Students taking English GCSEs at Weston College have smashed national benchmarks with exceptionally high pass rates.

Of the 23 students who took their GCSE English exam before Christmas, 20 achieved a grade C or above, putting the pass rate at 87% – miles ahead of the 27% national benchmark.

The students were a combination of new learners to the College and returning learners, who have previously failed to obtain the C grade required to progress to further education.

These results are a huge cause for celebration, and go to show how Weston College supports its learners to achieve.

Kelly O’Connor, Subject Area Manager for GCSE English, said: “These results just go to show how hard work really can pay off.

“I’m immensely proud of my students and am confident that they have paved their way to successful futures.”

Weston College offers several options to support learners who have previously not taken GCSE English, or haven’t achieved a C grade.

Fake news is a term used to describe any news item that presents false information as facts in an attempt to make you believe a certain thing or react in a certain way. It is most often associated with politics, after coming to prominence during the 2016 American election.

Sometimes legitimate news outlets can get things wrong, but the difference between this and fake news is that fake news deliberately tries to mislead or provoke a reaction in the reader. If you’re a social media user, chances are you’ve read a fake news story without even knowing it. Here are some ways you can spot whether a news story is fake…

Check the website

Not all news sites are legitimate, and if you don’t recognise the website or haven’t heard of the publication before, then you should give the article extra scrutiny. Check the URL to make sure that you are reading from a trusted site, as some fake news sites use similar (but not identical) URLs to mainstream news organisations.

If the news is on social media in the form of a Facebook post or tweet which doesn't have evidence to back itself up, treat it with extra caution. In one month in 2018, over 45,000 Facebook posts were identified as fake news, spread by automated accounts to cause confusion and propaganda. Even if the Facebook post contains a video or an image, it is fairly simple to misrepresent the situation or even doctor the image to suit the post's political purpose. Always check out where the post comes from. It is usually easy to determine whether the news is reliable or not by looking at other posts from the account. If one of your friends shares news that you think is fake, point it out!

Is there a sensational headline?

Many fake news sites earn money by getting you to click on headlines, others know that most people who see the article on social media will only read the headline, and use a sensational headline to prompt the reader to share the article to a wider audience. If the article has an outrageous title, or a wild claim that makes you want to click to read more, look beyond the first few lines and try to find the evidence behind the claim. Remember, if it an outrageous claim that seems too outlandish to be true - it probably isn't.

Is it editorial?

Editorial is a type of news commentary that many legitimate news sources publish, but the key is to remember that it is a person’s opinion and might not take into account evidence which conflicts with their views. Similarly, if the article you’re reading is written like a news report but has opinions in it which aren’t quotes, then the article is probably biased. All respected news sources present news in an unbiased form and allow the reader to make up their own minds on an issue.

Examine the content

Many news organisations, real or fake, attempt to be the first to ‘break’ a news story in order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive market. If the article you’re reading seems rushed, has spelling mistakes, has an incorrect date, or anonymous sources, bear in mind that this news article might not have had time for all of the facts to be checked. Poor spelling, grammar and vocabulary on older articles may indicate that the item you are reading comes from an unreliable news outlet.

Where does the news come from?

Most news articles will have a ‘source’ for their information. Sometimes this source is named but other times the source is anonymous. Naming a source is a good indication that the news is real, as the person is willing to go on record and put their reputation at stake to break the news; however bear in mind that fake news sites often lie about their sources. To find out whether an article is properly sourced, check the named source’s social media for similar commentary and look to see if other news outlets are reporting on the same comments.

There are many legitimate reasons why sources choose to remain anonymous, so you don’t have to immediately discredit sources without a name - but bear in mind that without more information the source could be anyone.

Our hospitality and catering department is always busy in the Grove Training Kitchen and Restaurant on the second floor of the Knightstone Campus. Whether they’re making treats to sell around the College, or serving the public in the evening, they are always learning and improving their skills.

We’re taking a look back at the best guest chefs and experiences they’ve had over the last term…

Making canapés and serving front of house at Berwick Lodge

Our students were given a fantastic opportunity at the start of the year to serve front of house at an event at Berwick Lodge, and make canapés with head chef, Istvan Ulmann. They had a fantastic day, making a variety of dishes for a BBQ event and afternoon tea, and Istvan later returned to the College to deliver a guest session in our Grove Restaurant. Read the full story here.

