Hereward College

We are recruiting for local business or community leaders to join our corporate board as full or co-opted members to help us continue our pioneering work in the field of specialist further education.

Applications from individuals with experience in SEND, safeguarding, teaching, auditing and legal occupations, and from local community leaders – particularly from diverse backgrounds – would be welcomed.

Find out more on the brochure via the weblink here: https://www.hereward.ac.uk/about/governance/

• For an informal discussion please contact Principal & CEO Paul Cook MBE at [email protected] or call 024 7642 6121.

Would you like to help young people with learning difficulties and disabilities gain their independence?

This hugely rewarding role can range from supporting with personal care and administering medication to helping to plan leisure activities and liaising with parents.

It would appeal to people with a background in care, nursing, social work or teaching but the college would support you to complete relevant care qualifications.

Find out more and apply here: https://www.hereward.ac.uk/about/join-our-team/

Would you like to help young people with learning difficulties and disabilities gain their independence?

Hereward College is recruiting new staff for its dedicated care and support team who provide personalised care for our live-in learners.

This hugely rewarding role can range from supporting with personal care and administering medication to helping to plan leisure activities and liaising with parents.

It would appeal to people with a background in care, nursing, social work or teaching but the college would support you to complete relevant care qualifications.

Find out more and apply here: https://www.hereward.ac.uk/about/join-our-team/

Our interns were buzzing after being invited to an 'access all areas' tour of the .

The behind the scenes visit was a great opportunity for interns to unwind after a busy working year, catch up with each other and - for some - to fulfill their ambition of walking around their favourite team's ground.

Our thanks to Catering and Experience Director Mark O'Shea for a really engaging tour and talk which our students thoroughly enjoyed.

Our Stem Club are ending their year with a bit of a bang!

For they went out for an end of year trip to the NEC in Birmingham for The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair .

Our students got to try out lots of STEM activities and interactive displays with companies like Network Rail, JLR, HS2 and Rolls Royce. It was a great morning out and lots of contacts were made for the next academic year.

Foundation students thoroughly enjoyed their end of year visit to , where they met some of their lovely miniature donkeys – Thomas, Grace, Florence, Bertram, Storm, James, Beatrice (aka Daisy B) and baby Harriet.

The charity, located in woodland in Balsall Common near Solihull, offers a range of experiences to enable people to learn about and interact with miniature donkeys. All of the money raised is spent on food and care for the donkeys and the staff are all volunteers.

Our thanks to The Donkeys for the visit - we'll be looking forward to supporting their charity in the next academic year.

At Hereward we ensure that we have all the ingredients for successful transition into employment and independent living by our learners.

Recent expert cookery demonstrations by professional chefs from Warwick Conferences are an excellent example of this.

In the first session in the college kitchens, Chef de Partie Val Elvin showed how to make perfect choux pastry and create choux buns, eclairs and profiteroles. Colleague Mark Ralph returned with Sous Chef Dave Wilson to do a demonstration of knife and cutting skills.

Each day this week we are celebrating – a national campaign which aims to raise awareness of what life is like if you have a learning disability. Today’s theme is "Do you include me?"

Warwick Conferences are one of our fantastic employer partners who make a huge effort to ensure our students are included in their commercial and community activities, with regular expert demo sessions like the cookery training and supported internship programmes.

Hereward students were feeling upbeat after mixing it with the DJs at Warwick Bass.

Warwick University’s on-campus underground/electronic music society offers undergraduates free DJ lessons every week, playing a range of music from garage, house, techno and dub to drum and bass.

They also get the opportunity to DJ at events in and around the university such as Coventry and Leamington Spa.

Members of Warwick Bass Society invited Hereward students in for DJ lessons and they had a fantastic time sampling life on the decks.

Job Coach Ruby McCrystal said: “The students thoroughly enjoyed learning a new skill and have never left so talkative with big smiles on their faces! Going somewhere new is a big thing for our students and Warwick Bass Society made them feel so comfortable and welcome.

“I believe they were definitely inspired and left with a massive confidence boost. Huge thanks for the amazing work Warwick Bass have done with our learners.”

Each day this week we are celebrating – a national campaign which aims to raise awareness of what life is like if you have a learning disability. Today’s theme is "Do you hear me?" Our students certainly made themselves heard at Warwick Bass!

As we continue our celebration of Learning Disability Week, today we are looking at our excellent employer partnerships.

Our recent Moving On future focus event saw a great turnout from local employers, including Entrust Care Partnership, Grapevine, EGO Arts, Forging Families, Tile Hill Library, Culina Group, Coventry City Apprenticeships, Evtec Automotive and the Adult Education team.

