In our first few months of opening we piloted our first 5-week Cookie Project, working with a truly phenomenal group of Year 11 students from Gosden House School. Each week, alongside baking lots of cookies, the Cookie Squad developed a range of skills essential to working in a coffee shop including customer service, food hygiene and preparation, teamwork, barista skills, and advertising. On our penultimate week, the Forge on the Green volunteers and staff joined us as customers in the coffee shop to provide the Cookie Squad with a ‘real life’ service experience. The students were both excited and understandably nervous before we opened the doors to the customers. They were all brilliant and exceptionally professional and it was truly wonderful to see their confidence and self-belief grow. Our final session was an opportunity for the students to show all they’d learned to their invited family and friends, school staff, their headteacher and chair of governors. They greeted their guests and ran the show. It was afternoon filled with total joy, magical memories and lots of emotional moments. The Cookie Squad had not only exceeded our expectations in every session they attended but their families and school staff were equally incredibly impressed with their skills and confidence in the workplace environment. During the 5-week project the profits from every cookie sold went towards funding the Cookie Squad’s chosen positive impact project of upcycling their Year 10 and 11 common. room. They had wanted to create a vibrant, comfortable space where future students would be happy to ‘be’, a place filled with fun activities for students to engage with together or individually. By the end of the 5 weeks, they had smashed their original target and raised £400 though cookie sales and donations.

In February our new group of fabulous students from Gosden House School joined us for their first official Cookie Project session. Our new students have chosen to name themselves ‘The Creative Cookie Squad’ and are keen to enhance the deliciously chunky, chocolate chip cookies with some new creative flavours. Do look out for their cookies over the next month. During this Project, £1 from every cookie sold will go towards raising funds for the Squad’s chosen positive impact project. The Creative Cookie Squad have chosen to use the money from their cookie sales to develop their school’s Yr 10 and 11 playground area. They’ve identified items and equipment that they’d like to purchase that they feel will ‘make breaktimes fun for everyone’, ‘spark creativity among the students’ and make the Yr 10 and 11 students feel ‘happier’.

We were delighted to welcome back one of our original Cookie Squad students from Gosden House to join us for 2 weeks work experience. She was a truly wonderful addition to the team and grew in confidence each day, her latte art was fabulous! On Thursdays, when the Forge was closed to the public, we baked cookies together with the proceeds going to fund the bus travel for the next cohort of Gosden Students. The cookies sold out each Friday! During her time with us at the Forge we also supported her Level 2 food and hygiene in catering certificate with us, which she will be able to take with her to any future coffee shop employment.

We are thrilled to be working with some wonderful students from Elysian School. In collaboration with their school staff we are developing a bespoke Cookie Project. This project introduces the students to customer service and barista skills, food hygiene and also aims to support them in managing sensory and emotional needs in an unfamiliar setting. During our second week we were very excited to work together on our first Corporate Cookie Sale. We loved reading all the positive comments and look forward to future orders!