Week 14 28th May - 1st June

Another busy week...Ian Paulin, the Dunedin Police Alcohol Harm Reduction Officer came and had a chat to the group about - guess what - alcohol ! He showed a power point with some pretty grim pictures of people who had over indulged and shared a few entertaining stories. His message was to have fun drinking but know your limits.

Max Holt also came in this week with his drug box and answered a lot of questions from the group.

We finished making invitations for the launch of the Japanese garden, only a couple of weeks away on the 11th June. I'm looking forward to meeting Cory's grandma!
And of course....progress with the tool shed.

This week we finished off the boxing on Tuesday morning then proceeded on to the frames, on Thursday we poured the concrete then went back to framing and also produced our first roof truss.

Week 13 21-25th May

The tool shed is well under way. Today (Thursday) was an incredibly warm day for autumn/winter and the sun was shining, preparations were being made for pouring the concrete base of the tool shed.

On Wednesday the group attended an employment seminar as part of the Careers festival and Youth week, at the Public library. We gained lots of useful info from the new owner of McDonalds, IRD, Community Law Centre and learned about work place drug testing.

We had a really intersting visit to the Anatomy Museum on Monday, which is part of the University of Otago, in the Lindo Fergusson Building. Phil Edwards showed us around and talked about what the anatomy museum is for. A real eye-opener -  no photos unfortunately !

Week 12 14-18th May

Many of the wooden toys were finished this week, it's fantastic to see what people have made in such a relatively short time. The students are learning valuable carpentry skills.

Planning is underway for building the tool shed also.

Rock, scissors, paper....

Week 11 7-14th May

This is a transition week finishing off horticulture and beginning carpentry. It has been an action-packed week!

The last day with Kim was on Monday,  the group went out to Taeri golf course to have an experience of arboriculture with Jerry who teaches this at Polytech. The students had a chance to experience tree climbing using ropes and harnesses. Looks like a good challenge from the photos.

Clay is just hangin around.....

A pile up on top of Dakota?

Then more climbing activity in the afternoon at the G block climbing wall. The 2nd year Sports and Adventure students showed us some climbing techniques for moving along the bouldering wall and gave us some challenges to try.

Those who had had enough of climbing played games outside, outwitting and outlasting the others.

Tuesday and Thursday were the first days of carpentry. Choices were made about which project to do and the group embarked on their toy making. Wooden toys are being made for the Childern's Hospital. It sounds like some really interesting projects are underway.

And .....for more fun and games......we had a session at Unipol with the Sports Institute students doing recreational problem solving and team building. Lots of fun with blindfolds, ropes, sharks, fish ...... many different activities to challenge us, get us out of our comfort zones and practise working as a team.

Shark....fish.....shark....fish

Week 10 30th April - 4th May

Sounds like a good day was had by all, throwing seed balls off Signal Hill and collecting seaweed out at Aramoana. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day.
Daniel Larsen came to talk about Youthline, the services they provide ang training opportunities. Hopefully he will have a few Trades students helping out as street day appeal collectors on 19th May.