Students had the opportunity to meet with each employer and have a go at their interactive activity.

One of the highlights was a great STEM demonstration from PrepareRobo UK where our learners got to build their own robots and code them to move around, which proved extremely popular.

Hereward College offers supported internships in partnership with a number of employers including Evtec Automotive, Premier Inn, Severn Trent Water, Warwick Conferences and West Midlands Police.

The benefits to our learners are huge – the number of our graduates gaining paid and voluntary outcomes in 2022/23 was more than nine times the national average at 44%. Learners on supported internships enjoyed even greater success, with paid and voluntary work outcome rates topping 80%.

Each day this week we are celebrating Learning Disability Week – a national campaign which aims to raise awareness of what life is like if you have a learning disability. Today’s theme is "Will you work with me?" We are indebted to our employer partners who provide so many real paid work opportunities to our learners.

Learning 4 Life students celebrated with a game of boccia in the college gym.

Hereward College was one of the host colleges for the Natspec Games 2024, with activities also including table tennis, tennis, football, cricket and dance. The national sport competition has been organised since 2016 by Natspec to provide inclusive sporting opportunities for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Boccia is a Paralympic sport designed for athletes with high support needs and is a target sport played indoors with soft leather balls.

This year’s theme for Learning Disability Week – a campaign which aims to raise awareness of what life is like if you have a learning disability – is "Do you see me?" which is about challenging the barriers people with a learning disability face.

Students went interactive at our last job coaching event of the year, with a great turnout from local employers.

The Moving On future focus event was attended by a range of organisations including Entrust Care Partnership, Grapevine, EGO Arts, , Tile Hill Library, , Coventry City Apprenticeships, Evtec Automotive and the Adult Education team.

Students had the opportunity to meet with each employer and have a go at their interactive activity.

One of the highlights was a great STEM demonstration from PrepareRobo Ltd where our students got to build their own robots and code them to move around, which proved extremely popular.

Professional chefs from had all the ingredients for a perfect demo of pastry making and knife skills in training sessions in the college kitchens.

In the first expert demonstration, Chef de Partie Val Elvin showed how to make perfect choux pastry and create choux buns, eclairs and profiteroles.

Colleague Mark Ralph returned with Sous Chef Dave Wilson last week to do a demonstration of knife and cutting skills.

The demos provided students with experience of working with industry professionals and creating items to industry standard as they prepare for work in the hospitality and catering industry.

Full story: https://www.hereward.ac.uk/news/news-stories/details.aspx?positionId=564

There are a range of activities at the Coventry Family Hubs during half term, including creative arts, boxing training and music sessions. The full list is attached and for more information about the Family Hubs visit:

https://www.coventry.gov.uk/familyhubs

A family tragedy has inspired a Hereward College photography lecturer to use her talent behind the camera to help people suffering from depression and other mental health issues.

Donna Bridgewater, who teaches Foundation learners at Hereward, lost her sister Leanne to su***de in March 2019 aged just 29. Five years on, Donna is using her sibling’s sad and untimely death as the inspiration for a unique photography project designed to help others who are struggling.

Called ‘You Are Not Alone’, the initiative invites people to take part in a free photography session where they can also open up about their concerns and worries.

On Friday afternoon Donna was interviewed on BBC CWR in their Birmingham studios by Trish Adudu. Read about the interview and project here:

https://www.hereward.ac.uk/news/news-stories/details.aspx?positionId=560

Media & IT students enjoyed a team building day at at the University of Warwick.

The Hereward 'newbies' (as esports novices are known in the game), together with a specialist school in Coventry, were tasked with building their own team name, logo, merchandise and social media content before competing with each other in a Rocket League championship.

Three of our teams took the podium with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition, capping a great day of learning about the gaming industry and marketing their own brands.

Sports students had an ace time in a trip to .

It was the second of six sessions for the Level 1 Sport group who have been on court to develop tennis skills.

It's Wildlife Wednesday! Today we're featuring insect images in our latest pics taken on the college campus by our nature photographer (and Estates Officer) Steve Hatch. We have a black garden ant, common blue damselfly, hawk moth, leafhopper and a small copper... 🦋🐜

Learning for Life students picked up some ideas for the sensory garden planned for the college in a trip to Coventry's War Memorial Park.

Visiting the park's community sensory garden, students loved feeling the plants - particularly the lambs ear - and smelling the mint and the rosemary. They also liked looking at the birds and the Japanese garden.

The trip was a huge success and has given us lots of ideas!

Hospitality students made perfect hosts as they entertained residents from in a visit to the college.

