Us being awesome.
Remember Christmas?
Plymouth had a bumper festive period, full of merriment. Here are some of the highlights!
Secret Santa and a shared lunch.
A festive lunch with homemade masterpieces (some say it was like a low budget cooking show). This was followed up by a Secret Santa and a long nap.
Breakfast with Santa & Santas on the run.
This event saw Plymouth have a and natter over a sausage bap and Santa kindly made the time for photos before returning to his busy schedule. Phil Thornsby took park in the Santas on the Run event too, running 3km dressed up in festive attire, all with the aim of raising vital funds for Children’s Hospice Southwest.
The Christmas party.
An evening of just the right mix of festive charm and questionable Christmas jumpers. By closing time, spirits were high, colleagues were looking forward to a well-earned break.
Regional Celebrations.
At the start of the year, the Central Region had local celebrations to celebrate their recent work throughout 2025. These bought everyone together for a well-deserved evening of fun. Birmingham visited Loki Wines, Oxford attended Flight Club on 29th January and Cambridge held a joint event at Little Petra.
Movember.
The South East region raised £208 for Movember 2025, bringing their four-year running total to £1,346! Well done to everyone who participated and thank you to all who donated.
A new look for Plymouth.
Plymouth’s office kitchen has had more than just a fresh lick of paint – the new refurbishment has transformed the space into a smart and modern space. It has new appliances (coffee anyone) and an improved layout. We’re excited to see the difference it makes!
Brain busters.
A fun game in our Bournemouth office made a comeback. Song lyrics were translated the lyric through four different languages before putting it back in English. Then people had to figure out the right song, as well as which lyrics are actually from the original. This usually leads to people standing in a corner humming.
Reading hosted their own Pointless-style quiz, inspired by the TV show, trying to find the most obscure (but still correct) answers to various questions.
Throughout February, Reading also held their own Bake Off challenge (inspired by the TV show, there a theme developing here). It took place over a month with weekly themes. The weekly winners were Francesca, Daniel, Valentina, and Merve, with Valentina winning overall on points.
The Big Garden Birdwatch.
Some of our people from the South West took part in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch in late January, the world's largest garden wildlife survey. They were tasked with spending one hour watching and counting birds to help track how garden birds are faring across the UK. Critters spotted include sparrows, seagulls, robins, blackbirds, and (of course) the humble pigeon.
Festive times in Bournemouth and Reading.
In December last year, our Bournemouth and Reading offices raised money for their chosen charities, both hosting Christmas raffles. Reading raised £146 for the British Heart Foundation. Bournemouth raised £440 for two charities: Samaritans and Hope Housing, who support and provide housing for those experiencing homelessness, helping with training, educating and general personal development.
In Bournemouth, teams gathered to decorate gingerbread houses. A few enthusiastic taste testers made appearances sampling their own decorations, but the bigger challenge for many was assembling the houses themselves. Judges from each team anonymously evaluated the finished creations, and the winning team was, unsurprisingly, the one group whose house was not still in pieces.
Client feedback.
“Your depth of technical expertise helped us to identifying a suitable site for development of our regional cellular pathology service. In particular, your ability to communicate the complexities of each shortlisted site clearly and succinctly was very well received.”
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Well done to Stephanie Cramp and Sajjad Ali!
Birmingham bonding.
Since our last edition of Insider – Birmingham have been busy hosting a variety of events to bring people together. This includes:
A festive celebration in December which had an office quiz, a sustainable secret Santa, office awards and a presentation on all the success they had through 2025. This was followed up by a glamorous Christmas Party, where people could eat, drink and be merry.
A very interesting game on supply, demand and negotiation. 3 teams were formed, with the task of purchasing the material to create various paper shapes but were only allowed to create the exact shape from memory. Once the team purchase their equipment and created their shapes, they could sell them back to the shop for more materials. The winning team would be the one with the most currency at the end.
Paper aeroplane making – where some childlike spirit came back to win the “who’s goes the furthest” competition.