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.
 

As you may already know, Weston College has just been shortlisted for six national awards.

These are among the most prestigious honours available in the further education (FE) sector. So, to be in the running for six, is a huge achievement.

The Principal, Individual staff, College initiatives, and the College, as a whole, are all finalists in various categories.

But what are the awards all about? Why is it such an achievement? Who’s been shortlisted, and for what?

Let us explain.

What are the awards?

We’ve been shortlisted in four categories of the 2019 Tes FE Awards. (Tes was formerly known as the Times Educational Supplement, by the way).

In Tes’s words, the awards “recognise the most outstanding individuals and institutions that the FE sector has to offer, and those shortlisted are the cream of the crop.”

Put simply, they are the ‘Oscars’ of the FE world.

We’re also finalists in two Association of Colleges’ (AoC) Beacon Awards.

Now in its 24th year, the Beacon Awards showcase best practice and innovation in colleges. As Carole Stott MBE, Chair of the AoC Charitable Trust, explains: “The Beacon Awards were created to highlight the great work that goes on in colleges every day.”

The awards cover achievements in the academic year 2017-18.

Are these separate awards?

Yes and no.

The Tes and Beacon awards are judged independently but they have teamed up to release the shortlists and will hold a joint ceremony to announce the winners.

This ‘gala awards evening’ will take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London on Friday, 22nd March, 2019. It promises to be a spectacular event with more than 800 guests expected to attend, including government ministers and many of the great and good from the education sector.

Why is it such a major achievement for the College?

Firstly, these are all national awards, so every college, member of staff and special initiative was eligible for at least one category.

Then, to be finalists in so many categories is exceptional. For instance, there are only 11 Tes categories and we’re shortlisted in four. Likewise, we’re shortlisted in two of the eight Beacon Award categories.

There are eight finalists for each Tes Award, and either three or four in the AoC Award categories.

Who’s been shortlisted, and for which awards?

These are our finalists in the Tes Awards:

Dr Paul Phillips CBE – FE Leader of the Year

Our Principal, Dr Paul Phillips CBE, is a finalist in this category, which recognises exceptional leadership in FE in the UK.

Dr Phillips has led from the front as the College has enjoyed another hugely successful year. Among the highlights were the College winning the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. This is one of the College’s most impressive achievements since it embarked on its 16-year transformation under the leadership of Dr Phillips in 2001.

Claire Knapp – FE Teacher of the Year

Claire is a lecturer in motor vehicles at the College.

This award rewards the individual whose passion, knowledge and skill have inspired students to success and who have made a major contribution to educational life. It is open to anyone working as a teacher, tutor or lecturer in the FE sector. All finalists have had an excellent impact on learners’ progress, attainment and growth, and brought positive change beyond learners.

Weston College – FE College of the Year

It’s a major honour to even be shortlisted for this award, which “rewards colleges whose imagination and passion have led to stellar provision in all areas”.

This has been another exceptional year for the College. As well as success in the apprenticeships (90% offered permanent positions after completion) and pre-employment (60% of Job Centre Plus referrals transitioning into employment within 6 months), we won two Beacon Awards last year and won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize – one of only two FE colleges in the country awarded this prestigious honour.

Sensory Learning Base – Specialist Provider of the Year

‘The Sensory Learning Base’ is a purpose-built, safe, self-contained, specialist facility at Weston College’s Knightstone Campus for learners with Profound and Complex Learning Disabilities (PCLD).

This award recognises specialist providers whose imagination and passion have led to stellar provision and support for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those with specific learning requirements. Award finalists have been shown to provide high-quality curriculum with excellent student outcomes, reflected in strong recruitment and success rates.

Here are our finalists for the AoC Awards:

College-wide mental health initiative – Mental Health and Wellbeing Award

This College initiative was developed to enhance the mental health, wellbeing and welfare of its learners, staff and community. It involves the College’s Welfare and Pastoral, Inclusive Practice/Mental Health, Sport and Public Services and HR teams.

The award celebrates the important work colleges are doing to support the mental health and wellbeing of their learners and staff.

College initiative to meet address skills shortages in the engineering sector – Engagement with Employers Award

This recognises the College’s transformational approach to delivering responsive provision that meets the skills priorities for the engineering and advanced engineering sector. It’s a joint initiative involving the College’s Business Growth, Employer Engagement, Higher Education and Faculty of Engineering teams.

Wish us good luck for March 2019 when the winner for each category will be announced!

‘Devised’ was a five-week project, culminating in a theatre performance made up of short stories by students on the Level 2 and 3 Performing Arts courses.

Students were split into groups and tasked with creating their own theatre companies. They conducted interviews addressing serious issues such as eating disorders, loss and mental health, and used the content to write scripts. This technique is known as ‘verbatim’ and was inspired by studying the theatre company ‘DV8’.

The performance, at Berkoff Theatre in Weston, was a huge success and earned high praise from numerous members of the public.

This is one audience member’s reaction to the performance:

“What an incredible show. Devised was simply superb, beautiful and emotional. I could add more superlatives but it wouldn’t do justice to the outstanding acting, emotion and expression.

“The opening scene was incredible. It was about missing people and there were some amazing messages coming through about the pain and suffering of those whose loved ones have gone missing. I was on the edge of my seat. Tears did start rolling down my face though, and that was just the opening scene!

“I could go on and on about Devised. As a therapist who works with many of the issues and themes that were acted out, I was able to relate to so much of it on a professional level. The piece on addiction was outstanding and all the themes throughout this play resonated with the work I do.

“All of the young people in this play were excellent. A massive thank you to the Creative Arts Department for empowering all the young people on the Level 3 Performing Arts course to produce this show. It was stunningly brilliant.”