CONNECT September 2018

CONNECT N E WS

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D I A RY DAT E S SEPTEMB ER 201 8

MARTINE WRIGHT

7/7 survivor, delivering her inspirational speech at the 2018 Staff Conference

BCS BEDFORD COLLEGE SERVICES

EDITOR’S NOTE Hello everyone!

Welcome to the September 2018 edition of CONNECT magazine!

Welcome back after the summer break – I hope you all had a well-deserved rest.

So, let’s get this ‘new’ year off to a great start. The campuses are buzzing with new students and this first term brings with it some great events; open days, official openings and achievements ceremonies.

Keep sending your news my way!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY October 2018

15 NOVEMBER 2018 Tresham College Open Day, Wellingborough Campus

3 OCTOBER The Bedford Sixth Form Open Day

22 NOVEMBER 2018 NC4M Open Day Silverstone

16 OCTOBER Buchanan Centre official opening

29 NOVEMBER 2018 Northamptonshire Achievements Ceremony

November 2018 1 NOVEMBER 2018 Bedford College Open Day

December 2018

3 NOVEMBER 2018 Shuttleworth College Open Day

6 DECEMBER 2018 Bedfordshire Achievements Ceremony

8 NOVEMBER 2018 The Bedford Sixth Form Open Day 13 NOVEMBER 2018 Tresham College Open Day Corby Campus 14 NOVEMBER 2018 Tresham College Open Day Kettering Campus

CONTENTS

DAISY CRANFIELD

Corporate Communications Executive

T: 01234 291026 E: dcranfield@bedford.ac.uk

PAGE 3

PRINCIPAL’S UPDATE

PAGE 4

A BARCODE ON STEROIDS

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KEEP CALM, IT’S JUST ANOTHER COLLEGE YEAR

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LANGUAGE MATTERS

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NEWS FROM THE BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP

PAGE 10

YOUR PICTURES

PAGE 11

PEOPLE NEWS

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SPOTLIGHT ON… LIVE

Corporation News

Jane Dudeney came to the end of her second term of office as Staff Governor in July and decided not to stand again. Jane served four years July 2018 saw the retirement of one in this role and provided invaluable of our longest standing governors, insight at meetings from the staff Julian Frost after 12 years. Julian perspective. She also provided most recently chaired the Resources support to all the student governors Committee and had acted as the and to me, helping meetings to College’s Safeguarding Governor for run smoothly, which was much a number of years. appreciated. Thank you Jane!

Other leavers included student governors Janis and Manisha. Janis had served two terms as a student governor. Both Janis and Manisha were inspirational as student governors and demonstrated full commitment to the role. Their energy will be missed but on behalf of the Corporation I wish them every success in their future careers.

Goodbye to Janis and Manisha

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This year the Corporation is delighted

to welcome Helen Day (Staff Governor), Tom Brown (Student Governor) and Eva Harper (Student Governor). Shaun Wilson is welcomed back as staff governor for a second term of office.

It would be much appreciated if staff could promote the governor roles through their links in their communities and log any

RACHEL NICOL

Clerk to the Corporation T: 01234 291003 E: rnicol@bedford.ac.uk

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Our 16-18 student numbers (our most important target at the start of the year) have increased significantly on last year.

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Did you know you can follow Ian on Twitter? @ipryce

PRINCIPAL’S UPDATE OFF TO A FLYING START The start of a new academic year is always our toughest time, settling in new students (and new staff) while simultaneously finalising results and returns for the previous year.

Our 16-18 student numbers (our most important target at the start of the year) have increased significantly on last year. It is particularly pleasing to see a very big increase in numbers at Tresham, reversing the long term decline. Apprentice numbers are also looking good.

The task now is to retain the students and settle them in. This has to be our main task.

We must still finalise the last few results for last year, but the indications for our core activity are that we have seen a strong improvement in student achievement. Great news all round for our community and our students.

developing a strong and expanding network of Learning Centres has helped thousands of individuals get back into learning, and her work on apprenticeships paved the way for the development of a separate Directorate. It was lovely to see talented staff member Tatiana create a cake as special as Sharon for the event.

