Pupils trying out new skills

Checking the rabbits in the animal care taster session

Pupils from Matthew Moss High School have been trying out new skills.

Each week 130 year 10 and 11 pupils from the school are spending an afternoon at Hopwood Hall College to take part in taster sessions in areas such as animal care, painting and decorating, joinery, motor vehicle repair, health, and hair and beauty. The taster sessions are designed to help the pupils find out more about possible career options.

The pupils have been trying out things that they wouldn’t normally have a chance to do.

In the animal care course pupils are learning how to look after animals, and have recently been checking the College’s rabbits eyes, teeth, ears, and nails, and also learning how to check for fleas, and take their temperature.

On the painting and decorating taster sessions, pupils have been working on a special project, coming up with different designs for paintings based on a Halloween theme. The project gave the students the chance to practice decorating skills such as ‘cutting in’ which is when you paint with a brush next to trim, mouldings or other surfaces. Techniques such as using tape to mask off areas are required to make sure the finished result looks as professional as possible. Now the students have mastered these skills, they will be doing other decorating projects in the coming weeks such as hanging wallpaper, stencilling and using decorative effects like sponge stippling and rag rolling.

The painting and decorating is accompanied by a taster session in joinery, where the pupils will be making bird boxes. It is hoped that the bird boxes can then be used in the grounds of the school.

A spokesperson for Matthew Moss High School said: “The pupils are having a fab time. It’s really good hands on experience. Many of them will take the skills learnt to work experience placements after Christmas.”