No end to their talents!

By Lesley, Learning for Life Teacher, Folkestone Hub

As well as sports and day trips over the summer holidays, our young people have been having fun trying some different activities. 

It was with some trepidation I approached the t-shirt tie-dying session: I expected carnage - of dye staining the boys' lovely clean clothes or spilling over the hub floors, or the dye not taking and no discernible tie-dying pattern on the shirts.  

Did I need to worry - not at all! These boys can turn their hand to anything! I showed them a very simple video of a couple of tie-dying techniques and we followed the decanting instructions carefully, funnelling the dyes into the empty washing-up liquid bottles - the boys carefully mopping any small spills I made.

They were quick to start their own designs based on the video examples and showed immense patience as we waited an hour for the die to set. You can see from the pictures the fabulous results (although their happy smiling faces are hidden behind their creations). 

Growing boys are always hungry and our students are no different. Pizza-making is always a popular activity at Folkestone Hub and taking part in the cooking and getting to eat the results is a no brainer for us.  

We are lucky enough at Folkestone to have access to a fully-fitted large kitchen, dining table and chairs. Cooking is part of our life skills education, which includes the importance of hygiene, sex education and budgeting.

I've yet to meet a child who doesn't like pizza and it can be very tempting for young people to order a pizza rather than making the effort to cook themselves. But at minimum £7.99 for a takeaway medium pizza, cooking their own at a far lower cost is very popular and a good introduction to budgeting choices, as well as cooking and team work - especially when it comes to washing up! Plus, homemade pizzas taste better! 

The dough preparation was achieved with meticulous attention to detail and a short waiting game as we watched to see the yeast and sugar start activating.  While we waited for the dough to rise after a little bit of messy kneading, the boys had time to prepare the toppings, We always concentrate on vegetarian options as this avoids any conflict with halal requirements. It's also cheaper and provides for some of their five a day. 

We used passata, onions, sweet peppers, sweet corn, anchovies (pescaterian!) lots of cheddar cheeses and smattering of mozzarella - plus the popular addition of a little hot chilli. These boys already had experience in flat-bread making, evident from the skills they demonstrated making a really thin crispy pizza base - and decorating the pizzas with all the topping ingredients was no problem either. 

Finally, it was time for the taste test and it didn't take long for the pizzas to disappear as the boys gobbled them up, sharing them with others in their class. Two jobs well done!