Parent and Carers Newsletter June 2024 - Castleford College

Parents & Carers Newsletter Parents & Carers Newsletter

June 2024

Welcome

I am thrilled to welcome you to our brand-new parents' and carers’ newsletter, which is designed to keep you informed and engaged with the latest news, developments and opportunities in our amazing College.

Last term was certainly a busy and prosperous one, with careers fairs, Sustainability Week and the launch of progression activity with Your Future Week, taking place across the College.

Our students have also enjoyed some fantastic experiences both in and out of College, including site visits to Caddick Construction in Leeds and professional workshops with celebrity hairdresser Andrew Barton and body and paintwork specialists, PPG.

Preparing our students for their future is also incredibly important to us and you’ll be able to read about the various initiatives we are carrying out to ensure our students feel supported and confident in making their next steps.

Summer exams are now in full swing and additional support is available for those sitting their exams. We wish your child/ward the best of luck with their exams!

Ensuring our students progress

Whether your child/ward has chosen to continue their studies with us or needs further advice on what steps to take next, we will be here to support and advise them.

Students wanting to progress with us are not required to apply using the same process as new students as we are keen to secure places early for our current students. Any offer made by us, whether that be onto a higherlevel course, an Apprenticeship or a Higher Education programme, will be ‘conditional’.

To secure their progression application, students must attend all classes now, including their progress meeting, as well as successfully complete their current programme of study. Attendance is a key factor to success in all subjects and attendance and achievement of each subject including Maths and English, is vital to secure the right progression outcome.

If your child/ward doesn’t currently meet the entry requirements for the course they are interested in, it doesn’t mean they can’t progress. They should talk to us during the progression process as there may be things we can put in place to support them in getting to where they want to be.

We encourage all parents/ carers to track their child/ ward’s attendance and progression via the Parent Portal, using the QR code:

Scan here to login to the Parent Portal.

Steve Harrison Local College Director at Castleford College

What's been happening

Students experience local Construction site

Hair & Beauty department launch new partnership with Keune

Our Hair & Beauty department has created new ties with Keune – a leading supplier in the hairdressing and barbering sector for more than 100 years.

Automotive students try state-of-the-art kit

PPG recently visited our Body and Paint workshop to offer Automotive students a demonstration of their state-of-theart virtual colour matching system, TouchMix Ultra.

The students enjoyed using the technology and were impressed by how it saves time and expense of the traditional methods of colour matching. Natalie from PPG said: “We chose to work with Castleford College so we could engage with the future workforce and show them exciting and innovative products.”

Preparing our students for the future

Wednesday afternoons at Castleford College are all about preparing our students for adulthood. Students can access a range of activities that help develop skills related to independent living, looking after their own health, making friends and being part of their communities.

This was one of our Level 2 Groups' first visit to the site, with them gaining insight into the early construction works that are carried out ahead of their trade and soon they'll be back for a re-visit to see the site's progress.

Celebrating sustainability

Using Keune’s products in the classroom will help ensure students’ transition to professional settings is seamless and that they can develop new skills using Keune’s online learning platform.

As part of this, the students were invited to a perming demonstration by Andrew Barton (ABLE) and Sophie Benson, Educator from KEUNE. It was a brilliant experience for the students and walked away with lots of information regarding perming.

During Sustainability Week, we celebrated the best practices and fantastic initiatives our staff and students have been carrying out when it comes to sustainability.

Included in this amazing work is our Alternative Curriculum students who have been working on a gardening project with The Growing Zone based at Kippax.

Our students have also been getting stuck into the Planet Earth Games, which encourages Further Education institutions across the UK to organise sustainable activities. Our College finished in third place in the UK with a whopping total of 5630 points - which is amazing!

It’s truly been great to see students putting sustainability at the heart of their activities and really driving forward change. You can read all about these initiatives in our sustainability newsletter, Footprint using the QR Code:

Staff ride 400 miles for Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Staff from across the College have ridden over 400 miles to raise money for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Their latest ride started at the College with the team making their way to the east coast, covering seaside towns Bridlington and Scarborough. Overall, they raised more than £545 for the charity – which is fantastic!

Stephanie Maynard, the West Yorkshire Community Fundraiser from Yorkshire Air Ambulance, recently visited the College to present the staff with their cheque and praise them for their fantastic efforts.

Our most recent Preparing for Adulthood session included a guest workshop from HSBC Banking where our students learned about accessing online banking safely, avoiding fraud and making successful payments.

Pupils across the district get a taste of careers in Construction

In March, Castleford College hosted Give Construction a Try for the fourth year running – providing pupils from across the Wakefield district insight into the different career paths available within the sector.

