Welcome to Your September Staff Newsletter.

It has been a very busy month and I want to start this newsletter by thanking you all for your hard work and commitment to our learners. Many have needed your specialist support to settle into college.

We have a number of new colleagues who have picked things up very quickly and that’s been to the great benefit of our curriculum and learners.

Sessions are in the main starting on time, with meaningful activities taking place for the entire duration – a great start!

The baseline period continues until the end of this half term, so if you see something you think a tutor needs to be aware of in terms of skills learners could develop, please do tell them.

I hope you enjoy reading through this newsletter. We have had a slow, but growing response to this method of informing you – please let us know if there are any other methods you’d like us to use – we want to make sure you know what’s going on.

Larry

 

Curriculum Updates

Two new and exciting subjects have been included within our curriculum this year – Music and Performing Arts. Both sessions offer learners the opportunity to develop key personal skills in a creative and practical format. In the photos below:

Eve, Jess and Alex were rehearsing Uptown Funk, with Alex on the guitar and doing some backup singing.

Jess was demonstrating a dance from the Mamma Mia musical, which the group are going to try to incorporate into their end performance.

Alex was showing the group his favourite Dragon Ball Z songs which he has sung in Japanese, which was a big hit!

Supporting learners to develop their personal and social skills is a really important aspect of preparing our learners for adulthood. This year, PSD sessions will be highly supported by the Therapy team, who will be leading on different topics in the curriculum such as community skills, resilience and wellbeing, and sex and relationships.

The introduction of Music and Performing Arts has widened the curriculum offer and learners are enjoying the challenges in these sessions. Learners are excited to be able to begin planning performances across the different sites and we look forward to seeing skills learned being showcased on stage – we might even have surprise performances from some staff!

Employability Learners Settle In

First-year learners are settling in well across the sites; the Nottingham cohort are finding their feet in college and around the City Centre:

Abeer Asad is following her aspirations of work in the marketing industry by registering to enrol on an L3 Foundation Certificate in Professional Digital Marketing to commence in January 2022. This is a nationally recognised qualification that includes a 12-month membership to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Abeer will be accessing this course independently with the support of her tutor when required.

WayFinder

It’s a busy start to the new academic year for the WayFinder team, with 40 Interns identified for Supported Internships. 25 of those Interns have already had a placement set up and are ready to start.

Phase one of the Greene King pilot is now well underway and two job offers have already been made. Congratulations to both Jessie and Jordan.

Phase Two of our Greene King partnership will commence after the October half term, and we have 13 interns who will be starting their Internships in Greene King premises within their home areas.

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Rotherham NHS Trust, although still in the early planning stages this partnership will afford us many and varied roles within the NHS such as Estates & Facilities, IT, Admin, Porters, Ward Housekeepers etc. The trust is committed to offering paid employment opportunities at the end of successful placements.

A warm welcome to Madeleine Pleasance-Mayhew who joined the WayFinder team last month as a WayFinder Pastoral Coordinator. Maddy (as she prefers to be known) will be based at our Eckington High Street location. Her role is to provide pastoral support to learners on the Employability Pathway and manage aspects of our employer-related communication, to develop supported internships programmes.

Please remember you can access the team and the WayFinder premises for all things employability related such as, CV’s, job applications, interview preparation and to discuss work experience and supported internship options for your learners. 

Updates From the Farm

It has been a busy summer at the farm, with plenty of developments.
 
New additions:
We have had 25 piglets born over the summer period from our herd of pigs, most of these will be heading over to the Archer and Bistro in 2022.
 
 
Refurbishment works: 
Fencing contractors have been refurbishing the riding school and fencing around the farm over the summer to improve facilities for our learners. In addition to this, we have had tree surgeons in removing trees from the driveway on the farm for safety reasons. 
 
New Glasshouse:
We have a brand-new glasshouse that has been constructed over the summer which will double our indoor growing capacity at the farm and will be a fantastic new resource for our learners.
 
 
Harvest:
Learners attending the holiday club over the summer have been busy bringing in the summer harvest from our vegetable garden. Our harvest has included coloured potatoes, coloured cauliflowers, squashes, courgettes, lettuces, heritage tomatoes, cucumbers, heritage beans, beetroot, carrots, cabbages, onions, and masses of cut flowers. The harvesting will continue well into October. 
 
