Welcome to this, our very first Safeguarding, Mental health and Well-being Bulletin for May 2022.

At Co-op Academy Swinton we firmly believe that safeguarding, mental health and well-being is more than ever a collective responsibility between the academy, students, parents and carers. In that spirit, we will be sharing a range of safeguarding, mental health and well-being information, assistance and updates with you monthly from now on.

We appreciate that some of the content may be sensitive and at times may not be pleasant, however our children are facing more issues of an increasingly serious nature by the day and we firmly believe that the more that we, collectively as educationalists and parents and carers, know and understand, the better we can protect those in our care.

Last week a small group of our female Year 10 students attended an ‘Inspiring Girls Day’ at The Cliff training ground in Broughton.

The trip was organised as part of our partnership with Manchester United Foundation and its’ aim to increase female empowerment and employability aspirations.

During the morning our students enjoyed an inspiring and motivational talk from Polar Preet, a British Army Medical Officer and physiotherapist. Preet had recently completed an astounding 40 day hiking expedition, becoming the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition in Antarctica.

The girls then swiftly moved on to carry out some physical activities facilitated by the British Army. These included; working as a team to complete a tyre stack challenge, arranging them in the correct order and also working in smaller groups to construct a Go Kart using kit provided by the Army.

Our day was rounded off by presentations from The Manchester College who spoke with our students about the many varied opportunities on offer in college and the typical education pathways that lead to employment.

What a day for some of our students in Years 7 and 8 as they took up the challenge of practical training sessions with the North West Military Regiment of the British Army earlier this week.

Each of the challenges were designed to build our students’ individual skills and they were certainly put through their paces, as the images below clearly show!

Everyone was thoroughly involved and pushed themselves to their limits. What a great effort from everyone, we hope you enjoyed the challenges.

Thank you to North West Military Regiment for joining us this week and for delivering such exciting and challenging sessions.

#SucceedTogether

The Our Pass application portal is opening earlier this year for young people across Greater Manchester. It’s the membership pass for 16-18 year olds that they and their families can use to save up to £500 a year in bus travel costs. Our Pass will open for applications from the 3 May 2022. It’s a membership scheme that gives school leavers a free bus pass, plus all sorts of special offers, discounts and experiences – designed to support young people at a crucial moment in their lives.

To apply, students need to go to: ourpass.co.uk find out more below.

What is Our Pass?

Our Pass is a UK first, a simple scheme that ensures that all eligible 16-18 year olds in Greater Manchester have the chance to become an Our Pass member – and gain access to two things: free bus travel, and exclusive experiences:

Travel. For a one-off £10 administration fee, Our Pass provides free travel on most local buses across Greater Manchester. It also gives members half-price off peak 1 day and weekend travelcards on Metrolink.
Exclusives. Membership also unlocks exclusive offers and experiences that range from discounts and event tickets to careers talks, tasters and workshops.

When can students apply?

Applications for this year’s membership (which starts on 1 September) open on 3 May. Those who are eligible this year must live in Greater Manchester and have been born between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2006. Once they have applied, students will be posted their cards in late August, ready for use on 1 September.

We don’t want any eligible school leaver or college student to miss out. Can you help spread the word, and support your students as they apply?

How can students apply?

Students need to go to: ourpass.co.uk They will also need to have some documents ready, and a valid payment card (so that they can pay the one-off £10 administration fee).
The documents and information they will need:
– An email address
– Passport-style photograph
– Proof of date of birth
– Proof that they live in Greater Manchester
– A valid payment card

How can I support students?

Some young people find the applications process difficult and sometimes applications are rejected – often, because the photo, proof of address or date of birth documents have been uploaded process hard, please encourage them to look at the information and diagrams on this web page: ourpass.co.uk/before-you-get-started. They can also call Transport for Greater Manchester’s Customer Services team for help, on 0300 232 0777 (open Mon-Fri 7am-8pm-and 8am-8pm at weekends).

What about students who don’t have internet access?

They can apply using a paper application form, which they can collect from a TfGM Travelshop. They can pay the fee in the Travelshops by cash or by card. Nearest Travelshops can be found at: tfgm.com/public-transport/travelshops

What are Our Pass Exclusives?
The Our Pass website contains an exciting range of discounts special offers and experiences. Our members have accessed Exclusive offers, from free theatre and gig tickets, merchandise, free swimming, sport and leisure centre passes, and career taster days and experiences only available to Our Pass website members – please encourage students to sign up (this is a separate process to the Our Pass card registration).

Why does Our Pass matter?

The only scheme of its kind in the UK, Our Pass supports young people at a crucial moment in their lives. As they leave school at 16, they face decisions that will shape their future. These aren’t easy decisions to make, as they make them – challenges
Coronavirus pandemic. Our Pass tackles these challenges head on. Membership not only improves accessibility to jobs and learning through free bus travel – essential to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it – but through its membership opens up a world of experiences, connections and opportunities that they might not otherwise discover. Our Pass broadens the horizons of our young people, in every sense.

More information

All queries about the application process, problems in applying, and use of the travel card: help@ourpass.co.uk
For more information and feedback about Our Pass, and Our Pass Exclusives: opportunities@ourpass.info

What an amazing half-term we’ve had with our students excelling themselves at every turn and demonstrating our Ways of Being. To celebrate this we’ve had a week of recognition events to reward those students who have gone above and beyond.

Delicious Doughnuts!

Firstly this week the students who had received ZERO Behaviour Points for the whole half-term received a voucher for a free doughnut and what an excited queue we had on Tuesday collecting their doughnut from Principal, Mrs Ali!

This week we have been thrilled to welcome into our academy Paul McGovern MBE, the HMP Manchester Community Team and several GMP Salford Police Officers for workshops with our Year Groups 7, 8, 9 and 10 as part of their ‘Actions Have Consequences’ programme and ‘Save a life, drop the knife’ campaign.

Paul and the team have been delivering these sessions to schools nationwide since 2009. The informative and hard-hitting sessions deal with the effects of anti-social behaviour including knife crime, gangs, drug use and violence and the importance of staying safe online. The programme builds bridges between local children, teachers, local neighbourhood policing teams, school based officers and the youth offending team.

Paul, a serving prison officer dog handler with HMP Manchester, delivered the engaging sessions with real life stories and examples of the cases he’s dealt with, what it is like to be in prison and the effects that the actions of the inmates have on their victims and their families.

On the second say of workshops we were also honoured to be joined by Superintendent Caroline Hemingway-Head of Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, Detective Inspector Roger Edwards-Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, Michelle Metcalfe-Deputy Governor at HMP Manchester who all also spoke to our Year 7 and 8 cohorts reinforcing the warnings around anti-social behaviour.