Young dads-to-be course

Carolyn and I met with Valerie Hall on Monday. Valerie is a Quality Reviewer for the National Open College Network (NOCN). Valerie confirmed that the course we've rewritten is at the upper end of the requirements for a Level 1 Award, which is good news. Even better is that she thought it's user friendly, not patronising, and gives participants ownership of their own learning. Best of all, Den and Mark feel quite envious of anyone who does the new course because they both wish they could have done it instead of our original version!

But there's a problem. The course is linked to five NOCN progression units which we now learn may not be available after the end of July. So we're going to see if we can make it a stand-alone qualification. We're going to meet with Chris Latham, our regional NOCN Development Manager, in early March to see what can be worked out. Watch this space!

Silver Stars

Jenny, Lisa Den and Steven were presented with their Silver Arts Award certificates by the Mayor of Swindon, Cllr Rex Barnett, at last Tuesday's Presentation Evening at The Platform. This represents a considerable achievement for all four, but especially for Den and Lisa, both of whom had left school with no GCSEs. So it's a reminder that, given the right circumstances and support, young people from their background can achieve remarkable success.

Silver Arts Award

Steven, Den, Lisa and Jenny will be presented with their Silver Arts Awards on Thursday next week at The Platform in Swindon. Steven's story appears on the Arts Award website at:

http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=2156&action=preview&backTo=index