The Island Project: Farming & Education Centre

Are you free next Sunday?! Head on over to out Community Day for a fun-filled morning ☀️💚

🎨🖍️ Earlier in the month we celebrated Armed Forces Day, here's a snapshot of what we did!

We had an inspiring discussion about the British Armed Forces and their invaluable contributions to the world as we now know it. To honour them, our students got creative with melted wax crayon art, using camouflage colours to create some fantastic pieces of work.

🎉 A HUGE THANK YOU to all our amazing young people at The Island Project! 🎉

Your hard work over the past year has been truly incredible. From helping with the animals and gardens to maintaining the site, you’ve all shown dedication, pleasant smiles, and resilience through challenges. We’re so proud of everything you’ve achieved and can’t wait to see more next year! 👍

💙 A massive shoutout to our fantastic staff and volunteers—you’re the heart of everything we do.

🌟 Enjoy your summer holidays, recharge, and come back refreshed and ready for another great year! 🌼

- Ali 🙋‍♀️

🍞🧄 Our learners have been getting creative at the farm, cooking up some tasty DIY garlic bread using produce straight from our allotment!

During the session, we talked about the amazing health benefits of garlic. Did you know it's a natural insect repellent for chickens and boosts the human immune system to help it fight off illness?

The group blended olive oil, chive, onion and garlic into a paste, this was spread onto some toast and fried off on the camping stove. It's safe to say garlic bread was a hit!💙

⚽ As we've been cheering for our favourite teams in the Euros, we've also been diving into some awesome geography lessons! Here's what we've been up to:

🌎 Settlement Hierarchy: From tiny villages to big cities, we've explored how settlements grow and what makes each level unique! Students can now recall the street, suburb, city, region, country and continent that they live on!

📄 Origami Fun: We folded our way through Europe with some cool origami football shirts. Maybe this could be a good stress-relief strategy for the next England match?

🇪🇺 Facts About Europe: Did you know Europe is home to over 700 million people? We've been discovering amazing facts and creating quizzes.

🏙️ Stadiums in Germany: Berlin, Munich, Hamburg... We explored the stadiums being used throughout the tournament and researched key stats about each stadium.

🌟 Geography-Based Categories: We played fun games and quizzes that tested our knowledge of European countries, capitals, and more!

It's been a fantastic way to mix sports and learning! 🌟🌍✏️

🥗 Mid June we focused on 'National Healthy Eating Week' by exploring healthy snack options. Here's what we came up with:

🥕 Carrots are not only super healthy for you but can make a sweet treat that goes nicely with a dip like humus or a cheese spread. They taste even better when you pick them out of your own garden! So much better than a chocolate bar!

🌯 Salad wraps are a good way of making something a bit more filling that requires little preparation, that is still relatively healthy and easy to put together. We picked lettuce and onion from the allotment and added some extras like carrots, ham, cheese and sauces.

🍓 Juicing is a really effective way of ensuring you get your 5 portions of fruit and veg each day. The group added different ingredients to make a range of drinks that everyone enjoyed - much better than any sports drink!

🤔 Consistently eating healthy requires a lot of discipline and know-how, but with a little practice and an open mind, we can make subtle changes that can make us healthier, more energised and experience better moods.

🌱 Our students have been hard at work over the past couple of weeks creating a compost area made entirely from recycled pallet wood.

🌿💚 They’ve not only learned how to make compost using animal waste and organic matter but also discovered the fascinating process of composting, including how long it takes and the importance of insects and worms in creating high-quality compost.

🐛🌟 It’s inspiring to see our learners actively contributing to sustainability efforts and embracing the wonders of nature.

🫧 Body Scrubs!

✨ Our hands were left feeling clean and incredibly soft after our session making body scrubs using ingredients found right in our garden!

🌿 Young people were amazed by the results of adding mint, lavender, and honey to the mixture. 😍

🍯 It’s wonderful to see the magic of nature come alive right here at The Island Project 🌸

🧠 Mental Health Awareness Week: Let’s not forget the importance of mental health awareness as we nurture our connections with both animals and each other.

🌟 What amazing sessions we held in May, exploring what our animals can eat from our allotment!

🐾 Lots of learning took place as we dove into our chart, discovering what weeds our furry friends can safely eat.

🌿 It’s moments like these that truly make The Island Project a special place. 🐇

🐟 Fish tank maintenance 🧽

🧑‍🌾 Our learners have been working hard to clean and maintain our fish tank, and we get to embed some science too! Using a liquid test kit we were able to explore the different water parameters to ensure optimal fish health.

Following the water change and general clean, we were pleased to say that we found there to be 0ppm Ammonia, a toxic chemical formed from fish waste. Our pH level was 8.0 which is safe for fresh water fish, meaning that our water isn’t too acidic or alkaline and our Nitrite level was also 0ppm. Nitrite is also a harmful chemical derived from fish waste which can negatively impact fish respiratory health. 🧪

🥼 Not only are we happy in knowing our fish are happy and healthy, we really enjoyed the scientific aspect too. All of which just adds to fun of fish keeping!

🐽 Piggy pancakes! 🐖

We’ve always supplemented our pigs food with coconut oil as the benefits are endless! Not only does coconut oil improve their overall health, it maintains healthy weight and promotes hair growth 🌴🥥

We decided to give our boys an extra special treat, cooking them pancakes in coconut oil.

