Please see below some of the ways that we work in harmony with the local community. We aim to foster good links with all our local partners. If you are a community group or a local business that would like to work with us, then please contact Miss Byrne via the school office.

Schools often collaborate with community partners to enrich pupils' educational experiences. These partnerships can take various forms, such as work experience, mentorship programs, or joint projects. Community partners provide real-world expertise and resources that enhance classroom learning, while schools offer pupils opportunities to apply their knowledge in practical settings. This symbiotic relationship fosters a sense of civic engagement and prepares pupils for future success by connecting their education to the broader community.

 

• Wise Owls Nursery

based on a shared site with Oakwood KS4 provision of Forest Oak school. The nursery proved work experience opportunities for the Forest Oak pupils and support the school with attending community events.

• Colebridge Trust – Unit 21

A local social enterprise, providing work based mentoring to help people tackle barriers on the pathway to employment. They encourage self help and can provide careers guidance. Unit 21 provide work experience for Key Stage 4 and 5 pupils. Unit 21 staff support Forest Oak by attending enterprise and community events.

 

• Colebridge Trust – Around Again Project

The ‘Around Again’ project is a local social supermarket. It provides food in a dignified way to families experiencing food poverty. Key Stage 4 pupils have completed supported work experience placements there. Forest Oak support the Around Again Project by holding community days. We have food collections to support the social supermarket. We also have used drinks can collections. Around Again take the cans and recycle them. In turn they use the money to replenish food stock.

 

• Colebridge Trust – Evergreen Family Centre

Also part of Colebridge Trust, Evergreen Family Centre support local families by providing stay and play sessions and family events. Forest Oak Pupils attend work experience placements there developing communication skills and independence. Evergreen Family Centre are currently undergoing a massive refurbishment and we look forward to working with them again in the future.

 

• Solihull Moors Football Club

Solihull Moors Football club form an intrinsic part of Forest Oaks work experience programme. Pupils have engaged with work placements with them either on a week block placement or on a day release. With them pupils have worked towards achieving official FIFA football coaching qualifications and have gone on to work on apprenticeships with them when leaving Forest Oak.

 

 

• Newlands Bishop Farm

Forest Oak have worked with Newlands Bishop farm for a number of years to support pupils when doing work experience placement in a week block. Newlands Bishop Farm is a working farm catering especially for young people with additional needs. We have had many successful placements. This is based in Catherine de Barnes and we are proud to be working with them.

 

• Fat Fluffs Rabbit Rescue

This charity supports pupils in Key Stage 4 and 5 with work placements either on a week block placement or a one day a week placement.

 

• West Midlands Fireun Service

Forest Oaks re-established links with West Midlands Fire Service means our pupils experience a wider range of enrichment to the curriculum. Our work enhances pupils understanding of safety within the home and the community. Through the SPARKS programme Forest Oak pupils will further develop their understanding of; People that help us, fire safety, safety in the home and what to do the event of an emergency. As well as developing an understanding of the career of a fire fighter. We further hope to develop our link by working with the Road Collision Reduction Team which will be aimed at 6^th Form students as they prepare to leave Forest Oak and may learn to drive.

 

• West Midlands Police – Community Policing Team

We are lucky to have great links with the Community Policing Team at Forest Oak. PSCO’s visit the main school site and the Oakwood Centre on a regular basis. Pupils have the opportunity to engage in workshops about People that help us, Stranger Danger, Safety in the community and County Lines. Where possible officers attend whole school events such as community days, coffee mornings and Christmas Fayre to further engage with as many stakeholders as possible.

• Changes UK

Changes UK support Forest Oaks pupils by providing work experience placements at their charity shop and café. They help parts of the community who are experiencing mental health difficulties to find employment. They are invited and have attended community events within school.

• RNLI

RNLI (The Royal National Lifeboat Institution) visits school annually to deliver water safety messages. They bring to life the charity work of the RNLI, what they do how young people and their families can stay safe around water, whether that be canals, rivers or the beach. They highlight the dangers of water and reinforce how to make right choices around water.

 

 

• The Lions

Marston Green Lions support Forest Oak by attending parents evenings and engaging with parents about the community work of the Lions such as ‘Message in a bottle’. They can provide school with smalls amounts of funding for projects for pupils to enhance the learning environment for our pupils. Pupils are encouraged to engage with the Young Ambassadors Award which aims to allow young people to volunteer in their community and to help others.

 

• Moneysense (National Schools Partnership)

Forest Oak annually conduct moneysense workshops for pupils in Years 5 to 11. Moneysense work together with Natwest to provide fun, interactive workshops for pupils that aim to teach children and young people about money matters, the value and how we use money, budgeting, fraud prevention and finding ways to be more economical to save the money and the planet. This helps to build confidence and resilience with money and how to deal with money in later life. Pupils engage in fun activities that reinforce positive messages for dealing with money.

Workshop titles include:

Work Shop Title	Content / aim
Super Smoothie Workshop	Introduces pupils to the concepts of enterprise, buying, selling and budgeting in a series of group activities involving setting up a smoothie shop.
How we use Money	Helps pupils learn that there are choices about what to do with money: it can be spent, saved or donated. It also explores the difference between needs and wants.
Save our pennies, save our planet	Engages pupils with ways to save money through choosing more environmentally friendly behaviours in the home. Pupils will learn about the benefits of renewable energy and explore daily activities that use a lot of energy.
Fraud Scene Investigators.	Requires pupils to help solve a fraud which has been committed against their friend. They are then asked to create and present a report warning others of the dangers of identity theft and fraud.

 

• DHL (TACS)

Trucks and Child Safety (TACS) is a national safety training programme run by the DHL UK Foundation and employees of DHL in the UK. It aims to help keep young children safe around larger vehicles on the road by educating primary school children as they start to travel independently.

Annually, Forest Oak pupils engage in an outside workshop. DHL representatives visit school with an artic lorry. They conduct workshops engaging pupils in learning about what blind spots are and where they are for the driver of a lorry. They promote safe travel around these vehicles. This type of practical learning is practical and very memorable for our pupils.

 

• Barclays Life Skills / Talent Foundary

Annually, Key Stage 4 pupils engage with sessions provided from the Talent Foundary. This is aimed at pupils who are getting ready for the transition to Forest Oak 6^th Form or on to college. These sessions are focussed on building self confidence and resilience as they enter their new provisions or go onto work.

Topic areas can include:

• The journey to your career
• Exploring Personal Strengths
• Self confidence
• Understanding Workplace Behaviours

 

• Sporty Minds (formally SEND Active SSCU)

Forest Oak pupils attend sporting events organised by Sporty Minds who co-ordinate interschool tournaments for SEND Schools across Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire. Pupils benefit from developing positive sportsman shop skills and meeting new people. Pupils receive recognition for their participation int the events and are proud to represent Forest Oak.

 

• Bikeability

Forest Oak are proud to be able to invite Bikeability into school to support our students to Learn to Ride bikes, achieve Level 1s and Level 2s and become Road Safe! Bikeability typically is conducted in school in the summer term to support pupils in Key stage 2, 3 and 4.

 

• Shirley Golf

Stuart Bottrill – PGA professional at Shirley Golf Club invites all pupils at Forest Oak to have whole class golf lessons. These lessons are accessible for all and this is an amazing opportunity for our students to learn a new sport, taught by a professional!

 

• Rotary tournaments

Forest Oak have excellent links with Rotary, who put on special needs sports events for schools in Birmingham and Solihull. Rotary have previously had football and cricket tournaments which we have attended and they are exploring the possibility of a wider range of sporting events