Attended by 170 pupils, they enjoyed 115 interactive workshops across the day in bricklaying, building information modelling, carpentry & joinery, clay tiling, electrical, plumbing, roofing surveying and more.

Level 2 Electrical Installation students recently visited Caddick Construction in Leeds for a formal introduction to the site. Caddick Construction support our students to experience live construction works through our 'watch it grow' initiative.

We held a careers fair during ‘Your Future Week’ in March which was attended by more than 430 students across the College. Employers, universities and providers from across the country were on hand to talk to students about their future options and it’s fair to say every student left with valuable information about their next steps.

One external exhibitor commented that it was a great event and that had very good conversations with students who seemed prepared and informed to have conversations about their progression.

If your child/ward is still unsure about their choices, they can contact our supportive Careers Team on 01924 789113 or careers@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk for advice.

We care for our young carers

We also celebrated Young Carers Action Day in March which aims to raise awareness of young carers nationally.

We have signed up to the Young Carers Covenant to help secure fair futures for young carers. We do this by providing support as required for our young carers and making reasonable adjustments to help ensure they can combine their caring with education, providing emotional support and practical advice as necessary.

We also support them in securing their progression options, by giving them careers advice, looking at including the skills developed in their caring roles in CVs and university applications and helping them to find out what support is out there in higher education or in the world of work.

If your child/ward is a young carer and needs support, please don’t hesitate to contact our College’s Young Adult Carer Lead – Carol Price on 01924 789755 or at cprice@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk

Group signs new AoC Mental Health Charter

We have demonstrated our commitment to supporting student and staff mental health and wellbeing by signing up to the Association of College’s new Mental Health Charter.

Developed in partnership with education professionals and senior health leads, the charter has been updated following its creation in 2019 to address the rise in mental health difficulties in young people. Wakefield College originally signed up for the charter in 2019, with the latest version outlining new good practice principles and standards.

Our Student Experience team are a dedicated team who are here to ensure that all students receive the support that they need to make the most of their student experience and studies.

If you are concerned about the mental health or wellbeing of your child/ ward, please contact our Student Wellbeing Team on studentcentral@ heartofyorkshire.ac.uk or by calling in person to Student Central at any of our three Colleges.

Your Future Week What our Current Students Say

We recently spoke to some of our current students about their experience at Castleford College. See what they had to say…

My Beauty Therapy tutors have helped me unbelievably throughout my course. My dream is to be self-employed and own my own salon one day. This course will help me achieve this by giving me the knowledge and skills to perform a wide range of treatments whilst giving me experience in working in a salon environment."

After attending an Open Event, I decided to apply for the FLEX programme. I like the artistic parts of the course such as art, drama and music. We have been to Xscape and Leeds Museum which I really enjoyed too.”

Helping to Navigate your child’s future

We provide wrap-around support for our students, ensuring that they can successfully progress onto their next steps. One of the ways we do this is through our Navigate programme,

which provides a range of activities and events designed to develop your child/ward’s employability and wider skills. They will get a programme for the year during induction and additional activities and reminders will be advertised on a weekly basis.

Find out more using the QR code.

Study for a Degree on your Doorstep

Is your child/ward still undecided on their next steps? Did you know, they can progress onto a Higher Education course, right here at Wakefield College? At the University Centre at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group, we offer over 50 different degree-level programmes ranging from Animal Care to Music to Business.

Our flexible approach to teaching and learning means that your child/ward can study many of our courses part-time around their other commitments. What’s more, our programmes are validated by some of Britain’s

top universities, meaning your child/ward can get the same qualification whilst paying lower course fees.

There’s no age limit on who can do our courses, so you can also study for a degree on your doorstep! To find out more, please contact our Course Information Team on 01924 789111, email courseinfo@ heartofyorkshire.ac.uk or visit www.heartofyorkshire.ac.uk/HE

Codie Holmes, Level 2 Beauty Therapy student

Zane Simpson, Foundation Learning student

Putting Safeguarding First

The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff are a top priority at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group. All staff are trained in safeguarding and child protection and we have an enhanced safeguarding trained team across all three Colleges.

If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact Carol Price or Michelle Jones by emailing safeguarding@ heartofyorkshire.ac.uk or scan the QR code to report a safeguarding concern.

Scan here

Contacting Social Care

Safeguarding is everyone’s business, and you should refer to your local social care services if you have concerns that a child is being harmed. You do not have to give your personal details such as your name and address. The number for Wakefield is 03458 503 503 or visit www.wakefieldscp.co.uk

Please do check the numbers online for other districts.

