MB News September 23

Internal Newsletter
MB NEWS
No.5
Celebrating all that's brilliant about The Mulberry Bush Sept. 2023
As we move in to Autumn...
It’s abundantly clear that September has been an
incredibly busy month across the whole charity.
The children started back in education, Outreach
have delivered huge amounts of training,
Fundraising hosted their annual Women of the
Year lunch, Research have been busy compiling
the results of the Staff Survey...and that’s just to
name a few!
There are a number of large projects starting in
October, so it’s safe to say the pace will not be
slowing this next month.
What this does highlight is the sheer breadth of
the impact the charity delivers every single day.
Top work everyone!
The Mulberry Bush - Project Archivist
The Research and Archives Team
welcomes Natalya Uemlianin-Stone to
the Bush. Natalya is the Mulberry Bush
Project Archivist based at MB3 for the
next 18 months.
She will be cataloguing the historical
records of the charity to make them a
rich and exciting resource for all
branches of the charity. Watch this
space for some of Natalya's discoveries.
The plan is for Natalya to have a regular
column in MB news to share her
findings.

School Improvement Works - Summer 23
During the Summer holidays, there was a HUGE amount of work carried out to improve
the School buildings and the Houses. Below is a list of just some of the works completed. It
was a massive undertaking and a very big well done to Sue, our Facilities Manager and
Gareth, Callum and Chris, our Maintenance team.
All trees that were creating
a safety concern were
felled & all dead wood
removed from remaining
trees. Chippings created
were kept for use around
the school.
External render on Pegasus &
Sunset was given a fresh coat of
pink. The grey concrete render to
the front & rear of Jigsaw was
painted Magnolia.
Courtyard walls refreshed with a
coat of white & ceiling of
walkway restained dark green.
New Karndean
flooring was laid
in 3 of the 4
houses
All of the
bedroom
doors,
casings &
architrave in
all 4 houses
were
replaced
with new.
Four kitchens ripped out
and replaced with new.
All the window baskets from
Pegasus & Sunset were powder
coated. These will hopefully last
without rusting until the render
needs to be refreshed again in 5-
10yrs time.
The level of the flooring
in Jigsaws lounge was
raised so that the whole
room is on the same level
making it much safer &
more user friendly.
The fire alarm system
was serviced
Kitchen deep cleans
of both the main
school kitchen & the
kitchen at MB3.
The oil leak in Jigsaw’s
central heating boiler was
fixed & servicing on boilers,
in all houses, was carried
out.

New carpets were laid
in both Jigsaw &
Sunset’s lounges
Gareth spent a whole
week jack hammering
concrete in Jigsaw’s
dinning room & then
moved on to removing the
staged area in sunsets
lounge and all of the wall
murals. He has even
turned his hand to
plastering to get us out of
a hole.
Callum concentrated on
the worst of the bedrooms
in Pegasus and Sunset
managing to fully strip
and
redecorate
bedrooms.
Chris gave both Evenlode
classroom & Shifford a fresh lick of
paint throughout and then ran the
floor scrubber over their floors. On
top of fully redecorating of Jigsaws
bedrooms.
TED's was also on the receiving end of a deep
clean and repaint. The newly donated clock
was put up & a few new bits & pieces added to
enhance the space for everyone.
The lighting was replaced at
Linden House, the lights in the
UMR and in the well-being room as
well as removing 3 wall lights in
Jigsaws lounge which were now
too low after the flooring was
done.

Women of the Year Lunch
The Women of the Year lunch was held on Thursday 28th September at Somerville
College. In total, 160 Women from as far afield as Southampton, attended the lunch. The
guest speakers were Baroness Royall and Alice Fox-Pitt.
It was a great event, which raised vital funds towards the continued refurbishment of the
houses. It was lovely to see so many people supporting the important work of everyone in
the charity.
Meet the Therapies and Networks Team
Firstly, some good news. Di Nixon, who has been off work with a
broken femur, is on the mend and is gradually returning to work.
Also, T&NT are planning some more Open Mornings/ Afternoons.
These are opportunities for anyone across the Charity to come and
meet the team and find out more about what Therapists and Family
and Networks Practitioners do. They provide tea and cake! An email
will be sent out shortly about them, but to give everyone advance
notice, the dates will be: Tuesday 31st October 2.30-4.30, Tuesday 7th
November 11-12.30, Thursday 9th November 11.30-1.30. They are dropin
sessions - no need to let them know you're coming or to stay for the
whole time.

Dorset Level 4 Celebration
The Pilot Dorset Level 4 learners have completed the course and had a Celebration event,
which Penny and Angie attended. They were very pleased to receive their certificates and
were proud of their achievements. We are now excited to be well into the delivery of Year
2.
Living Learning Experience
We had another successful LLE at Mulberry Bush Third Space recently where 9 people
from a range of settings came together as a time limited community.
The residential course ran from
Tuesday 12th - Thursday 14th
September and was made up of
both internal and external staff.
During their time spent
together, the group partook in a
number of activities, including
communal cooking and small
and whole group community
meetings. There was also the
chance to take part in less
formal activities, which included
table tennis, croquet and blind
folded Pictionary!
All of which combined to allow
the people involved to reflect on
being part of a group.

Beacon Project Conference
Ray and Laura attended the Beacon
Project dissemination conference on 27th
September in Coventry at Charter House
(historically a Carthusian monastery).
Ray has played a lead role in the project
over the past two years supporting five
schools through training and reflective
practice.
Andy also supported the project through
his school improvement offer. The
research paper has now been completed
and is currently available in hard copy
(please ask Ray or Laura if you are keen
for a copy).
The research demonstrated how quantitative data was patchy throughout the project and
hard to capture, however, the qualitative data carried out through focus groups and
questionnaires provided some brilliant impact on the children, families and schools
involved.
Ex-Pupil’s Video
Just a reminder that the
video produced at our Ex-
Pupil’s Day is now available
to view on YouTube: CLICK
HERE!
Getting IT done!
Volunteers from IT security company Sophos
visited during the Summer Holidays.
They spent the day with Mandy and Hilary
working very hard in the Outside Education
area. They stained the
Environment/education cabins and the raised
beds. The cabins were also given a really
good tidy up.
Bark from the tree surgery was spread
between the raised beds & around the seating
area in the main carpark.
A tonne of soil was spread amongst the raised
beds so that they are ready for planting

2023 Staff Survey - The Results are in...
Feedback from the
2023 Staff Survey is
incredibly positive.
63 staff responded to
section 1 which is a
17% increase on last
year.
48 staff responded to
some of the openended
questions.
Displayed in the
graph are the
headlines for each
question.
If you’d like any more
information
regarding the results
of the 2023 Staff
Survey OR any other
data sets, you can
contact Matt
Wareham, our Data
Analyst and Research
Assistant.
Emotional Security in the Classroom Project
99.9% of the ESinC data is in and ready to be analysed in October.

Welcomes
Natalya Uemlianin-Stone
Project Archivist (MB3)
Fond Farewells
Ray Burrows
Specialist Teacher in
Outreach
Helene Schlichter
Therapeutic care
Practitioner
Mandy Lane
Events
Fundraiser
Katie Boyd
Teaching Assistant
Patsi Symonds
Therapeutic Care
Practitioner
Fundraising
Upcoming Events
School
Learning
12th October
A Celebration of Contemporary
Choral Music at Bampton Church
10th November
For the Fallen – a talk for
Remembrance Day
11th November
WWI – The Great Game
15th - 19th October
Outward Bound
20th October
Education Open Day
18th October
Reading Group
7.30am Visitor’s Flat
2nd November
Charity Strategic
Development Day