We have been working together with to set up a befriending service to integrate different community groups. Our young people met some residents from Earlsdon Park Village on a tour of their residential setting and we returned the favour this week with our hospitality and transition to employment students in the Well Bean Cafe.

Hospitality students made scones and served hot drinks to our visitors and showed their excellent customer service skills. The visits were a huge success and all participants were positive about meeting each other.

Students had a swinging time in a trip to Coventry's War Memorial Park.

Starting with the exercise circuit, they also tried the climbing frame and played in the sand.

The group then went to the Visitor Centre where they learned about the soldiers who died during the First World War - some the same age - and visited the War Memorial.

Coventry's largest park, which spans 48 hectares, opened in July 1921 as a tribute to the soldiers from the city who lost their lives in the Great War (1914-1918). The War Memorial, built in 1927, is around 90 feet high.

The trip, on a lovely sunny day, finished off with much needed drinks and snacks in the cafe.

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Well done to Joshua Fairchild from our Independent Learning Support team, who has raised more than £500 for with a sponsored run.

On Sunday he completed the Coventry Half Marathon in an impressive 1:53:35, despite the very wet and cold race conditions.

The 13.1-mile route started in the heart of the city centre at Gosford Street before heading to the nearby countryside and towards Warwickshire, with participants then making their way back for their finish line experience at Coventry Cathedral.

Joshua is a former sports student at Hereward, qualifying with a Level 2 and Level 3 BTEC in Sport between 2015 and 2019.

Intern Lucy is not just building her future career this year – she’s also taken on a titanic challenge.

For she has completed the largest LEGO® set ever produced – the ship of dreams!

Lucy, who is currently an intern at Coventry business management consultancy Fundamental Associates working in office administration, has been tackling the Titanic in her spare time.

It has taken her three months to finish the build of the monster 9090-piece model and Lucy was so pleased with her impressive accomplishment, she brought it into college to show fellow students.

Measuring over 53 inches (135 cm) long, the Titanic boasts intricate detail. It includes a grand staircase, boiler room and smoking lounge along with the ship’s bridge, promenade deck and swimming pool.

When completed it divides into three sections to showcase the impressive interior and you can turn the propellers to watch the piston engines turn inside.

Well done Lucy!

Last year provided desperately needed food for more than 18,000 people across the city.

Six learners on our Transition to Employment course visited its distribution hub The Halo Centre to find out how the project, which distributes food through 13 partner churches, works. Read about their visit here:

https://www.hereward.ac.uk/news/news-stories/details.aspx?positionId=552

It's Wildlife Wednesday! Today we're featuring the college pond for the latest pics by our nature photographer (and Estates Officer) Steve Hatch. We have a carp, a female mallard duck and a broad bodied chaser...

Severn Trent's Employability Academy is collaborating with to offer more Employability sessions.

The sessions are open to anyone who may need a helping hand to step back into the working world by building confidence, identifying what jobs they would like to apply for, improving their CV and interview preparation.

The next sessions will be held on Tuesday May 14 at Foleshill Baptist Church, Broad Street, Foleshill, CV6 5AZ. The first at 10am is entitled 'Grow Your Confidence'. There will be a break for lunch with tea, coffee and a hot lunch provided FREE before the afternoon session at 12.30pm called 'What job do you want?'

During the lunch break the affordability team will be on hand to talk to people about how they might be able to access help with their water bills.

Sign up here:

Grow Your Confidence Wherever you want to be, even if that’s not with us, we can help. One of our expert trainers is ready to share their knowledge with you.

Students who work at Hereward's Indigo shop stocked up the shelves after a trip to the wholesalers.

The retail assistants accompanied staff on the visit to Booker, using their maths skills, assistive tools and teamwork to choose the stock in preparation for the summer term and load it on the college's van.

Indigo has offered a range of confectionery and seasonal goods since it was officially launched by Coronation Street's Dev Alahan (actor Jimmi Harkishin) in 2010.

The shop is open during lunch and break-times and students from all pathways work as retail assistants, stock assistants and on marketing/media support, with more than a dozen students per term employed as volunteers.

Indigo is funded by the Friends of Hereward College charity and income generated is reinvested to fund the stock/resources for enterprise and themed selling points throughout the year including Mother's Day, Easter, Father's Day and Christmas.

Learning for Life students had a great day on a trip to in Coleshill, where they looked for plants for a college sensory garden. But they didn't miss the opportunity to also have some cake!

They particularly enjoyed making choices of what to eat and what to buy during the visit - Connor used his proloquo and his iPad to make his choices and say what he had been up to.