EDUCATING WELLINGBOROUGH We promised to rebuild provision in Wellingborough and I would like to thank all the staff who helped ensure we opened our temporary new home at Croyland Hall in time for the start of term, a great achievement. Even though it is a small student community this year we now serve three times as many as we did last year, and the student feedback has been exceptional.

BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT! The College has been accepted as a member of the Chartered Institution for Further Education, a body with a royal charter set up in the wake of the Lingfield Report on developing the independence of the FE sector. The recognition covers all of our Colleges and follows a rigorous process led on our side by Georgina Ager.

SHARON CHINNECK Sharon retired from the College after 37 years of superb loyal service. It was fitting to give her a big send off and great to see former staff members including Dave Pridmore, Sue Marr, Pat Whittome, Graham Daniels, Ingrid Lennox and Raj Mandal come back to help with the celebrations. Sharon made an enormous contribution not just to the College but to the towns we serve too. Her personal achievement of

A wonderful cake by Tatiana

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INDUSTRY ARTICLE A BARCODE ON STEROIDS – QRSTUFF.COM We have all long experienced the impact that the invention of the barcode has had on our lives. We depend on it every time we shop and now we can even go around and scan items as we go. Many of you may have heard of something called a Quick Response (QR) Code and not really understood what it does or how it might apply to your teaching practice. Even if you know what a QR code is and have even perhaps used them before, you may still find some ideas here. Essentially a QR code is a barcode on steroids; it can store a great deal more information and can even give commands to your mobile phone or tablet to open a page, a youtube video or even a location on Google Maps.

This QR code will take your to my favourite QR code builder (qrstuff.com).

This site allows you to quickly build a code (which you can download as an image and put on word documents, in presentations or even on your notice boards), for any of these purposes.

Website URL, YouTube Video, Image File, PDF File, Google Maps Location, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, FourSquare, App Store, Itunes, Dropbox, Plain Text, Telephone, Skype, SMS, Email, Contacts, Digital Business Card, Attendance Tracking, Events, WI-Fi Login, Paypal and Bitcoin.

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The most common is a code like the one on the left, that will take you to a web page, but as you can see, it is just as easy to link people to videos, files, maps and one of my favourites for use in the classroom, plan text. All you need to do on the site is choose your QR type, enter the relevant information (the web address, video address or text) and down load it. You can also change the colour of the code and, if you sign up for a paid account, even add your own logo.

Once you have a code, the next step is to figure out how to scan it. There are a range of applications across all platforms that can do this, just go to your app store and search for a QR scanner (be aware that some are better than others so, if you don’t like it, try a different one). Apple phones have a scanner built into the camera app, so just go to take a picture and show the camera the code. Even snapchat has a code reader built in.

If you want your learners to be able to quickly get to a website or video as part of your session, then the QR code is the way to do it. Simply insert the image in your PowerPoint or presentation and let learners scan away (be aware they will need some training so the first time might be a bit fiddly). The code could also be a model answer to a question on a worksheet. Learners could complete the handout and then check their answers by scanning a ‘Plain Text’ QR code, which would show them a model answer to compare to, or even the marking criteria. I have also seen teacher use the codes to send learners to a Google survey, an online quiz or assessment or an image/ illustration. The only limitation here is your own creativity.

It is also worth noting the Moodle can generate a QR code that will

take learners directly to any resource you have posted there, so you could save printing costs by simply having learners scan the code to get the worksheet straight from Moodle.

Padlet has a similar function, which will allow you to automatically generate a code that will take learners straight to your page.

This technology is still growing and QR codes are already being used as the basis for virtual reality or augmented reality materials, where an app will read the code and generate a 3-D image of a heart, for example.

I have used QR codes to build treasure hunts for my learners, to enhance collaborative working, self/ peer assessment and simply to create easy access to materials within the session. If you have not used these yet, it is time you tried because once your learners get used to using them; you will save so much time in transitions and make better use of learner devices.

MARK TINNEY Teacher Education Course Leader/ILT Development Coach

Tresham College

INDUSTRY ARTICLE KEEP CALM, IT’S JUST ANOTHER COLLEGE YEAR Lots of people I have spoken to recently have likened the start of a new school or college year to that of a new calendar year. OK, so there’s a noticeable lack of fireworks and fizz at midnight, but a fresh, new start it is nonetheless.