Our learners used eggs and banana and a sprinkle of blueberries to create a tasty treat, and also learnt how to use a camping stove to cook with adult support! 🥚🍌🫐

🥞 We had so much fun making these treats in our gorgeous allotment garden in the sunshine and it’s safe to say Mr. Pig and Roderick enjoyed them too!

Last week the RHS held its annual 'National Gardening Week' with a 'knowledge of flower' theme 👨‍🌾🌱

Here at the farm, growing in the allotment is at full speed! Students have been learning about different weeds and whether they should be composted, for example, we do not compost ragwort (poisonous) or bindweed (invasive).

✅ Learners are also learning about what plants in the allotment are safe for our animals to eat and why some are not safe ❌

🌟 A huge thank you to Emily and the incredible team at Oaks Medical Centre in Beeston who hosted a cake sale in honour of The Island Project! 🌳

Thanks to their efforts, we've received a generous donation of £452.96. This support will go towards upgrading animal accommodation for Roderick and Mr Pig 🐷; a project that will directly impact the lives of the young people and local community who attend Island Community Haven CIC.

We appreciate the recognition of the value we bring to young people through our therapeutic learning environment, which is truly heartwarming. Thank you for believing in our cause! 💙

📰 The Island Project will reopen tomorrow at 9.15 am.

If you have any issues please contact 07495353937 or alternatively email Jacqui at [email protected].

📸 How cool is this mini palm tree-looking plant we have potted up by the main gate?🌴

It's felt like a very short half-term, so here's a kind reminder that we break up from Alternative Provision at the end of play, Thursday 28th 📅.

🐰🥚 We hope you all enjoy your 2-week Easter break, please do not indulge in too much chocolate 😀, and we will see all young people returning to the farm from Monday 15th, 9.15 am onwards.

If you have any issues please do not hesitate to contact us between 9 am - 3.30 pm on 07495353937.

📸 Since Leo has retired we have had no cat at the farm, which has led to the potential return of Leo's long-lost brother 'Sprat'. Here's Wendy treating him to a bit of food.

📰 Welcome back to the Island Community Haven CIC newsletter,

You can expect to learn more about key dates for your calendar, animal care updates, general news, grant and fundraising updates, and our BOLO list (Be On The Lookout).

https://islandcommunityhaven.org.uk/community-newsletter-march-2024/

💚 Please consider signing up to our newsletter to stay in the loop!

🌴 We had an amazing time with several young people who joined in to create an A to Z of coping mechanisms for those moments when anxiety or worry creeps in. 💭

The group brainstormed their own ideas and engaged in meaningful discussions. It was heartwarming to witness such positive social interactions alongside the endless flow of creative ideas to support mental well-being! 🧠

💙 Can you think of any you would add to your A to Z of coping mechanisms?

💙 We hope everyone has enjoyed their half-term break and is excited to return on Monday!

📅 Reopening: Monday, 26th - Normal time: 9.15 am.

Have a great weekend, we look forward to seeing everyone next week 😃

📷 Here's Dylan the Youth Worker / Adhoc Animal Dentist giving Roderick his yearly tusk trim!

🌴 Half Term

Today our Island Project warriors break up for half-term, a much-needed week of resting and reenergising.

💙 Staff would like to thank all young people for their help, love and support towards caring for animals. For their good attitudes towards learning in a farm and outdoor environment, our rewards cupboard has never seen so much foot traffic!

🥳 Finally, we would like to congratulate those students who have achieved their goals, completed their AimVoc work, transitioned back into mainstream school or who have simply managed to stay on top of lives admin - big or small, well done! 👏

See you all in a week - returning on the 26th of February,

The Island Staff Team 🌴

Children's Mental Health Week is a mental health awareness week that empowers, equips and gives a voice to all children and young people in the UK.

This week students explored ways to boost well-being by connecting, being active, giving and continuing to learn! ☀️

Well done to everyone involved 👏

Recently diagnosed with ear mites, Pepper's brave fight took an unexpected turn as she faced the challenges of the E. Cuniculi Virus, which unfortunately caused significant damage to her nervous system.

Pepper, who joined our farm at just a few months old after being generously donated by a community member, leaves behind fond memories of her social and loving nature.

🐾 Rest in peace, Pepper. 💚

Pokemon-themed World Religion Day. 🛐

Young people discussed mainstream beliefs like Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism & Buddhism before exploring the intriguing Japanese Shinto religion 🗾

🧐 Did you know that the Japanese Shinto religion influenced how Pokemon was created?

🙏🏻 Incorporating elements of Shinto, Pokemon embraced a similar ethos of coexistence and respect between trainers and Pokemon, mirroring the harmony between humans and nature in Shinto beliefs.

🎨 We crafted a poster envisioning Pokemon as a religion, creating 18 spiritual creatures and key beliefs, our young people even designed a Pokemon holy symbol! ☯️

👏🏻 Well done to all the young people who took part!

📋 4,400 questions answered, 25 hours of study time in 190 different areas of skill development. 👏

🐾 Supporting young people through traditional English and Math learning isn't the easiest activity nor the most popular at the farm, especially given the fact there are a ton of animals to fuss and 3 acres of land to run around in! Considering this, it's amazing to think that for the previous 6 weeks, young people completed 25 hours of study, mostly in their own time!

🥳 A little success goes a long way.

👍 Staff would like to congratulate every student who engaged with IXL Math and English at the farm & home. Let's keep up the good work!

💙 Thank you Friends of Long Eaton Rotary - Hopkins Heroes for awarding funds that have helped towards this cause.