Our City Gateway staff team were treated to a wonderful 'Vision Day' at the ABN Amro offices at the start of the month including a lovely meal, not because we're worried about them wasting away but to reward them for a morning spent hammering out ideas and vision for City Gateway's future. The afternoon was also a great opportunity to meet up with a number of the organisations that have supported us in the past and look how we can continue and develop those relations well into the future.

We would like to send huge thanks to ABN Amro for hosting this incredible staff day, and we look forward to putting what we learnt into practice.

Forget those 16 suits fighting for supremacy on the BBC... City Gateway's work-based learning program started this month with 36 young people beginning work placements in jobs ranging from childcare to coaching at West Ham FC and multimedia work in our design enterprise.

Alan Sugar has nothing on Joe Lowther, whose one-on-one's leave the trainees much more inspired and a lot less fired than their TV equivalents. Our trainees will partake of 21 days' work experience before finishing their course qualifications, and those who remain committed will have the opportunity to go on further external work placements or to one day become a full-time apprentice with us.

There may be 5 years to wait before the Olympic spirit sweeps the nation but our LDA-funded women's project has stepped up a gear this month with the expansion both of our courses and local outreach. Our popular Creative Me and Sew Creative courses have started up again and are busier than ever - there will be taster sessions in floristry and textiles running for the next 6 weeks.

We have also started a new English language course and have had over two dozen children attending out ballet classes, taught by our multi-talented administrator Lucy.

The air conditioning may be keeping it cool but our outreach team are amazed at the hot talent that's already emerged after just two of their new regular studio sessions on The Bus.

The sessions give young people a chance to try their hand at both making and producing music and is an incredible opportunity for them to be expressing themselves in a positive way. Better yet, the sessions will soon be run by Jake, Shane and Chunks, three of our more experienced trainees who have just started our work based learning programme.

Import is of course very Import-ant, and with the addition of the Bus Studio outreach, it has been increasingly popular. And as any keen horticulturalist will tell you, persistence and patience are key to growth and fruifulness.

Engage is going well, with a group of 10 promising young people who should pass IT without any problems. Although the group is very mixed and diverse this helps to make discussions more interesting, and the young people work well together.

The current Engage-Plus course was not without its initial challenges, but the group have matured, engaging well in sessions. Following a recent 'My Life' session Phil said "It's so exciting to see trainees developing new ways of thinking and being able to express themselves through these channels." 9 out of 10 students passed level 1 multimedia.

The Export course is taking a break while the trainees are off doing work placements - it makes sense, as there's no one to teach - so look out for more Export news next month.

Rukeya / Fili

It's always exciting to welcome new members to the City Gateway team but it's particularly exciting for our newest members Rukeya and Fili because we've seen both of them work right their way up through our various courses, work experience and apprenticeship schemes!

They are both amazing examples of the potential and ability which is just waiting to be uncovered in the young people of Tower Hamlets, and they are the shape of things to come as we look to expand our Apprenticeship scheme. They are most welcome!

Fiery red Bex models herself on Red Sonja in many ways. She grew up right here in Tower Hamlets and has been heavily involved with City Gateway for years. After spending some time in Cambridge studying the ancient art of social enterprise Bex joined the staff team here last year and has been pioneering our enterprise hub, corporate relations and fundraising strategy ever since.

Interestingly Bex has just discovered that she is rather allergic to nettles - NB that's the plant Urtica dioica and not famous British actor John Nettles (Bergerac) or members of his family. If you would like to commiserate with Bex about this, then you can email her on Bex@citygateway.org.uk.

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all our supporters and in particular this month the wonderful soles at Billingsgate Market who have put up with our double-decker bus perch-ed round at their plaice, in the had-Docklands when our attempts to find a parking space were reel-ly flounder-ing.

Thanks guys, our outreach team cod-n't have been as effective without you! And our young people are hooked on making tunas in the studio, flexing their creative mussels.

Recently someone asked us how many people we send our e-News to and we had to admit that we had no idea! So to rectify and edify we calculated that our e-News currently goes to 309 people each month.

We would love to send it to more people so if you know someone who would like to read it then let us know and help us to increase our score on the Recipient-ometer!