Eluned Watson

Derwen College students have gone home for their Easter break but it’s business as usual for our Garden Cafe and Garden Centre.

The Garden Café at Derwen College is open every day throughout Easter from 9am-4pm (10am-4pm on Sundays). The Garden Centre is open every day except Easter Sunday (trading laws mean it is not allowed to open on Easter Sunday).

With plenty of free parking and lots to do for all the family, we’ve put together our top 10 reasons to visit us over the Easter holidays.

1. Chocolate – The Garden Centre shop offers chocolate galore in the shape of bunnies, eggs or bars. Buy for the family or just treat yourself.
2. Cake – The Garden Café has a fabulous selection of delicious cakes including Easter cupcakes and hot cross buns. Easter isn’t the time for counting calories.
3. Home-made cards and gifts – the Garden Centre Shop has a selection of lovely Easter cards designed and screen-printed by students at Derwen College.
4. A play area – Did you know that outside the café we have a swing and climbing frame perfect for keeping little ones busy while you’re enjoying a hot drink?
5. On the subject of hot drinks, we offer barista-style coffees and teas at a fraction of the price of the national chains.
6. Walled garden – take a wander through our walled garden, take a seat on a bench, relax and enjoy the sights and smells of spring plants.
7. Revitalise your own garden – our Garden Centre has a huge range of flowers, plants, seeds, bedding plants, shrubs, roses and pots to make your garden the pick of the plots.
8. Milkshakes – make the most of our new milkshake machine and indulge in a strawberry, chocolate or banana milkshake in the sunshine.
9. Colour competition – Enter our Easter colouring competition for your chance to win an Easter treat. Pick up a colouring entry form at the Garden Café and make sure you return it by 28^th April for judging.
10. Spring sunshine. Ok, we can’t promise that but fingers crossed for a glorious holiday.

Happy Easter!

More than 300 walkers, runners, children and dogs congregated at Derwen College in Gobowen for the annual Sponsored Walk which this year included the first official Fun Run.

Students, families and members of the community opted for a 10km, 6km or one mile route for the fundraising event on Sunday, 31^st March.

Nearly 250 walkers, 40 runners, 19 children and 11 dogs tackled Derwen Sponsored Walk and Fun Run on a bright Mothering Sunday morning.

Runners included some brave 10km first timers, and some who were using the course to train for more serious races over the coming weeks.

Walkers included staunch walk supporter Olive Morris who raised more than £700 for her 51^st sponsored walk.

Finishers received a hand-made medal created by students at the college for young adults with learning difficulties and disabilities. Mums were also presented with a flower from the Derwen College Garden Centre to celebrate the fact that it was Mothering Sunday.

Fundraiser Anna Evans said she has delighted with how the event had gone.

She said: “There was a lovely atmosphere on the day, with lots of smiling faces despite the sore feet! It was fabulous to see so many runners taking part in the event, and to welcome back regular walkers including former students and members of the community. We’d like to thank all the volunteers, walkers and runners who made the event such a wonderful success and supported Derwen College Charity. The 2019 walk and run looks set to be another bumper fundraiser.”

There is still time to donate to Derwen College Charity and sponsorship money is still coming in. We’ll update you on social media with our fundraising news as it happens. To find out about all the ways that your money benefits students at Derwen College click here.

See more photos on our Facebook page

 

There were food, drink and fitness activities galore going on across Derwen College for Health & Nutrition Week from 11th-17th March.

The Gobowen residential and day college for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities focused on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, and the importance of drinking plenty of water.

Staff and students looked to ‘reinforce, focus and energise’ the healthy message with a range of activities across the college. Students practised making healthy choices as part of their Independence and Wellbeing, in their residences, with the college’s dedicated Sport and Leisure Activity Makers (SLAMs), in their learning pathways, and as part of Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards practice.

Students made fruit smoothies for healthy snacks, learned to create nutritious pasta dishes in readiness for Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards expeditions and ensured they were well hydrated in wellbeing sessions in the gym. They also created a Nutrition and Hydration board in the Student Union highlighting information regarding a nutritious, healthy lifestyle.