Weston Wok from the College’s atrium

Back in February, a few of our Level 3 students decided to run their own Weston Wok lunch business from the Knightstone Campus atrium! They cooked lunch for paying members of the public, staff and students, fresh in front of them.

A vegetarian chef came for a visit

Elisabeth Guillén, Head Chef at The Gloucester Old Spot in Bristol, came in to lead a class of our Level 3 students. She taught them about traditional Spanish recipes with a vegetarian focus, creating some fantastic dishes and showing the diverse flavours you can create, even without meat! You can read the full story here.

Serving a party of 40 guests in the Grove Restaurant

The College recently held a special celebration for winning the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, so our hospitality and catering students worked hard throughout the day to make a three-course meal for all 40 VIPs. Everyone was thoroughly impressed with the food and all their hard work.

Working at the Cheltenham Festival

22 of our students attended the Cheltenham Festival to serve thousands of visitors over the week. They encountered a few famous faces while working in the Gold Cup Restaurant, Paddock Restaurant and The Sizzling Jack prepping food and serving front of house.

Find out more

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in hospitality and catering, we offer a range of courses and apprenticeships that can help you on your way! 

Click here to find out more...

Staff at Weston College who were awarded Silver in the 2018 Pearson Teaching Awards were invited to the House of Commons for Tea to celebrate their achievements.

Lecturer Charmaine Hale-Lynch, who teaches Travel and Tourism at the College, along with Mandy Lee, Student Welfare & Pastoral Support Services Manager, and Ben Cocks, Assistant Director, all attended the event in the House of Commons.

Charmaine and the Welfare and Pastoral Services Team were selected from thousands of nominations nationwide back in June, and were two of just 65 winners in the 2018 Pearson Teaching Awards.

They were invited to an exclusive, one in a lifetime opportunity to have tea at the House of Commons ahead of a glittering ceremony broadcast live on the BBC later this year, where just 12 winners (one from each category) will be selected to win the prestigious Gold Plato.

The Pearson teaching awards are run annually, and schools and FE colleges are invited to nominate members of staff and teams within their organisation who they think are worthy of recognition for the fantastic work they do daily. There is then an in-depth selection process, involving judging visits to the schools, to identify ground-breaking teachers and teams.

Ben Cocks, Assistant Director at Weston College, said: “Seeing both Charmaine and the Welfare and Pastoral Support Services win a Silver Teaching Award, and being part of that, has been an amazing experience and given me a real sense of pride and delight.

“I have seen first-hand how hard the staff within the department work. What they do is truly inspirational and for them as individuals and as a team, winning the award has given them the recognition they not only deserve, but also the confidence and reassurance that what they do to support our learners and the wider community is valued, having a real impact and changing lives.

“It is our learners who inspire the staff and make it worthwhile and this award is to them as much as it is to the staff.”

Weston College has made it into the prestigious Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

The College was the highest ranked College in the list and was placed 28th in the not-for-for profit category in the whole of the UK.

The Sunday Times 100 list is regarded as the Oscars of employee engagement. The 2019 places were announced at a glitzy awards ceremony held at the Battersea Evolution, London on Wednesday 20th February.

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Weston College, said: “To be included in such a prestigious roll of honour at the Sunday Times 100 List is a major achievement and testament to the emphasis we place on putting our staff at the heart of the business.

“Employee engagement and investment are among our highest priorities. This award reflects those priorities, as well as the commitment and dedication our people give us in return.

"Being recognised at UK level is hugely rewarding and we will continue to work hard to support our employees both personally and professionally.”

The College won a place in the list after a comprehensive staff survey carried out by ‘Best Companies’, who compile the Sunday Times List. The survey gathered the views of Weston College employees across eight key factors including wellbeing, pay and benefits, personal growth and the strength of leadership at the College.

Organisations in the not-for-profit category must employ at least 50 employees, and achieve one of the highest 100 highest survey scores in the category. They must also be either a charity, an organisation set up for community benefit, a public sector organisation, or a Community Interest Company (CIC).

Weston College’s female rugby academy has made history by winning the Rosslyn Park National 7s Cup at their first attempt.

This was the first time the College has entered a side in the competition and provides evidence of the growth and investment there has been in female rugby over the recent years. It was an outstanding achievement and one that far surpassed the expectations of players and staff. However, this was also fully deserved for the player’s efforts throughout the season and the outstanding performances they produced on the day.

