off for her. now she looks forward to her new class in the next few days with a new maths teacher and next level of education.

Friday was an exciting and eventful day, the activ8 group went canoeing with Liam who works with Venture Out located in Stockport. The class got prepared with the required gear such as life vests and paddles and were then divided into two groups, they immediately got into the action by stepping into the canoes for the first time which were bound together to prevent any chances of the canoes to topple. They had to work as a unit to manoeuvre their canoes in the required direction, this proved to be a challenge as they quickly realised they all had to be very precise and synchronised with their paddles. The class fully enjoyed the experience and are now more excited for next week’s session as they were nervous this time.

Activ8 2

 

 

English Update

This half term has been busy, yet exciting for our English students as we continue to build on last term’s learning. We began by completing a baseline writing paper, which gives us a clear picture of each student’s starting point. This assessment helps us identify strengths, pinpoint areas for development, and plan how best to support students as their writing skills grow over the coming weeks.

Alongside this, students have taken part in recap lessons focused on the reading topic we studied last half term. To support the shift from analysing texts to crafting their own, students have had introductory lessons on writing and on their chosen theme for this term: horror. They have begun to explore what makes horror effective, looking at how writers create tension, suspense and atmosphere. The students have now started experimenting with their own ideas.

Overall, it has been a strong start to the term, and students are already showing great imagination and enthusiasm as they begin to create their own horror-inspired writing.