There are new lessons to plan, new students to enrol, new syllabuses to orientate yourself with - yes, it’s a far cry from the pencil case shopping that a new term used to signify, but it’s even more exciting now!

A quick Google for ‘new college term’ brought up lots of lovely good news stories from colleges up and down the country, from new student restaurants opening, to the arrival of a digital farm hub and a new ‘seventh form’ (a more hands on approach than sixth form). It also brought up some slightly less appealing items including ‘New term, New germs: How to get to grips with the backto-school bugs’ courtesy of the Telegraph, the Mayor of Brighton and Hove urging people to be patient with the increased traffic, while the Metro set out the dangers of ‘lawnmower parenting’ (Google it!).

times, but that’s no good to anyone.

There’s an excellent article in the Times Educational Supplement called ‘Remember you’re humans first, teachers second’. The author writes that teaching is a “job that requires ‘ruthless compartmentalisation’ if it’s not to bleed into all elements of life” and explains how a few simple actions she has put in place are maintaining her work-life balance, “Saturdays have been declared a work-free zone. No worrying about the kids’ homework, no opening work email, no gentle fiddling with the departmental action plan.”

And of course we have the exciting new campus developments at Bedford, Shuttleworth and Wellingborough, plus the new T-levels where we’re supporting a pilot in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to trial the extended industry placements. As is usual in a healthy college environment, things don’t stay the same for long, as improvements and investments are continually being made.

Find your balance this autumn and happy ‘new’ year!#1

But don’t let the inevitable challenges stop you from being you. Yes it’s easy to get overwhelmed at stressful

SARAH HYDE Feature Writer

@SH_Content

https://www.tes.com/news/ remember-youre-humans-firstteachers-second #1

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So with every new college year comes a healthy mix of fun and challenge. This term has already got off to a flying start: Tresham has welcomed former Northampton Saints and Bedford Blues player Jon Phillips as Head Rugby Coach of the Rugby Academy, the Sixth Form has a new Costa Coffee (whoop!), Bedford Graphic Design students have already been down to London to receive prestigious YCN awards, and Shuttleworth residential students have been settling into their new common room with copious amounts of pizza – so, it’s all good!

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NEWS FROM THE BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP LANGUAGE MATTERS: TOWARDS A GENDER-INCLUSIVE COLLEGE

Is it good practice to use “guys”, “ladies / gentlemen”, and “sir / madam” in our communication with students, colleagues and visitors?

Language is constantly changing and even when we mean well we may use phrases that others may consider offensive or inappropriate. Everyone should be treated with courtesy in our daily interactions, including how they are referred to and spoken of, and this includes gender inclusive language.

In English, language is gendered: “he” or “she”, “waiter” or “waitress”.

Language like gender identities is constantly evolving. In the past “he or she” was seen as the inclusive language choice as people used to say “he,” and referred to the world in masculine terms: mankind, salesman, etc. Nowadays, language tends to shift towards inclusivity and gender inclusive terms to address people are slowly becoming the norm. Most of us already use gender-neutral words like “spokesperson”, “police officer” and “fire fighter”.

GENDER-NEUTRAL PRONOUNS Using the correct pronoun is important to non-binary and trans people. (The same applies to everyone, actually.) By using the correct pronoun you recognise the person as who they are and show that you value them as an individual.

However, things are especially difficult when we are meeting someone for the first time. Instead of guessing a person’s gender and getting it wrong, we can use gender-neutral language.

The most commonly used gender-neutral pronoun is “they”.

Even though “they” can be used as a plural pronoun (to refer to a group of people), people tend to automatically use “they” as a singular pronoun when they don’t know someone’s gender. “They” is also one of the more popular pronouns used by people who are non-binary or gender fluid. This means it should be relatively easy to use “they/them/ theirs” for anyone whose gender you don’t know (The student is waiting at reception. Will you come and meet them?) or to address individuals if they request it.