After an early leave on the Friday morning the girls arrived for their qualification match against Welsh opponents Gower College. Weston hit the ground running and had soon scored four tries by half time. They continued the scoring in the second half and eventually finished 44-0 winners which saw them qualify for the main half of the draw. This group also contained Pembrokeshire College and four-times winners Ysgol Dyffyryn Aman. Both these games were much more tightly contested with Weston winning the first 28-0 and then scoring a last minute try to defeat Ysgol Aman. These wins saw the first bit of history made that day with the girls becoming the first ever Weston College team to make to the knock-out rounds of this prestigious tournament.

In the quarter-finals, the girls came up against their biggest challenge yet and played against Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege from Belgium. Despite losing two key players to injury, the girls held on and finished 17-15 winners to set up semi-final contest against Epsom College . This proved to be quite the challenge with the opponents racing to a 10-0 lead in double-quick time. However, Weston replied with some of the best rugby of the day, scoring three unanswered tries to win 21-17.

In the final, Weston produced another outstanding display of hard work, team spirit and ruthless defence, which allowed Amy Coles to score four tries which saw them crowned champions.

This success highlights the great work being done towards female rugby and sport in general in the region. Looking forward, this is looks set to be the first of many great achievements on the national stage.

Lois Bird, captain of the Weston team, said: “It feels surreal to be a national champion. We went expecting to win two or three matches, and didn’t even imagine being in the final.

“This win is huge for girl’s rugby in the area. Somerset is a really big part of girl’s rugby and for Weston College especially, to get that win is going to draw more people in.”

Team Coach and Sports Academy Assistant Manager, Jack Gadd, said: “The girls only had one specialist 7s session a week, for five weeks, in preparation for the tournament, which makes it an even greater achievement”

“Seeing the bond between the players grow was probably the most important part for me – as well as seeing rugby at its purest and history made by winning the cup for the first time.”

The girls’ victory has been achieved just in time for the unveiling of the College’s bespoke facility, the Health and Active Living Centre (HALC), where sport and health-based courses will continue to thrive and grow. Boasting state-of-the-art equipment, these facilities will benefit learners and will also be available for the public to hire.

Jack added: “I think the new facilities will enable us to continue to grow our strong sports provision. Just having a place to call home with outstanding facilities, both indoor and outdoor, will offer lots more to our learners.”

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “The Health and Active Living Centre is a major, multi-million pound investment from Weston College and the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.

“But even before these facilities open, our young people are winning national awards. It’s just been a pleasure to see our women’s rugby team achieve absolute excellence. The Health and Active Living Centre is just part of one huge facility now for the people of Weston-super-Mare, for the students and for everybody who wants to get involved in this fantastic project.”

Congratulations to Lois, Harri, Sophie, Lottie, Chloe, Amy, Courtney, Meg and Elise for the massive achievement. Many thanks to all of the staff who aided the team and helped them to achieve.

Have you wondered what it’s like to be a computing student? Meet Connor, an applied computing student.

Connor joined Weston College when he enrolled on the IT Practitioners Diploma, Level 3 course. This course improves your knowledge and practical skills in a range of IT areas including, IT systems, social media in business, data modelling, information management and website development. You find out how computer systems work and learn to utilise different applications. The assignments are based on workplace situations, so you get a real insight to the careers available in IT and what it is like to work in the industry.

He then moved to UCW to study applied computing. This popular foundation degree emphasises the practical application of computing principles and on development of IT skills.

The course also provides the core knowledge in software design, systems analysis and web technologies required to either progress to further study or gain employment in an IT role. It covers:

• Computing applications
• Software design and development
• System analysis and databases
• Web technologies and platforms
• Computing project management
• Digital devices implementation and usability
• Object-orientated software design and development
• Service support tools and techniques
• Work experience.

As part of the work experience module, Connor was briefed with creating a new website for Aequus– a housing/property developer owned by the local council.

Connor said: “Working on this project was a great experience. I had monthly meetings with the client as I found this was an easier way to get the information I required than calling or waiting for something to be emailed across. Web design is also quite creative so it’s sometime difficult to explain how you are visualising something over email or the phone.

