<p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Last week, our </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; target="_blank">Uniformed Protective Services (UPS)</a><span style="font-size:inherit;"> learners received an extremely impactful guest lecture from Firefighter Richard Welch, the Lambeth Borough Commander at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Our UPS learners often aim to work in the armed forces, whether this is as a Police Officer, a Firefighter, in the Royal Army, or the Royal Navy. These are dedicated and highly disciplined careers and any first-hand experience provides our learners with a more in-depth understanding of the impact that their work can have on the community.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Richard Welch began by outlining his experiences and progression within the Fire and Rescue profession. Richard joined the London Fire Brigade in 1996, progressing through many roles around London before finally becoming the Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Service Delivery Support at Avon Fire and Rescue Service.&nbsp;</span></p><drupal-entity alt="&quot;Richard Welch giving a guest lecture to Protective Service students&quot;" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0de86143-002a-40da-8c29-519b81cfc131" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-embed-display-settings="{&quot;image_style&quot;:&quot;max_500x500&quot;,&quot;image_link&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image_loading&quot;:{&quot;attribute&quot;:&quot;lazy&quot;}}">&nbsp;</drupal-entity><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">During the time of Grenfell Tower, Richard was the Lambeth Borough Commander and the head of response to this major incident. He outlined his experience from the night of the Grenfell Tower fire on the 14th June 2017 to the learners, including the procedure and protocol the firefighters followed, the number of citizens they managed to rescue, the horrendous conditions inside of the tower, and how quickly the fire spread throughout the building.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Steve Brawley, one of our Protective Services lecturers, recognised the powerful impact of this employer engagement experience for both the learners and the staff, saying “students who, for some, are months away from their own progression into the uniformed protective services, got to hear first-hand insights into the responses and experiences of Firefighters during one of the most challenging national Major Incidents of recent times.”&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Nicola Stent, another Protective Services lecturer, also expressed her gratitude to Richard Welch, saying “I was incredibly moved by the first-hand accounts Richard shared with our learners and am so proud of the engagement, co-operation and mature questions from our learners.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">The bravery demonstrated from the emergency responders on the scene at Grenfell Tower was heroic. We are so very grateful for Richard’s insight and personal strategies of how to cope in such adverse circumstances.”&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">The learners came away from the guest lecture feeling that their ambitions to enter a protective service career and make a difference was achievable and realistic with lots of advice on how to succeed and thrive in any upcoming challenges.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Thank you to Richard Welch for taking the time to share his first-hand experiences of this horrific incident and the heroic and courageous risks him and his team take within their profession.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; target="_blank">If you’re interested in applying to one of our Protective Services courses, click here.</a></p>

<p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Within our </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; target="_blank">Sixth Form</a><span style="font-size:inherit;">, our learners can choose a career-enhancing pathway alongside their core </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; target="_blank">A Level</a><span style="font-size:inherit;"> subjects which will not only bolster their CV’s and UCAS applications, but will also provide them with more transferrable skills and preparation for the future. These can range from Business Enterprise and Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), to Bio-Medical and many more.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Some also choose the Social Action pathway where they get the chance to organise community events to raise money and awareness for charities of their choosing. Two of our learners, Aleks and Aleks, recently organised a 7-mile charity walk to raise money for the Rainbow Trust Charity.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Rainbow Trust is a charity for supporting families with seriously ill children to provide emotional and practical support. They provide each family with an expert Family Support Worker to help them with the possibility of loss and cope with daily struggles, giving them the chance to discuss fears and anxieties, diagnoses and treatments, and even organise memorable activities for not only the sick children but also their families.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Aleks and Aleks saw this charity as important as it focuses not only on the seriously ill children, but also their suffering families which people don’t often consider, saying “they make families more confident with the fact that their children are going through a terminal illness which is just as important”.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">In order to raise awareness and money towards this fantastic cause, they created posters with links and QR codes to their JustGiving page, putting them all over the Sixth Form and social media to gain as much traction as possible. So far, Aleks and Aleks have raised around £80 with a goal of £120.