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It’s not a good idea to ask a stranger about their pronouns. Even though it feels like the right thing to do, be aware that you might be asking someone to out themselves as trans or non-binary. Although you will occasionally hear the term “preferred pronouns,” it’s not the best term to use because it implies that a person’s gender is just a preference. It is preferable to use a person’s name or to ask them “How may I address you?” or “What may I call you?”. When you refer to an individual, you can simply use their name or gender-neutral words such as student, colleague, visitor, guest or customer.

Using gender-neutral language requires practice. So step outside your comfort zone and make an effort to navigate the social change with mutual understanding and respect.

FORMALLY ADDRESSING PEOPLE WITHOUT MISIDENTIFYING THEM

https://theyismypronoun.wordpress. com/2016/04/14/toward-agender-neutral-customer-serviceexperience-for-everyone/

In the hospitality and service industry it is common practice to use “sir” or “madam” to convey respect and welcome, but these can be conveyed to someone without using specific words - we can use intonation, eye contact and smile to indicate that someone has our full attention.

You can refer to an individual (e.g. when talking to people you don’t know or taking questions at a Q&A) without identifying their gender, for instance, “the person at the back in red”.

GROUP ADDRESSES A gendered group address will usually be “ladies and gentlemen”, “hello guys” or “hi girls”. There is a tendency to use “guys” as a gender-neutral form of address, however this is similar to addressing a group of people as “boys/ lads/ fellas”. Using “guys” to imply everyone may involve accidental misgendering and also using masculine language to describe neutral experiences (as “guy” in singular refers to a man). Some gender-neutral ways of addressing people are everyone, students, people, colleagues, guests, team and folks.

INFO SOURCES • How to Use Gender-Neutral Pronouns https://lifehacker.com/how-to-usegender-neutral-pronouns-1821239054 • inclusive cafes https://www.baristamagazine.com/ degendering-language-customerservice/ • a gender-neutral customer services experience

THE LEARNING PARTNERSHIP

The Learning Partnership Bedfordshire and Luton Ltd. was set up as a Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee in 1999, and grew to support a network of more than 200 learning providers and organisations in Bedfordshire, with a reputation as an organisation delivering high quality community-based learning and training, working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders and partners.

Now, as part of The Bedford College Group, they help secure community education funding opportunities, and also develop and deliver learning to complement the learning delivered by the rest of The Bedford College Group.

Find out more at www.bedfordcollegegroup.co.uk/tlp

NEWS FROM THE BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP THE 2018 BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP STAFF CONFERENCE The Professional Development department organised the Staff Conference and the theme was based upon feedback from the staff survey in 2017. It was evident that there was a desire for the College to focus upon staff well-being, collaboration and feeling valued.

Therefore the theme, one year post-merge was designed to focus on resilience, well-being, working in a climate of change and collaboration to create a whole College ethos.

Selecting a venue large enough to cater for 1000 staff with capacity for 34 break out rooms was a huge

challenge. Wicksteed Park and the Kettering Campus hosted the event with the day kicking off with a speech by Martine Wright, who was truly inspirational. The weather was certainly on our side which made the ice cream even more enjoyable!

Many staff attended a wide range of educational and well-being activities as well as enjoying the sunshine and rides in the park.

Staff feedback on the event was valued and will be released on the intranet next week.

IMPROVING CONNECT In June this year a survey about the magazine was added to the staff intranet. We had 50 respondents and some really useful feedback on how we should develop the magazine.

Some of your suggestions were: • More coverage of Northamptonshire campuses • A quiz with prizes • Publicising employee benefits • Local and sector news • More content related to professional roles rather than teaching • Updates on policy changes • More vocational content All of these ideas will now be worked in to the magazine to really improve the content.

As ever it cannot be done without the contributions you make each month. If you have any news you would like to feature about your department please send it to dcranfield@bedford.ac.uk by the 20th of each month.

Head of Professional Development, Brad Billington, welcomes staff to the event

On Friday 28 September, you can abseil from the top of the tower facing Cauldwell Street, to raise money for Royal National Lifeboat Institution. A second date is being set later in the year run by Higher Education students if Friday is too short notice.