A Parental Guidance Booklet

This booklet provides key information and guidance to those parents with young people who have an Autism Spectrum Condition, around safeguarding them from extremist ideologies.

The objective of this resource is to equip parents with the confidence and effective strategies to have meaningful conversations with and develop the resilience of young people going forwards. Consequently, they will hopefully be able to effectively recognise and counter extremist points of view.

Sexual Extortion (Sextortion)

All education institutions in the UK have recently been sent information from the National Crime Agency, raising awareness of the recent rise in reporting of financially motivated sexual extortion (a type of online blackmail often known in the media as ‘sextortion’).

This type of crime involves an adult offender (often from an organised crime group based overseas) threatening to release nude or semi-nude images and/or videos of a child or young person (including AI generated images), unless they pay money, or meet another financial demand, such as purchasing a prepaid gift card. Victims of any age and gender can be targets, however, a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged 14-18.

What can I do if this has happened to my child?

If your child tells you that someone is trying to trick, threaten or blackmail them online:

The Wakefield Safeguarding Children Parternship websites provides a wealth of information for parents and carers. The information related to safeguarding children is relevant up to the young person’s 18th birthday.

Smoothwall Monitor

We use Smoothwall Monitor to help safeguard students in the online space, both in College or when they access IT on College equipment from home.

Smoothwall Monitor has advanced behavioural technology and the human moderation team provides protection 24/7, 365 days a year. The platform also helps designated staff to spot at-risk students who may otherwise go unnoticed, alerting staff in realtime and within minutes of an event being detected. This ensures we can concentrate on supporting and educating students.

• Don’t pay, do stop contact and block: you may be tempted to pay, but there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats. As the offender’s motive is to get money, once you have shown you can pay, they will likely ask for more and blackmail may continue. If you have paid, don’t panic but don’t pay anything more. Help your child to stop all communication with the offender and block them on any accounts that they have been contacted on.

• Avoid deleting anything: try not to delete anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images and bank account details. This protects the public from serious and organised crime.

• Report to the police or CEOP: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child. Or you can use the CEOP Safety Centre (www.ceop. police.uk/safety-centre) to report

any online blackmail attempts. Adults who have experienced financially motivated sexual extortion can use the Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (https://stopncii.org) to immediately prevent their content from being shared online across StopNCCI. org’s industry partners. They should also report the incident to the police and the platform or app that the incident has occurred on.

Getting support in a mental health crisis or emergency

A mental health crisis is when a person is currently safe but needs urgent mental health support. They could be feeling like they may seriously harm themselves or others or be suicidal.

What can you do in a mental health crisis?

9 If your child/ward already gets mental health support from the NHS or another organisation, please contact the service that helps them

9 Book an emergency appointment with your child’s/ward’s GP practice.

9 Contact Night OWLS for free on 03002 003900 or 07984 392700 or chat online at: www.wynightowls.org.uk

9 Call NHS 111 a 24-hour helpline for help and advice

9 If your child/ward doesn’t currently use mental health services, you can contact Single Point Access (SPA) teams on 01977 735865

What's coming up

VISIT OUR NEXT OPEN EVENT

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE, 10AM – 12PM

If your child is still undecided on their choices or is wanting to progress onto another level or programme, we recommend that they attend our Open Event on Saturday 15th June, 10am – 12pm.

This will allow them to meet their course tutors and potential coursemates, as well as talk through their options. Register your child’s place, using the QR code:

INTERESTED IN LEARNING SOMETHING NEW OR LOOKING TO UPSKILL?

Our wide range of Online Learning courses are designed to fit around your lifestyle and other commitments, meaning you can gain a new qualification online and from the comfort of your own home. SCAN HERE

› FREE of Charge*

› Study from home

› Gain new skills

› Learn at your own pace

› Achieve a nationally recognised qualification

RELAX AND UNWIND WITH US…

Did you know that you can enjoy a range of treatments at a fraction of the cost in our state-of-the-art hair and beauty salon, Elements?

Providing a total body and mind experience, our hairdressing and beauty therapy salon provides a retreat where you can revitalise.

Elements uses products only available to the industry and are proud to work in close association with Dermologica, Eve Taylor, Wella, Elemis and Andrew Barton - ensuring you can enjoy high-quality products, at a fraction of the cost.

All of our treatments are performed by our students under the supervision of our highly qualified tutors, who are experienced beauty therapists, hair stylists, colour corrective specialists and nail artists.

To book a treatment, please contact elements@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk or call 01924 789409