Students, staff, family and friends were in high spirits joining together for the end of year celebration day, and what a beautiful summers afternoon for it! A day dedicated to highlighting the achievements the students have proudly made this year, and showcasing their successes in particular for the Summer term.
Tracy Gillett and her staff team welcomed all into the hall to start the celebrations off thanking everyone for their contributions to what has been a truly fantastic year for the college, achieving an Outstanding Ofsted grade, winners of the ‘The Supporting People with PLMD award’ at National Learning Disability & Autism Awards and the commitment from the staff team to supporting the students to achieve their ambitions, celebrating 3 students moving onto the Supported Internship program.
Presentations full of laughter, smiles and tears from each group that took to the stage to share their stories from the term. Taking the opportunity for the personal tutors and their HLLSA’s to let their students hear just how much of an impact their journeys this year have had.
Green Group shared photos of their weekly enrichment sessions at the Wingate Centre which has been a great addition to the timetable, students have been enjoying rebound, indoor sports and gym sessions. Putting these skills to test at this year’s sports day the students particularly enjoyed playing badminton and the tug of war!
Green Group have been working extremely hard on improving their daily living skills in the kitchen by washing and tidying up. Those who took part in the English Speaking Board Exam were commended for gaining confidence in their social interaction skills and presented with their certificates.
Orange Group presented 5 of their students with their leaver awards and learner journey videos, not a dry eye in the hall! Such strong friendships have been made during their time at College and this was very apparent by the support each student gave one another whilst presenting and receiving their certifications for achieving qualifications in OCR and English Speaking Board. Music Mondays, rebound and fitness, tenpin bowling competitions, therapy with the Alpacas and much more this has been an enjoyable term for the students.
Purple Group’s students took to the stage full of excitement to share their terms achievements and to update on a social action project they have been working on ‘All About Ability’, a project researching the inclusion and accessibility for disabled people accessing businesses and charities and then presenting their findings to the companies to be able to take on board. Students in purple group have shown enthusiasm and commitment at their work experience placements, three students from the group have successfully completed the employability pathway and will be starting their supported internship from September.
The commitment and dedication was recognised by the work experience new employers who attended the celebration and one of the students was proudly presented with his new uniform by a member of the company he will be working with to complete his supported internship next year, we can’t wait to hear how the students get on!
The presentation couldn’t have ended more beautifully, before heading out into the sunshine to enjoy a delicious hog roast and disco, with one of the students leaving college this year taking to the stage and sang Bruno Mars’s “Count on me” for his friends.