If you want to take part on Friday between 10am-3pm the fee is £5 plus donations to charity. Or if you want to know more about the event later in the year contact: Charlie at Bedford College on cwhewell@bedford.ac.uk 01234 291285

The Marketing Team enjoying Wicksteed Park at the Staff Conference

Charlie abseiling last year

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NEWS FROM THE BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP NEW HEAD OF RUGBY COACH FOR TRESHAM Former Northampton Saints and Bedford Blues player Jon Phillips is joining Tresham College as Head Rugby Coach to take charge of the Rugby Academy programme and player development at the Kettering campus. Jon brings a wealth of experience to the role, having played professionally, led college rugby programmes at the highest level, developed students into professional players for premiership teams, as well as having links with professional rugby academies and representative pathways. Rugby Academy students will benefit greatly from Jon’s expertise and their college experience will be further enhanced by his arrival. Jon has overseen the development of many college students with expert coaching and guidance in order to support them in achieving their aspirations and ensure they continue to be engaged in rugby.

Jon said: “I am excited to be joining Tresham College and looking forward to getting stuck in with the Rugby Academy students and helping them to improve both on and off the field. Tresham College has a great reputation for providing excellent opportunities for all levels of players and keeping them in the game with close links to the local clubs. Working with clubs and keeping players in the game is something I am particularly

passionate about, and I hope to continue the great work that Tresham College has started.”

Dan Burns, Head of Tresham Academy of Sport, said: “We are delighted that Jon is joining us at Tresham College to take charge of the rugby academy and provide our students with expert coaching and support.

Welcome to The Bedford College Group Jon!

FISH AND TWO VEG? Down at the Shuttleworth Fisheries and Aquaculture Centre there has been an exciting new project undertaken by Lecturer Lewie Cooper.

Aquaponics is the combination of raising fish (aquaculture) and growing vegetables without soil (hydroponics). The system allows you to grow fish and vegetables in one integrated system – the fish producing an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filtering the water for the fish.

Fisheries Lecturer Lewie Cooper said: “It is a great opportunity for students to learn about utilising the nutrients that aquaculture produce instead of disposing it as waste water.

It gives them a chance to plant, nurture and then harvest their crop.

Proving you can create an entire food source from your garden from the success of farming fish also. This puts the next generation of learners at the forefront of sustainability and ensures students leave with a conscientious and eco-friendly approach”.

Jon Phillips, new Head Rugby Coach Tresham College

Tresham Studios

Students harvesting their crop

Tresham Studios, the college’s hair and beauty salons on the Kettering and Corby campuses, offer an extensive range of hair, beauty and complimentary treatments at very competitive prices. Daytime and evening appointments are available throughout term-time.

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NEWS FROM THE BEDFORD COLLEGE GROUP THE CUBBINGTON PEAR STORY AT SHUTTLEWORTH RHS students at Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire have managed to propagate an ancient pear tree, threatened by the proposed HS2 rail link. This beautiful 250 year old specimen is due to be felled this year, but the students now have about 20 young trees available with more being grafted and budded this year.

These are due to be replanted in the autumn by members of a local campaign group, in the vicinity of Cubbington, a village near Leamington Spa. There are particular problems with heritage fruit tree varieties. These include provenance, juvenility and correct rootstock selection for grafting.

Nowadays, provenance, in other words, propagating the correct specimen, is relatively straight forward due to an improved access to DNA analysis.

The progeny produced by the RHS students has been screened at a

RHS students with tutor Paul Labous

MARATHON FOR MACMILLAN

well-known research centre at East Malling, in Kent and indeed has been found to be the correct tree.

The Cubbington pear has a TPO, (tree preservation order protected) and is rather special to the local residents. Therefore, pruning has been discouraged, which is a disadvantage to the propagator, as the more juvenile growth which can result from hard pruning can be an advantage in the successful propagation by grafting.

Rather to the dismay of Cubbington conservationists, this 250 year old tree was brutally flailed by the farmer who owns the land. Ironically, this action has helped in producing juvenile growth which ultimately proved successful, although even then, only one tree resulted from fifteen grafts.

Rootstock selection has been a process of trial and error. Initially, the best stock for grafting these old trees was found to be seedling pear plants, probably due to the genetic match between the two. However, we are now producing sufficient numbers to plant around the HS2 site at Cubbington on the ‘normal’ commercial rootstock, Quince ‘A’.