“Weston College and UCW have provided me with lots of employer contacts through projects such as this one. I have enjoyed learning about CSS language and above all they have given me the confidence in my work.” Connor is hoping to progress to the top-up year with UCW and then a Master’s at UWE. He also had this advice for future students: “Make friends, work hard, and take part in the trips, as this is where I have made life-long friends. We were lucky enough to go to Florida and tour Universal Studios where we learnt about special effects, animation, edit movies and 3D printers. I’d recommend anyone coming to Weston College and UCW, as the lecturers are fantastic and always there to help.”

Connor has since graduated from UCW with a First-Class Honours Degree, and is now specialising in Cyber Security at the University West of England.

"I have been studying Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking and Network Security. Thanks to my Extended Diploma at Weston College and my Bachelor’s Degree at UCW, I had already gained important experience with programming languages such as C++ which have been very useful in advancing in Cyber Security.

"Also, thanks to my studies of Website Development at UCW, I have a great understanding of how websites and databases work and therefore how to secure them, this included important experience with SQL and PHP. Thanks to the courses, I have a great understanding of what secure code looks like and how to implement security measures. This has been a huge advantage while progressing into the Cyber Security field.

"My next goal is to advance into the Cyber Security field further. After graduating from my Masters, I hope to progress into a career in Penetration Testing." 

See Connor’s website - https://www.aequusdevelopments.co.uk/
See all computing course, starting this September - https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/computing-and-it

On Tuesday 12th November, Weston’s popular Tropicana venue hosted our annual careers convention "CareersFest" - exclusive for students at Weston College.

Students were bussed in throughout the day and had 1 hour to roam around and meet with over 60 employers and educational institutes. Engaging activities and thoughtful advice made the event a huge success with lots of valuable talks and insights into multiple industries being shared.

As well as nationally renowned names, local businesses and universities also attended, expanding the mindset and thinking process of those who attended.

One learner commented "I loved learning how to present the weather with BBC Bristol. It was really fun and it's definitely opened my eyes to more career ideas."

Alliance Homes’ stand was a popular destination with multiple skills based challenges surrounding construction.

Jade from Alliance Employment Team said: “The day’s been fabulous. It’s been really really busy and we’ve had lots of students showing interest and engaging which has been amazing.

“We’re recruiting for our apprenticeships in construction for next year and this has been a great chance to meet students and share these opportunities with them”.

We also caught up with Tom Thayer, Hinkley Point C’s Inspire Education Programme Manager, who added “Whilst building interest in STEM through the Inspire Programme, our aim is to ensure that local people can benefit from the huge range of opportunities on offer at Hinkley Point C.

"The team here at Weston College have provided fantastic support towards that aim and we’ve had lots of referrals to our HPC education programme as a result.

“We’re well into the Civil Engineering Phase of the project which will be followed by the start of the mechanical and electrical fit out of the new power station. It means there are opportunities available in a huge range of careers that will continue to develop over the coming years.

“We encourage young people to sign up to www.edfenergy.com/youngHPC to find out more about the variety of career paths that are available and what job roles are in demand right now."

Katherine from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School was aiming to recruit students looking to study performing arts at HE: “This is my first time recruiting in Weston and the atmosphere has been buzzing.

“We’re a drama school and theatre company all in one, so we specialise in first class higher education courses so whether you want to work on stage or behind the scenes, there are opportunities here for everyone”

Careers Advisors and event organisers Jasmine and Lisa added: “CareersFest was designed to encourage our learners to explore their career interests and skills and discover where their personalities could thrive. This included raising awareness of employers, apprenticeships, higher education and other opportunities.

"We hope that all of the learners had the chance to do this and also enjoyed the day!”

Many thanks to all the staff and organisations who helped to make this event informative and interesting for our students.

Click here to see the full list of employers that attended.

The group of Geography A-level students took a minibus down to the attraction near St Austell, and after a welcome lecture were given a tour of the Mediterranean and Tropical Biodomes.

Humidity was very high in the Tropical Biodome, adding to the authenticity of the experience. The students were given the opportunity to climb up to a viewing platform 30 metres from the ground so they could see the flora and fauna from above.

College lecturer Richard Hall, who accompanied the students, said: “This was a great experience of learning first hand and close up about Biodiversity, and with the combination of lectures, guided tour and free time to explore, it certainly enhanced enjoyment of this aspect of the course.”

* Pic shows students (left to right) James Savage, Charlie Cox, Luke Flannigan, Will Payne, Josh Hoare-Matthews, Vanessa Wall, Leanne Bryant.