Farm PPE:
For those timetabled at the farm please remember to wear steel toe-capped boots if you require them, please email jountisz@landmarks.ac.uk or peterbarnes@landmarks.ac.uk 

Your New Additional Learning Support Manager

I’m Kayleigh, I have worked at Landmarks for over seven years now, first as an LSA then as part of the LSA Coordinator Team and more recently as a Pastoral Tutor.

Working in these different roles has given me a real insight into the different areas of the college and how the college works best as a team. I am over the moon to have now been given the opportunity to fulfil the role of Additional Learning Support Manager at Landmarks and feel very excited to be able to support the LSA team to realise their potential, recognise the fantastic work that they do at Landmarks, day in day out, and celebrate their achievements within their roles.

I am eager to discuss ideas from anyone in the area of the college team on how to improve our working practices as a team, so please, if you have ideas that you would like to discuss, let me know and I’ll arrange a time to discuss them.

 

Sally Edwards

Sally has worked as a speech and language therapist for 35 years, which means she graduated in the dark ages (1986 to be precise).  This means (allegedly) that she has lots of experience to draw on.  She has spent much of her career in education settings including a specialist language school, special schools and, of course, specialist colleges.  She has experience managing SLTs, OTs and assistants over the last 25 years.  She enjoys all aspects of her work but is particularly passionate about high-quality staff training.

Sally has been involved with Landmarks since 2013.  She is very committed to therapies being integrated into the college setting to maximise the educational experience for learners. 

As Becky Plant will have her hands full with a baby, Sally will be picking up the integrated therapies manager role.

Staff Updates

Name Position Start date
Anna Eldred Personal Tutor 02/08/2021
Cheryl Barton Learner Data Administrator 12/07/2021
Emma Davies Personal Tutor 31/08/2021
Helena Carrington Learning Support Assistant 31/08/2021
Jodie Morley Learning Support Assistant 31/08/2021
Kyle Hudson Personal Tutor 31/08/2021
Lexie Kilfoy-Dinnage Learning Support Assistant 31/08/2021
Mick Ogden Learning Support Assistant 31/08/2021
Nicholas Critchley Personal Tutor 01/09/2021
Stacey Malkin Learning Support Assistant 03/09/2021
Sarah Henderson Personal Tutor 28/10/2021
Jessica Watson Learning Support Assistant TBC
Chloe Birkwood  Learning Support Assistant 18/10/2021

 

College Events 2021-22

  • Net-Walking Business Event = Tuesday 26 October (Apperknowle)
  • Business Breakfast (for Christmas) = date TBC Nov 21 (The Archer)
  • Xmas Fair = Wednesday 1 December 21 (LMH)
  • Xmas Jumper Day for Learners = Wednesday 8 December 21
  • Xmas Jumper Day for Corporate = Friday 10 December 21
  • Christmas Concert = Wednesday 15 December 21 (LMH lunchtime)
  • Transitions Event = Wednesday 9 March 22 (LMH)
  • Smile with Landmarks #SWL – Wednesday 6th April 22
  • Variety Show = Wednesday 6th April 22 (MyPlace)
  • Spring Fest / Dog Show = Wednesday 18 May 22 (Apperknowle)
  • Employer Awards = Wednesday 22 June 22 (The Archer)
  • Sky Dive = TBC
  • Graduation 21-22 = Wednesday 20 July 22 (venue tbc)

College Events

  • Net-Walking Business Event = Tuesday 26 October (Apperknowle)
  • Xmas Fair = Wednesday 1 December 21 (LMH)
  • Xmas Jumper Day for Learners = Wednesday 8 December 21
  • Christmas Concert = Wednesday 15 December 21 (LMH lunchtime)
  • Transitions Event = Wednesday 9 March 22 (LMH)
  • Smile with Landmarks #SWL – Wednesday 6th April 22
  • Variety Show = Wednesday 6th April 22 (MyPlace)
  • Spring Fest / Dog Show = Wednesday 18 May 22 (Apperknowle)

Current Vacancies

We also have the following vacancies:

  • Learning Support Assistant
  • Grants and Fundraising Manager

For more information n about our current vacancies please visit www.landmarks.ac.uk/vacancies.