Bedford College Engineering Lecturer Louise Turner is running in next year’s London Marathon, raising money for Macmillan.

“I am a cancer survivor and have been in remission for approximately 13 years. Twice in that time I have had to go through the scary times of extra tests and then waiting for results, luckily both times turned out to be nothing. The Macmillan nurses do an amazing job even if it is just to ring them to speak to someone who understands what you are going through. This is why I am running the London Marathon” Louise’s fundraising page can be found here: https://www.justgiving. com/fundraising/Louise-Turner37 Good luck!

Louise Turner running to raise money for Macmillan

THEMED NIGHTS

AT THE MANOR RESTAURANT Thursdays 6:30pm – 10:00pm

The Manor Restaurant, The Manor House, Cottingham Road, Corby NN17 1TT www.facebook.com/TheManorRestaurantCorby

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YOUR PICTURES Every month you send the marketing team wonderful images from our different campuses that we post on to our social media channels. Here are some of this month’s highlights.

es Lecturer esham Public Servic ai teaching Tr bh al sh nts.

Kirit Khu te e w to assembl students ho

Sam B Lect ates, Ou urer tdoo re r Rive r Fes present Advent u s tival 2018 at the B re edfo . rd

Principal Ian Pryce promoting th e Advanced Engineering & Construct ion Centre which will op en on 16 Oct ober.

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Assis Steve C tant Director o roft wit h Merce f Engineering des Ap prentic e.

Elaine and Stacey training on the new Costa coffee machines at The Bedford Sixth Form.

k innoc n Ch rd o r a h o df oS to Be bye t good f service d i a We s 7 years o 3 after e. g e l l o C

quine sant E the a le P ount w off the M worth sho horses. from le t ff w t a e u t n h S e at S Centr

Lect new urer Tim recru C its th ranfield roug p h the uts the ir pa ces.

‘Maintenance Maestro’ Mik e Newton who retired from the Col lege in July after 45 year s of service.

PEOPLE NEWS CURRENT VACANCIES Here are the current vacancies available across the Group. Visit the Staff Intranet to find out more information on how to apply.

Estates Maintenance Officer

*Fixed Term Contract - December 2018* 40 hours per week / 52 weeks per year Location: Kettering Salary: 16-17 years - £4.20 per hour Application closing date: 28/09/2018

Associate Lecturer - Computing

DIVERSITY CALENDAR

Developing awareness of diversity and inclusion in a complex multi-cultural world and promoting the core values of British society: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs For ideas, videos, quizzes, posters, activities, info and inspiration go to Diversity Calendar October 2018 on Connect https://college.oak.com/Content/Page/ Index/2241145e-ab4f-431b-a07f-c44e8bfecc86?dialogType=1&reviewComple te=False

Black History Month

Celebrating Black history, culture and heritage and recognising the contributions of Black communities and individuals to the economic, cultural and political life in the UK.

Location: Kettering Salary: £20.50 to £21.50 Application closing date: 30/09/2018

1st – 7th Dyslexia Awareness Week

Learning Support Assistant (Part-Time) Location: Kettering Salary: £17,500 per annum, pro rata Application closing date: 30/09/2018

10th World Mental Health day

The theme for 2018 is #21stCenturyDyslexia.

The theme for 2018 is “Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World”.

Personal Achievement Tutor

Location: Kettering Salary: £22,000 per annum pro rata Application closing date: 30/09/2018

Technician - Art & Design

Location: Kettering Salary: £16,400 to £20000, per annum, pro rata Application closing date: 30/09/2018 Work Placement Coordinator - STEM Location: Bedford Salary: £20,145 per annum Application closing date: 30/09/2018

Religious festivals

The Inter Faith Network website has a more detailed list of festivals with short descriptions.