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">The walk proved to be an achievable event to raise money and get people involved and consisted of both </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; target="_blank">Sixth Form</a><span style="font-size:inherit;"> and </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/prote…; target="_blank">Protective Services</a><span style="font-size:inherit;"> learners. Aleks said, “we do loads of different campaigns and tasks to help our community and to give back, and we thought a walk would help us get as much recognition as possible”. Our </span><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/creat…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/creat…; target="_blank">Media and Communications</a><span style="font-size:inherit;"> learners also interviewed them to provide more publicity of the event.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Thank you to Nicola Stent and Anne Draper, the Social Action Pathway lecturers, for assisting Aleks and Aleks in making this event possible and promoting it to other students around the college.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><span style="font-size:inherit;">Well done to Aleks and Aleks for your fantastic efforts in organising this 7-mile walk for the Rainbow Trust, you should be proud.&nbsp;</span></p><script async="" src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><a href="https://www.justgiving.com/page/aleksandra-aleksandrajl1732023519814&qu…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.justgiving.com/page/aleksandra-aleksandrajl1732023519814&qu…; target="_blank">If you wish to check out Aleks and Aleks JustGiving page, click here.</a><span style="font-size:inherit;">&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8px;margin-left:0;margin-top:0px;"><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; rel="noreferrer noopener" title="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/level…; target="_blank">If you’re interested in applying to join our Sixth Form in September, click here.</a></p><blockquote class="tiktok-embed" style="max-width:605px;min-width:325px;" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@westoncollege/video/7463068386054917409&quot; data-video-id="7463068386054917409"><section><p><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@westoncollege?refer=embed&quot; target="_blank" title="@westoncollege">@westoncollege</a></p><p>Our Social Action students, Aleks and Aleks, have been working hard to organise a 7 mile charity walk for the Rainbow Trust Charity 🌈🌈 This is an amazing event that they've independently organised, getting many other students across the college involved to raise money and awareness for this amazing charity ⭐ To find out more, visit our website!</p><p><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-WestonCollege-7463068457718…; target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - WestonCollege">♬ original sound - WestonCollege</a></p></section></blockquote>

<p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">The Level 3 Year 2 Protective Service students had the unique opportunity to take part in a Mountain Bike Day at the end of November, set against the stunning backdrop of the Quantock Hills.&nbsp;</p><p>The day was a fantastic combination of exercise, outdoor exploration, and team-building activities, all of which are proven to have significant benefits for mental health. The picturesque hills offered the perfect setting for the students to enjoy nature while engaging in physical activity that encouraged both personal development and teamwork.&nbsp;</p><p>David Usher, Protective Service lecturer at Weston College, commented on the event: “This is a normal day for our students, doing something special whilst conducting a 3 A-level equivalent qualification. It's not just about the academics, but also about building teamwork, resilience, and well-being through practical experiences."&nbsp;</p><drupal-entity alt="&quot;protective services students at Quantock Hills with mountain bikes&quot;" data-align="center" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="90320c30-06a3-405e-85cb-1773f2465bd7" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-embed-display-settings="{&quot;image_style&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image_link&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image_loading&quot;:{&quot;attribute&quot;:&quot;lazy&quot;}}">&nbsp;</drupal-entity><p>The Mountain Bike Day served as a reminder of how important maintaining mental health through physical activity and outdoor experience is. The students had an unforgettable day exploring the hills, developing skills that will aid them in their future careers in the protective services sector.&nbsp;</p><p>This partnership forms part of the Protective Services Careers Excellence Hub. The College has fourteen sector-specific Career Excellence Hubs, which evidence our dedication to supporting both employers and learners in achieving their future goals. By creating a seamless connection between industry and education, we enable learners to acquire not only the essential skills and knowledge but also the professional networks necessary to excel in their chosen fields.&nbsp;</p><p>To find out about what courses we have to offer for Protective Services, please <a class="ProsemirrorEditor-link" href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/perfo… here.</u></a>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>If you are passionate about education and are looking for an opportunity to join the staff team at a leading college, then look at the latest job vacancies available at Weston College here. You can find all the latest job opportunities that Weston College has to offer, with a commitment to providing quality education for learners and a focus on continuous professional development for staff, Weston College is an excellent place to work and grow in your career.</strong>&nbsp;</p>