DFSC Autumn 2014 Update

Peer Mentor Training & Yr 7 Induction

 

At the start of the term we piloted a new course at a large secondary school. In the morning we worked with 36 Yr 10/11's and trained them up as Peer Mentors. 2 students that showed particular aptitude were invited to take on an overall leadership role. In the afternoon the Yr 10/11 students greeted 90 Yr 7 Students and ran an afternoons team building course for them. They organised the whole event, from briefing the Yr 7's to reviewing the outcomes at the end of the day, without any additional adult interventions.

 

The Yr 10/11's were brilliant at Peer Mentoring the Yr 7's and gained a great deal from their role while the Yr 7's had a wonderful time problem solving team challenges and getting to know each other a lot better. The students were all funded to participate in this event through pupil premium funding and it was deemed a great success. The school wanting to extend the event next year to benefit even more students.  



 

With this pilot having gone so well we are keen to offer the format to other schools. The Peer Mentoring - Yr 7 Induction works as a 'win win' with rewarding and beneficial outcomes for each set of students. Costs are minimised as the older students are effectively staffing the whole afternoon event for 90 or more Yr 7's and by bringing it to the school there are no transport costs and time on task is completely maximised.

 

 Jane Completes New Catering Qualification:







 

Meanwhile back at the Centre Jane our Cook-in-Charge has completed a new NVQ qualification in Catering Management. 

Jane is also happy with the new freezer and new fridge we have recently acquired. These are now all handily positioned in a line in the kitchen.
The staff shower on the second floor has just been completely refurbished and will be noticed by visiting staff but less noticeable is the over £6K of renewed heating pipework and radiators. These sort of important investments often don't get noticed but ensure you have a trouble free comfortable stay.

 

We have also taken delivery of a new bed for our disabled suite with electronic controlling for various mororised configuarations!

New Food Server

We have upgraded some of our kitchen equipment for the start of this year. We have a new hot cabinet for warming plates and a new hot food counter. They look great and the kitchen staff are really pleased with them.

The hot food server looks even better with food in it!

And even better still with our lovely friendly catering staff behind it!

We do a weekly roast dinner and the students, as ever, are very happy with it as well.

New Visiting Staff Dining Table

As those who have stayed with us will know, Denise, Karen and Jane, our wonderful cooks pictured above, always go that extra mile to look after you. We were finding that with the large portions of roast dinner they serve up that on the visiting staff dining table there wasn't a lot of room for it all when we had lots of visiting staff. We've therefore bought a nice new wooden dining table for visiting staff which is a little wider than the standard student variety and has extra room for heaving dishes of roast potatoes and vegetables etc. In fact there's even enough room that the cooks have been making some meals even more special with flowers or candles!

Our cooks also of course make sure the children are very well looked after. The top photo reminds me how they make a special fuss of any student who has a birthday while they are with us. So a reminder to visiting staff to let us know if there are any birthdays and we will make a cake, put the candles on and get the banners out.