2nd SIMCHAT TORAH Jewish 14th to 18th DURGA PUJA Hindu 19th DUSSEHRA / VIJAYA DASHAMIPUJA Hindu 17th PICNIC IN A HIGH PLACE Chinese 20th CONFERRING OF GURUSHIP ON THE GURU GRANTH SAHIB Sikh 24th PAVARANA DAY Buddhist

Associate - General Assistant Catering Location: Bedford Salary: £7.83 per hour Application closing date: 03/10/2018 Associate Lecturer / Teacher Functional Maths Location: Kettering Salary: £21.50 per hour (qualified rate) Application closing date: 03/10/2018 Head of Apprenticeships Location: Bedford Salary: £40000-£45000 per annum Application closing date: 03/10/2018 Lecturer / Teacher - GCSE & Functional English Location: Bedford Salary: £20,500 to £39,042 per annum, pro rata Application closing date: 03/10/2018 Lecturer / Teacher - Agriculture Location: Shuttleworth Salary: £20,500 to £39,042 per annum Application closing date: 12/10/2018 Lecturer / Teacher - ESOL Location: Kettering Salary: £20,500 per annum, pro rata to £39,042 per annum Application closing date: 03/10/2018

NICE DAY FOR A COLLEGE WEDDING We would like to share our congratulations to two happy couples, both of whom work for The Bedford College Group.

John Guiney (Head of Quality) married Lauren Cunningham (Head of Sport) on July 21 in Buckinghamshire and Amelia Davie (Personal Achievement Tutor) and Charlie Luscombe (Music Lecturer) travelled all the way to Nashville Tennessee for the Country Music wedding they’ve always dreamt of.

Charlie and Amelia

Congratulations to both couples.

John and Lauren

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SPOTLIGHT ON... LIVE team

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WHAT DOES MY DEPARTMENT DO? We work across the Group to make sure students voices are heard, health and wellbeing needs met, residential students are safe and happy and all students feel like active members of the College community. From organising the Fresher’s Fair events that attract over 3000 students a year to supporting over 70 residential students 24/7, running a mental health and activity programme to sorting buses and finance at Shuttleworth College, no two days are the same for the team.

All this work is key to assuring that students have a positive experience, gain valuable enhancement opportunities and achieve their qualifications to progress on their next steps.

WHERE ARE YOU BASED? The team are based across the whole College Group with main bases in Bedford College, Tresham College and Shuttleworth College.

WHAT CHALLENGES WILL YOU BE FACING THIS YEAR? We have so much going on across multiple College campuses, the recent series of Freshers Fairs were delivered at eight locations, a huge challenge is keeping quality of provision as it expands and involves more and more students. The newly

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Lewie C ooper

formed Bedford College Group studnets’ Union is a big venture for the team and establishing this will be another challenge.

WHAT ACHIEVEMENTS DID THE TEAM ACCOMPLISH LAST YEAR? Last year saw big changes with the merging of teams and the formation of the new wider reaching service, the residential and wardening team at Shuttleworth received an outstanding judgement from Ofsted.

The sports enhancement project with Sports England worked with hundreds of students to improve activity and mental health. A visit and talk from Baroness Young on democracy and the workings of the House of Peers engaged student voice reps and politics students alike and the strong partnerships with over 100 external organisations gave the students opportunities and information to enhance the student experience.

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO WORK IN THE DEPARTMENT? A blur! We, as a team, have a 24 hours a day 7 day a week function so we can be working late nights early mornings and all the day between.

There is never a dull moment to be had and we are never shocked about the conversations we have with students.

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Working across the whole group can be a challenge but we rely on good communication between the team with video meetings our newest work hack.

LIST OF STAFF/ROLES AND LOCATION: Will Sparrow Student Experience and Progression Manager, cross group Jamie de Boick Sports Enhancement Co-ordinator/ Duty Warden, cross group Becca Shaw Sports Enhancement Adviser – Bedfordshire Colleges Holly Greenough Sports Enhancement Adviser – Northamptonshire Colleges Rosalind Birtwistle Student Participation Adviser Bedford College Lucy Johnson Student Engagement and Events Adviser – Tresham College Lucy Skevington Student Services Administrator – Shuttleworth College Charlotte Woodhams Halls of Residents Tutor/ Duty Warden – Shuttleworth College Mick Rae Duty Warden – Shuttleworth College Lewie Cooper Duty Warden – Shuttleworth College

To find out more about us visit our page on the Staff Intranet