Weston College has received the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) Beacon Award for Students with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities at an event at The Grove Restaurant at Weston College’s Knightstone Campus.

The award recognises the College’s specialist provision for students with special educational needs and disabilities, particularly Weston Bay – the College’s autism spectrum residential training centre. Judges found that the College actively develops and promotes exemplary teaching and learning which benefits its students and sets an example for other colleges across the country to follow.

This year the AoC received 120 submissions from 100 colleges from across the UK.

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “This award recognises an area of Weston College provision that has a tangible effect on its learners, enabling them to progress beyond their own expectations. 

“Nationally, only 24% of autistic people are in employment, whereas 100% of the students who study in Weston Bay progress into further study, university, independent living or paid work.”

The award follows investment in the College’s inclusive practice provision over recent years under the direction of Dr Phillips CBE. The Weston Bay facility was the first of its kind in the UK to be opened by a further education college, and its success has led Dr Phillips to work with colleges across the country and internationally to replicate its provision.

Ian Munro, Area Director (South West) for the AoC presented the award at the event and informed the gathering of some of the assessor’s comments. He said: “The winning submission demonstrated outstanding strategic planning for the provision, led by senior management and the governing body and developed over several years. 

“The programme also included a seamless dual approach to teaching and learning; strong professional development and training, with certification at degree and Master’s level, for staff; high quality residential training provision; outstanding success rates.

“All the Beacon criteria were met and many exceeded in this project; and verified through the independent assessors visit to the College.” 

A catering team based at HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset has been shortlisted for the final of this year’s BBC Points West 'Cookery Team of the Year'. 

Nominated for their fantastic daily contributions as well as the variety of projects they are involved in, the team was visited by the BBC cameras last week to film a slot for Tuesday 12th June’s BBC Points West news, and tutors from the prison will attend the finals the following evening.

The annual awards are for catering teams who have gone above and beyond in providing a particularly great service to their community. The HMP Guys Marsh team was nominated for working within a particularly challenging prison community, providing a great daily service, and for their innovative engagement in wider prison community projects.

The team is made up of Weston College catering tutor Luke Trott and a group of prison learners who are working towards their NVQ L2 Diploma in Catering and Hospitality. The offenders achieve this nationally recognised qualification while working in the prison kitchen, where they often cook bespoke lunches for prison-wide events. 

Throughout 2017 and 2018, the team cooked a range of meals celebrating different faiths, catered for regular family days for visiting relatives, and held a weekly Ready, Steady Cook challenge. Local restaurants visited the prison to meet with learners and sample the food from the challenge events, leading to at least one of the learners being offered a job placement upon release.

The team uses fresh produce grown on site by their peers on horticulture courses, learning about the benefits of using locally sourced goods. They also have to budget many of the dishes and ensure that the daily food served is nutritious, healthy and inclusive of all faiths and beliefs.

We wish them luck at Wednesday’s ceremony where they are up against two other worthy contenders, and look forward to continuing to sample their fantastic work over the coming months and years.
 

Art students at Weston College have produced a dazzling centrepiece for a local store’s Christmas marketing campaign.

All Level 2 Art and Design students were asked to design Proper Job’s Christmas ‘Shed of Wonder’, which is used to sell trees at the Devonshire Road hardware store.

This ‘real-life’ brief involved researching the store’s customer base and producing relevant designs for the shed.

A winning design – produced by Erin Popham – was then chosen, and students worked in shifts over two weeks to bring it to life, on-site at the Proper Job warehouse.

Art and Design Lecturer Ben Thomas-Taylor said: “Work experience, such as this, is a compulsory part of the Level 2 course. It provides many benefits for our students, giving them relevant skills and experience to help them stand out to potential employers, whilst helping them to choose the right sector to work in.

“For the past two years we’ve collaborated with Proper Job, designing and painting their 'Shed of Wonder', as part of their Christmas marketing campaign.

“Every student worked hard bringing to life the winning design and did a fantastic job. The company were very pleased and told us it would appeal perfectly to their customer base.”