hospitality

Teresa takes on sponsored slim

17th July 2020 by Eluned Watson

Derwen College Teresa Richards sponsored slim Station Cafe — Teresa plans to lose four stones through healthy eating and exercise.

A Derwen College teacher is determined to lose more than four stones in a charity weight loss challenge, despite being surrounded by delicious home-made food and cakes in her daily job.

Teresa Richards works at the specialist further education college, near Oswestry. She is best known for supervising students in their work placements at Gobowen’s popular Station Café – which is temporarily closed. She is embarking on a sponsored slim to raise funds for Derwen College Charity. Money raised will go towards providing vital experiences, equipment and independence for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Teresa wants to become fitter for her own health, but is keen for supporters to encourage her in her endeavours. She hopes to raise £500 and even to recruit other slimmers who may want to shed a few extra lock-down pounds.

Teresa, from Oswestry, wants to lose four stones over the next 12-18 months through healthy eating and exercise. Her biggest weaknesses, she says, are chocolate, sweets and wine with friends. Being surrounded by the tempting home-made food that she makes in the Station Café and college Food Centre and bakery, make the challenge even more difficult.

She says: “I have been fighting with my weight for most of my life. My joints are failing and even doing the slightest physical activity has become challenging. My main focus is on my weight loss journey but I would love to see how much money I can raise for such a great charity which helps the fantastic students I work with in so many ways.

“I would to love to inspire others to make a donation towards Derwen College Charity. Or even to join me on this challenge if they want to lose weight and get healthy.”

Teresa Richards Derwen College Station Cafe — Teresa is a familiar friendly face at Gobowen’s much-loved Station Cafe.

High Sheriff Community Award

Teresa is a familiar face to many commuters and the Gobowen community. Last year she won a High Sheriff of Shropshire community award for her tireless work and continued commitment to the popular Gobowen Station Café.

She continues: “I am lucky to know many lovely people through the Station Café. Customers helped me to raise £300 for our annual sponsored walk two years ago. I hope they might support me again as the college’s usual fundraising events have been cancelled for 2020. I can’t wait to see all our customers again soon when we are able to safely reopen.”

You can follow Teresa’s weight-loss journey on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/troser64/ or support her efforts by donating at https://www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/teresa

There are many other ways to support Derwen College Charity, including a challenging Virtual John O’Groats to Land’s End team walk which takes place throughout August. Find out more here.

The walk must go on

12th June 2020 by Eluned Watson

Derwen College Charity sponsored walk — Carter and mum Pam walked 10km.

A Derwen College student and his family have raised more than £1500 for the college on a sponsored walk around their home village.

Student Carter Gough, who is a Hospitality and Housekeeping student at the specialist Shropshire college, took on the 10km challenge when the college’s charity sponsored walk was cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Student Carter, his parents Pam and Lloyd, and his sister Madison decided to honour their commitment to the Derwen College Sponsored Walk by walking 10km around their home village in Worcestershire.

The family took on the walk on April 5th, starting at 11am which was the exact time that the original walk had been due to take place. The family were delighted to raise a phenomenal £1500 for Derwen College Charity.

Pam Gough said: “We had already gathered lots of sponsorship before the walk and before the government lockdown measures were put in place. But we wanted to honour the donations made by our friends and family. Also, the event was on the family calendar, and Carter was adamant it had to happen so we did the walk our way.

“We then posted pictures doing the walk on our Facebook page, and other friends and family decided to sponsor us too, therefore we raised even more money.”

This is Carter’s final year at college, and his friends and family were keen to support the college to show their appreciation of his progress.

“Many of our friends and family are aware of how important Derwen College has been for Carter,” said Mrs Gough.

Derwen College Charity sponsored walk 2020 — Dad Lloyd took a selfie of the family sponsored walk.

“The independence skills and confidence he has gained has been huge. We have gone from a young man who mainly communicated using sign language, pictures and very limited speech to now having conversations. It has been amazing. He is leaving college with real work and life skills, and we know he is capable of working independently.

“For Carter, being able to communicate his thoughts and feelings, and frustrations, has been vital. He can tell us how he feels and what he wants; it has made such a difference to his confidence. That is how much of a game changer Derwen College has been for Carter.”

Thank you to the Gough family

Fundraiser Anna Evans said:

“We are so grateful to Carter and his family for thinking about Derwen College during these very uncertain and worrying times. To have raised this amount for the college is wonderful, and we will be using this donation to boost our Agnes Hunt Village project appeal, which is still ongoing.

“We aim to refurbish and renovate our unique complex of bungalows at Derwen College which provide students just like Carter with the setting to learn how to live independently and to care for themselves. Carter himself has lived in the Agnes Hunt Village, and he knows just how important these facilities are for young adults with SEND. We thank the Gough family for their wonderful support.”

