Our Pathways department continues to establish thriving links with a variety of organisations enabling our students to take up extremely useful work placements and to gain invaluable experience. For example, four students, Elkhansaa Elkramti, Kouzen Abdulrahman, Reece Henderson and Alison Dempsey, have gone on to supported internships with Siemens, working on reception, in the post room, the café and the office.

Lower sixth student Kaine Pickering attended a formal interview at Chatsworth High School and Community College and is now working one morning a week at the school, where he hopes to makes use of a range of skills, including an enviable familiarity with sign language. Daniel Fynan is enjoying his placement at Giddy Goats toy shop, whilst Natalie Hague is a much-valued member of the team at The Edge Café, where she relishes the social aspect of the café at the same time as carrying out her duties with courtesy and efficiency. Justin Lees made a video for Information, Advice and Support Manchester (IASM), which provides information for young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We were delighted to hear that his video won the Youth Buzz Award 2017 for Best Creative Campaign: an amazing accomplishment! Justin was presented with his award by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Eddy Newman.

The department’s collaboration with MMU has resulted in some great collage work, which is currently on display in their Speech and Language Therapy resource area in the Brooks Building. Three PGCE students delivered two art classes to our students in May and June, as part of their training. The resulting collages are a combination of foam marbling, tracings of Manchester buildings onto acetate, coloured, using tissue paper shapes, mono-printing and Manchester symbols, namely the worker bee and the City coat of arms. The addition of the Manchester bee was to commemorate the victims of the Manchester Arena attack, as the art class took place the following day. When the display is dismantled, the work will be recycled and put up permanently in some of the resource rooms used by the Speech and Language Therapy department.

As ever, Pathways students have been heavily involved in a number of charitable enterprises. Considerable sums of money were raised for Macmillan Cancer Support and Children in Need by cake baking sales, and a special Christmas cake was baked for Cornerstone, our local day centre in Moss Side, which provides services to vulnerable and disadvantaged adults. Some of our third year students have been busy making and filling shoeboxes for the single parent support charity Gingerbread. The department also has an exciting partnership with New Life Charity, whereby our students operate a Card Enterprise at the college. Money raised, and matched by Barclays, will help fund a comfort pod for a young person with a learning disability.

The Pathways department is extremely proud of the  young people  and the progress they continue to make.