News and events

Wellbeing Week is taking place from the 10-14th October. As part of this week, and giving voice to mental health, on the 12th, we will be welcoming Hope Virgo. Hope is a mental health campaigner, speaker and author, and she will be discussing the impact and severity of both mental health issues, and eating disorders, with the learners at Weston College.

In 2016, Hope realised the stigma faced by those affected is huge, and she wanted to do more to help. Through the sharing of her own story, as well as trying to showcase to society that eating disorders can be present in all body types, she began writing and speaking in schools. Hope has been doing this for around 5 years now!

Hope’s aim for the talk with the learners is to raise awareness for those who are struggling, and to educate everyone. Furthermore, she hopes to teach the learners how to hold a conversation on the topic of mental health, and come to the understanding that people are able to make a full recovery.

Hope’s advice for a student who is struggling is to seek support, surround yourself with the right people, speak up, and have confidence that things can change! As for the whole college, Hope reminds us to continue talking about eating disorders, and to make the college a safe place for anyone struggling.

On October 17th, Hope is launching an eating disorder manifesto and a school nurse toolkit to assist in empowering people to have the tricky conversations and to push for commitment from the government to further tackle the issue at hand.

Hope tells the college: “For too long people have been left suffering in silence and people have spent too long shying away from conversations around eating disorders as they are afraid of triggering people and causing upset. I want to help empower students to speak up and to offer support to each other.”

We look forward to hearing her talk and empower our learners!

If you want to get involved with, and support this initiative, you can:

• Sign the #DumpTheScales petition.
• Take a photo and use the #ChangeTheStory hashtag when sharing.
• Avoid diet chat as it could be triggering for others.
• Check in with each other.

Follow Hope Virgo here:

• Instagram: @hopevirgo_
• Twitter: @hopevirgo

Keep an eye on our social media platforms to see what else we will be doing for Wellbeing Week!

Earlier this year, Weston College launched their Aerospace Training Programme with Jingjiang Specialized Training School in China.

The exciting initiative involves the development and implementation, of aerospace manufacturing training, onsite at Jingjiang School. Jingjiang School are looking to provide the highly skilled workforce required to operate in their aerospace manufacturing industry and specifically for a joint venture (JV) in Jingjiang involving AVIC International and the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Last week saw the start of online training, with Weston College’s Engineering faculty supporting the team at Jingjiang School, with the development of a range of specific skills and capabilities in manufacturing and the assembling of metallic and composite aircraft structures, e.g., aircraft fuselage, wings, and empennage.

The training sessions will take place weekly over Microsoft Teams, involving practical workshop demonstrations and theoretical sessions, delivered by different members of the Weston College Engineering faculty sharing their knowledge and skillset. Jingjiang School are currently building a brand-new workshop to support the delivery of the new Weston College Aerospace Training Programme.

Jingjiang School are a large specialized vocational school that caters primarily to students of a similar age range to UK Further Education colleges. Jingjiang School, like Weston College, has an outstanding reputation through delivery of excellent outcomes for learners with employment rates, pass rates and student satisfaction rates in the high nineties year-on-year. The school boasts a national level engineering training centre with 85 practical laboratories and workshops specialising in electrical and electronics, hydraulics and pneumatics, numerical control machining, computer networking technologies, and automobile maintenance.

Aerospace manufacturing will be a new strand of activity for the school, drawing on the expertise and established educational systems currently delivered at Weston College.

Weston College Group Principal and Chief Executive Sir Paul Phillips said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Jingjiang School, and to support them with the development of their staff to train the next generation of engineers in the Jiangsu Province.

“This is an exciting moment for us at Weston College, to officially start the training programme. Over the coming months we will be working very closely with Jingjiang School, sharing best practice, and most importantly, creating brighter futures across the world!”