National Careers Week

8th March 2020 by Eluned Watson

Derwen College celebrated National Careers Week, from 2nd to 7th March with a host of fun and informative activities to support students towards future employment.

Students at the specialist further education college for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) took on work-related tasks and challenges in Horticulture, Retail, Hospitality and Housekeeping, and Performing Arts.

The week also saw the official launch of a ground-breaking new CV Builder ‘app’ that the college has developed to enable people with SEND to create and send their own CV to potential employers, as well as the launch of the College’s Skills Live @Derwen 2020 Competition which take place on 23rd June.

See more pictures from across the College in our Facebook Careers Week album.

Derwen College CV Builder app developed with Hunter Bevan and Marches LEP funding — Derwen College’s new CV builder app which is supporting students to independently create and send a CV to potential employers.

Poster competition

Students were invited to take part in a poster competition highlighting the work and independence skills they had learnt with us. The ‘I couldn’t, but now I can …” competition received 47 entries which demonstrated a huge variety of skills. Themes varied across employment, independence and social skills. They included skills such as using a till in the Orangery Restaurant, learning lines for a performance, making sandwiches, using kitchen knife skills, folding clothes and going out to work in the community.

Of the competition, Derwen College Governor Barbara Court said: “It was inspiring to see such a large number of entries covering a diverse range of skills and knowledge that students recognised they had acquired whilst at College. These were transferable skills that will serve students in their work and independence skills at College, and in the future.”

A Future Aspirations workshop explored the key concept of ‘hope,’ to help battle anxiety and stress devised from the anticipation of post college life. Resources and video material were provided by #NCW to help inspire and challenge positives expectations and aspirations for career development.

Supporting students towards employment

Derwen College works hard to equip students with the skills and tools necessary to support them towards employment. We have an on-site restaurant, café, print shop, Garden Centre, Shop and mini Hotel 751 that offer work experience for students. Derwen also works with national and local businesses to provide relevant off-site work placements for students, preparing them for employment when they return to their home area.

With technical support from app developers Hunter Bevan Ltd, the college has created and developed innovative new apps to further support students into work. We have developed a suite of apps as part of a ‘Support Work’ project, funded via the Marches LEP Growth Deal with Government for capital skills projects.

The College is now looking forward to further promoting work skills during Skills Live @Derwen competitions on 23rd June. The College is hosting competitions to showcase student skills for potential employees across the UK, with entries welcomed from this week. For more information visit www.derwen.ac.uk/competitions/

Derwen College Quality Manager Samantha Brown said that the College is constantly supporting students in the pursuit of suitable employment, and they were pleased to focus on National Careers Week.

She said, “Careers Week provides a platform to celebrate the wider world of work. By embracing an across-college approach to career guidance and providing an insight into future work or learning possibilities through positive and fun exploration, we hope to empower students to develop and express their own aspirations.”

Derwen is … collaborative

24th October 2019 by Eluned Watson

At Derwen College, we live by our values. Throughout all aspects of college life, all of us – from students, teachers, care staff, management and governors – aim to be: Caring, Collaborative, Creative, Ambitious and Inclusive.

This month, our focus has been on collaboration. Working together to achieve the best for students, staff, the college, and the community, is something we do all year around. However, for October, we’re taking the opportunity to really shout about some of our wonderful collaborations.

October is Work Experience Month. As a college, we are proud of the strong links we’ve made with businesses, which bring regular work placements for our students, building towards paid employment. We have have achieved three consecutive Gold certificates from Fair Train – an organisation which champions high quality work-based learning throughout the UK.

Our Work Experience and Transition team strive to forge partnerships with businesses in the local community and across the UK. These collaborations bring invaluable work placements to our students in Hospitality and Housekeeping, Retail, Creative Arts and Horticulture.

Thank you to all our work placement collaborators

We’d like to thank all the businesses who have given their time and support to offer work opportunities for our students with special educational needs and disability (SEND); promoting inclusivity, and encouraging customer service and work skills and self-confidence in our students.

We have a fantastic relationship with Premier Inn hotels. Owners Whitbread supported the college in creating our training hotel Hotel 751 which provides work placements for retail and hospitality students. Students go on to travel to work placements in Oswestry, Wrexham, Chester and Shrewsbury. A high percentage go on to achieve paid work with the hotel chain on leaving college. In turn, we have worked with Premier Inn staff, supporting them with training in working with people with SEND.

Closer to home, there are dozens of small local businesses who share our ethos, and support individual or groups of students in work placements every week. We thank them all (see below for a full list).

This week, we’ve focused on the efforts of students at our Baschurch satellite site [email protected] who have established horticulture enterprise Leaf It To Us. Students have collaborated with business and council to make a difference in their community. Over the past 12 months Leaf It To Us have been working on designing, planting and maintaining the traffic roundabout in Baschurch, commissioned by Baschurch Parish Council as a community project.

Emily takes part in the Premier Inn bed making competition.

