Archives for March 2018

Hundreds of students, parents, staff and locals joined in the 51st annual Derwen College sponsored walk on a sunny Sunday morning, raising thousands of pounds.

Walkers with smiling faces enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine completing the 10 kilometre route around Gobowen and surrounding countryside before finishing off with a well-deserved cup of free home-made vegetable soup and fresh bread back at the college.

Olive Morris, aged 74, completed her 50th walk for the college raising more than £400. She was presented with a certificate marking this momentous occasion by Derwen College Principal Meryl Green and Chief Executive Ruth Thomas.

The family of student Carter Gough raised a phenomenal £2,500 through support from friends and family. The family were given an extra surprise when Carter’s aunty and cousin greeted them as secret marshals towards the end of the 10 kilometre route. Jo-Anna Grove and her son Oliver were taken to the marshal points undercover once the walk had started so that they could surprise Carter.

Walkers were also given a six kilometre option and one kilometre option around Derwen College’ Woodland Walk to ensure as many students as possible could join in.

Helen Edwards, Projects and Partnerships Co-ordinator at Derwen College said: “It was such a lovely day with a lot of support from local people as well as college students and their families. We are very grateful to everyone who came along and raised large amounts of money through sponsorship. I hope there weren’t too many blisters at the end of the day!’

“Special thanks to Olive Morris for walking her 50th sponsored walk with us and for single-handedly raising thousands of pounds over the past five decades.”

Money raised from the walk will be added to Derwen College’s £60,000 fundraising target for 2018. Funds will go towards a new therapy and fitness centre, including a hydrotherapy pool.

The College’s next major event is taking place on Thursday 31st May with the Derwen College Summer Fete. Don’t miss it!

For more information about Derwen College, DC Charity and the Derwen events, eateries and shopping visit www.derwen.ac.uk

Creative students and staff at Derwen College performed and produced a video celebrating World Down Syndrome Day.

The video which features the inspirational song ‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman, marked the international day which campaigns to tackle negative attitudes and a lack of knowledge about the potential of people with Down Syndrome, which can prevent them from having opportunities to make contributions.

This year, the campaign asked people at school, work, home and play to show their support for World Down Syndrome Day by wearing Lots of Socks; preferably mismatched and brightly coloured ones.

However, despite the silly socks, the message was a serious one. Down Syndrome International aims to reach out to key employers to ensure they see the benefits of enabling people with Down syndrome and disabilities to make meaningful contributions in the workplace; then encourage these stakeholders to help bring about positive change.

Creative and Performing Arts teacher Emma Dodd said: “Our students and staff had great fun being creative to create a video to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day, the video is a reminder to us all that we live in an extraordinary time in which we’re not bound by the conditions of our birth. We should be celebrating what every life has to offer.”

The Derwen College video received nearly 2,000 views in just two days, and many more ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on social media, including praise from comedy actress Sally Phillips who has a son with Down Syndrome.

Watch the video now on https://youtu.be/WgwIwP2PszQ

Derwen College students embraced all things numerical to mark Natspec’s Maths Week 2018 from 5^th-9^th March.

Learners from all departments, took up the Work It Out! theme, to count, measure and weigh in the kitchens, shop, gardens and even the gym.

With a focus on using maths skills in the workplace, students celebrated and shared maths while having fun at the same time. Their efforts even made the attention of television presenter Rachel Riley of Countdown who commented on the college’s maths work on social media.

Many students also entered the Work it Out! Competition to showcase in a short video or set of photographs the maths skills they are developing that will be useful to them at work.

Students from all areas of the college took part in Maths Week with activities ranging from counting and recording bread for the college’s Farm Shop, measuring wood for cutting in Land-Based Studies, and weighing out ingredients in Hospitality and Customer Services.

Functional Skills teacher Iain Evans said he was pleased to see so many students and teachers having fun with maths.

He said: “It was great to see all the amazing maths work, and so much good work going on.  We showed everyone how much we do embed here, and how good we are at making it useful and enjoyable for the learners.”

All the hard work drew attention from Natspec, National Numeracy, and many fellow specialist colleges. It also drew comment on social media from maths whizz Rachel Riley from TV’s Countdown.

Rachel commented on Twitter about students who were stock-taking chocolate bars, and offered some maths counting advice when working with chocolate (one for you, one for me!).

Staff at Derwen College were presented with certificates after achieving specialist diplomas in teaching students with learning difficulties.

Teaching staff Jade Harris, Tim Galashan, Sam Brown and Sioned Davies completed the Level 5 City & Guilds 6503 Specialist Teaching Diploma course which brings deeper understanding and research to their teaching knowledge and encourages them to focus on individual student needs and inclusive teaching methods and strategies.

The qualification was completed over one academic year and was tutored by specialist teachers Helen Pocknell and Iain Evans.
The qualification requires teachers to undertake research into learning difficulties and disabilities, and examines the history of special needs legislation, policies and practices.

Iain said: “The course allows teaching staff to focus on specific disabilities such as autism, dyspraxia or dyscalculia. We are very proud of the achievements made by Jade, Tim, Sam and Sioned. It has been valuable to witness their ongoing development and to see how the knowledge and strategies they have gained goes on to be used in their teaching and support.

“We are lucky at Derwen to have valuable resources that we can utilise, including input from our speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.”

Derwen College is running this specialist teaching diploma course again from September 2018.

For further details about the course and how to book, contact our HR department on 01691 661234 Ext 247 or email learnwith@derwen.ac.uk