Creating brighter futures

Last week, our Year 12 Computer Science students at Sixth Form participated in the globally celebrated Bebras Challenge, showcasing their skills in computational thinking and problem-solving. Among our 13 Elite group participants, everyone performed exceptionally well, reflecting their hard work and dedication to the subject. 

One of our students achieved an impressive ranking of 1,703rd in this year’s worldwide competition. With over 15,000 participants in the UK alone, this is an outstanding achievement and a testament to their talent and perseverance. 

The Bebras Challenge is a 45-minute online event designed to engage young people aged 6 to 19 with interactive tasks that encourage logical reasoning and creativity. The competition is organised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with the University of Oxford and is an incredible opportunity for students to test their abilities against peers from more than 80 countries. 

This challenge is conducted online and marked automatically by the competition system, making it both accessible and straightforward for schools to implement. It is supervised by teachers, making it a collaborative effort between students, educators, and organisers. 

With its inclusive design and global reach, the Bebras Challenge continues to ignite young minds, preparing them for the ever-evolving world of technology and innovation. 

We are immensely proud of our learners’ efforts and successes in this year’s Bebras challenge as it portrays the potential of our Computer Science A Level students.  

We’d like to say a big well done to all the learners who participated, your success has not gone unnoticed! 

If you’re interested in joining our Sixth Form in September, click here. 

T Levels are a new and emerging Further Education (FE) qualification that is available to all learners aged 16 to 19. It is the perfect blend of an apprenticeship and classroom study where you can gain a great amount of work experience in a real-life environment. It allows students to get 20% classroom time to broaden their theoretical knowledge, and 80% work placement to gain hands-on experience. 

Recently we asked lecturers to nominate a standout student for not only their hard work, but also their attitude and willingness in both the classroom and on placement. One of our Health and Social lecturers, Jazmin Murray, nominated a Health: Supporting Adult Nurse Team T Level learner, Sophie, for being a fantastic student inside and outside the classroom.  

Sophie is not only a dedicated and hard-working student, but she is also a full-time carer in her personal life. Despite the challenges and responsibilities that she faces, she is a very positive and supportive learner to her peers, helping them in any way she can whilst always being eager to learn. On top of this, Sophie is now a peer mentor for new T Level learners to provide support and guidance for new students based on her experiences. 

Jaz Murray says, “Despite her huge level of responsibility in and outside of college, Sophie continues to go above and beyond to support her success. What truly sets her apart from other learners is her unwavering commitment, positive mindset and the personal growth she made last year. It has been a pleasure to have Sophie on the T level, and we are excited to see what the future holds for her. 

Sophie has been one of the most optimistic, passionate and dedicated learners I have had the pleasure of working with. She also received glowing feedback from her placement about the impact her time there had on the people accessing services.  

She has left such a significant impact on staff and learners and has overcome so much, highlighting the importance of individuals like Sophie within the health sector.” 

During Sophie’s Health: Supporting Adult Nurse Team T Level, she is currently completing placement at the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) NHS Trust Foundation. During her T Level, Sophie must complete 315 hours of work placement to gain real-world experience and work alongside professionals, providing great networking opportunities. This creates the perfect blend of theoretical knowledge and practical experience to provide the learner with a holistic understanding of the healthcare industry. 

Sophie is now in her second year of her T Level, with aspirations of completing a BSc in Midwifery next year. 

Well done Sophie for this fantastic nomination and all the hard work you have put in throughout your T Level so far, it has not gone unnoticed. 

If you are interested in applying to Health: Supporting Adult Nurse Team T Level next September, click here. 

Investment in FE is scarce, and it’s easy as a college leader to get stuck in a space where you just want to secure funds for your college without thinking about the wider community beyond your gates.

But if we step back and look at the objectives of our stakeholders, we will see much alignment. Working in true partnerships with local and mayoral combined authorities and local stakeholders, we can think how we can invest and improve our towns and regions. An approach of no borders, no walls can bring huge benefits to staff and students, and also genuinely contribute towards making the place the college sits within a thriving community, delivering connected services to its residents.

For me, this ethos became really embedded through my involvement in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities towns fund. In July 2021, 101 towns were invited to develop a range of schemes up to the value of £25 million with the aim of fostering economic regeneration, stimulating investment and delivering vital infrastructure. As a fund, it was short-lived, coming to an end in 2022, but those objectives still live on through the new Labour government.

And as anyone who has been in FE long enough will know, there will always be another fund, another pot of money to bid for, another opportunity to gain investment for the better of your college and community.

So, what lessons can colleges take from the towns fund when it comes to partnership work that delivers strong outcomes across the wider community?

I was involved with two projects through the towns fund during my time at the Bedford College Group as their learner base spanned multiple local authority areas.

The two projects were quite different, but ultimately successful and have gone on to thrive. The first was the transformation of an old 1959 college tower block into a net zero, carbon in operation contemporary building fit for the future. The other was the development of a new zero, carbon in operation sixth form college on top of a shopping centre.

When I went to the Town’s Fund board meeting for the 1959 renovation, I was really struck by the true feeling of collaboration between the local stakeholders, from the school trusts to local housing authority, and from the local brewing company to the hospitals. Although we were all representing our own organisations, as a group, we became champions for the projects that had secured the funding, promoting the benefit that collectively they would have for the town. Our project was the first to complete and acted as a catalyst to move the remaining projects forward with increased momentum. The whole group took joy in seeing the projects succeed.

The experience of developing the new sixth form was quite different. The board was equally supportive, and we had brilliant buy-in from local stakeholders. However, the shopping centre was privately owned by a pension fund, and it became apparent that our values were misaligned. When it came to securing the deal to rent the space, they wanted to charge us an amount that was unviable despite the considerable capital investment from the towns fund. Relentless negotiations followed until both parties were comfortable signing the agreement. Regardless of this obstacle the towns fund board stood firm in its support of the project.

So, in my experience, the most successful projects are those that have the full wholehearted backing of the stakeholders, who may be public sector colleagues, local community influencers and local business owners, all wanting something better for the town and the community they live or work in. It’s a rare but precious moment when the purpose of all involved in delivering the local objectives align. Managing and nurturing these relationships are key as these are the people who come out to bat for your project; they are your cheerleaders within the community. They will carry the message, listen to the community and reassure the naysayers as the project progresses. These are your allies, all working towards a common goal for the good of the area.

With well-narrated projects, the opportunity to extend the support for your project is possible, enabling a wider group of people and organisations to be involved, offering future support in ways that will directly benefit the learners, enriching their experience and adding context to their learning.

However, some organisations you might encounter during projects will have an objective of financial gain and not educational gain. Working with these partner organisations can be a challenging aspect of the project as they may not share the values of the majority. None the less they are important collaborators in the scheme that need to be managed; this is when the language of the heart no longer matters and only hard facts and figures win over. These partners can often be landlords or other commercial organisations, holding your nerve and using the breadth of data persuasively will help manage the outcome of the arrangement, but compromise might still be required on both sides.

All of this, of course, takes a huge amount of resource and hard work. So, do I still think it is worth engaging in collaborative bids? Absolutely!