Artist Liz Neal and Jim Creed from Qube give up their time to judge the art competition.

Adelhe, Billie-Jo and Drew with their Winter Planters for the horticulture competition. Pictured with Mayoress Cllr Joyce Barrow, judge Dave Cank and Mayor Cllr John Price.

Skills Live @Derwen

This week has also seen the launch of Skills Live @Derwen, a series of competitions which will see a number of students and colleges working together to showcase the skills of people with special educational needs and disabilities. We have welcomed other colleges; industry expert judges; mayor Cllr John Price and Mayoress Cllr Joyce Barrow; and Clare Howard, Chief Executive of Natspec – the membership association for organisations which offer specialist further education and training for students with SEND.

Collaborating with others, being part of a bigger picture is vital at Derwen, but also throughout life. We recognise that all of us have different skills and strengths, that’s what makes us better together.

Thanks to work placement providers Kidszone, Gobowen Allrounders, Nightingale House, Moreton Hall School, Severn Dee Travel, McDonalds, Premier Inn, Lepones, Ty Mawr, Treflach Farm, The Spinney, Bryngwyn Hall, Oswestry Cemetery, Oswestry and Gobowen Co-op, Spar, Llangollen Market, Gobowen Library and Oswestry Markets.

St David’s Day celebrations

28th February 2019 by Eluned Watson

Megan, Carter and Grace create daffodil shaped breads

Derwen College students, who hail from all over the UK, embraced St David’s Day on 1^st March, using the Welsh patron saint as inspiration across the college’s pathway areas.

Hospitality students Megan Sheppard, Carter Gough and Grace Bennett combined celebrations for St David’s Day and Real Bread Week by making daffodil-shaped breads as part of their learning in the Training Kitchen.

The college’s Creative Arts students created beautiful ceramic daffodils to sell to customers in the Garden Centre shop.

Students working at Derwen College’s Ashdale House satellite site near Penley, Wrexham, designed and produced upcycled furniture inspired by Wales as part of their upcycling enterprise Hwre. They transformed a bookcase using decoupage images from Welsh song Calon Lan (meaning Pure Heart); and Louis Thomas designed a chair using images of a Welsh coal mine, daffodil and dragon.

Hospitality and Housekeeping students also excelled themselves in producing bread Welsh dragons in the Training Kitchen. The team managed to mark St David’s Day, Real Bread Week and Maths Week in one fabulous project.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

Serving up professional training

8th January 2019 by Eluned Watson

A two-course dinner made from scratch was on the menu when Derwen College students were invited on a professional catering skills workshop.

Five hospitality students from college had the opportunity to train for the day at a Whitbread-owned industry training kitchen.

Whitbread – owner of restaurant brands including Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Thyme, Cookhouse & Pub and Bar + Block – asked students from the Oswestry-based college to attend a bespoke catering course at its North Learning and Skills Academy in Sale, near Manchester. The students and two members of staff jumped at the chance to learn new skills in a professional environment with top class teaching chefs.

Premier Inn Regional Operations Manager Tracey Bishop invited the students on the experience, having established a close professional relationship between Derwen and the UK’s biggest hotel company Premier Inn, which is also Whitbread-owned. The partnership, which sees students undertaking work experience and paid employment at Premier Inn hotels across the UK, has also seen the creation of a Premier Inn training hotel on the college grounds; here students gain valuable first-hand experience of the hospitality industry.

Budding cooks Faye Humphries, Max Marek, William Chapple, James Ashworth and Adam Gill were given the opportunity to work with industry teachers including Craig Robinson, Lead Academy Manager who ran the day. The students prepared a Spaghetti Bolognese from scratch including peeling and preparing the vegetables and garlic. They worked with pictures to help their understanding and were able to take them home so that they could recreate the same recipe step-by-step for themselves.

Derwen College Work Experience Co-ordinator Abi Baker said that students and staff were thrilled to be invited to the professional training kitchen where Whitbread restaurant teams are trained. Staff from the different Whitbread brands undergo initial training there and attend catering courses whenever a new menu is devised.

Abi Baker said: “We had no idea what to expect but Whitbread surpassed anything we could have hoped for. The students were kitted out in full uniform including safety shoes and were looked after like celebrities – with food and drink throughout the day.

“The students were taught step-by-step to make a Spaghetti Bolognese from scratch, followed by an ice-cream sundae with a huge array of ice-creams, toppings and sprinkles to choose from.

“We invited students who we thought would benefit the most from the day; learners who had done some cooking but were keen to reach that next step of learning. They all developed new skills such as crushing garlic and using graters and peelers. Being treated as VIP guests, they were well-motivated and performed beyond our expectations.

She added: “Students were over-the-moon to be given certificates and allowed to keep their catering kit. And, as the cherry on the cake, unlike in their usual catering sessions, the students didn’t have to do the washing up when they’d finished!”

hospitality