Helen Owen, Independence, Health and Wellbeing Manager, said that she was pleased with how the college embraced Nutrition and Hydration Week.

She said: “We work hard all year around to reinforce the message of healthy eating, activity and hydration, so it was nice to show some of our work in practice this week. The college is lucky to have dedicated Sports and Activity Makers to organise healthy activities for students’ free time. We have also introduced a student-led snack bar in the Student Union which offers hot drinks, water and healthy option snacks.

“We spend time with residential and day students encouraging them make healthy options and learn to prepare fresh, nutritious food independently.”

 

Poetry and puppets, stories and dressing-up were order of the day for World Book Day at Derwen College, near Oswestry.

Local author Jan Hedger visited the specialist further education college in Gobowen to share her love of puppets and poetry for the international celebration of published words and pictures on 7^th March.

Jan, along with fellow book-lover Pauline Faulkner, entertained and informed students at the college for young adults with learning difficulties and disabilities. The pair ran two workshops entitled ‘Poetry, Puppets and Books’.

Students were introduced to Jan’s hand puppets, and to her selection of illustrated poetry books which she has collected over the years. Students were particularly engaged by poems with themes focusing on caring for animals and the natural world.

The college also ran a draw a book cover competition and encouraged staff and students to dress up as their favourite literary characters.

Jan explained: “My puppets and poetry performances are about interaction and fun; light poetry but with a moral message, with each hand puppet having its own special written poem.  Derwen students enjoyed looking through the books and illustrations themselves. A lot of the poems are very old, but are freshly enjoyed today by new generations.

“I feel that World Book Day is of vital importance in bringing people of all ages and cultures together, embracing the joy, depth and knowledge books can bring; as they have done throughout the ages, since the concept of print first evolved.”

Jan has worked with Derwen College previously as committee member for Oswestry’s Wilfred Owen Festival for which Derwen College students wrote a commemorative poem. The poem is displayed on the life-sized bronze Wilfred Owen statue in Cae Glas Park, Oswestry.

 

    

Counting, weighing, measuring and a large amount of ‘Tweeting’ added up to a highly competitive Maths Week 2019 at Derwen College, in Shropshire.

Students and staff from across the further education college in Gobowen threw themselves into maths-related activities from 25^th February to 1^st March as part of the initiative by Natpec – an association for organisations offering specialist provision for students with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The college ran a competition to show which areas could show the most maths embedded into students’ learning and work experience. And the winners in the close-run contest were … Hospitality and Housekeeping and Work Skills.

Students from the college’s Gobowen site and three satellite sites all kept count of their use of maths in their learning and independence. From folding towels in halves and quarters, weighing butter for cakes, counting money for work or to pay for shopping and train travel, measuring the growth of plants and creating shapes to produce artwork; the entire college embraced numeracy.

The college received celebrity endorsements for their maths activities on social media. Supportive tweets were received from television’s The Autistic Gardener Alan Gardner, weather presenter and broadcaster Ruth Wignall, and television gardener Toby Buckland.

Functional Skills co-ordinator and teacher, Iain Evans, had the difficult job of keeping up with Maths activity on social media and the Derwen College scoreboard.

He said: “Thanks to all areas of the college for all the hard work. The scores show the excellent level of involvement with maths embedding last week, and I’m so pleased everyone seemed to be having so much fun at the same time.  I can assure you that we are considered a positive model to all colleges in our sector when it comes to embedding maths.

“It was also heartening to have staff come to me and say ‘I understand more about maths embedding’ and ‘I’ve thought of more great ideas’.  Excellent.”

Derwen College Principal Meryl Green said: “Congratulations to everyone who got involved with this hotly contested annual event.

“Each year it seems to get bigger and better and you find ever more creative and fun ways to embed maths into your sessions – a really brilliant response from right across the College and satellite sites – well done! A big thank you to Iain who, once again, has done a fantastic job of inspiring everyone to get involved – great work all round.”