Keighley College Life Skills students had a fulfilling experience on Tuesday, visiting the Duchess Gardens care home. The main aim of the trip was to spend some quality time with the residents. Students helped to run activities, feed the residents and socialise with them.

It was a really amazing experience for the students and the care home residents, who don’t often get a chance to spend time with young people!

Staff at the care home were blown away with the students’ enthusiasm, behaviour, confidence and work ethic, and the trip helped to give students an understanding of physical disabilities and dementia.

Carly Newsholme, Foundation Studies course leader said, “We are so proud of Foundation Studies students for the way they impressed staff and residents at Duchess Gardens Care Home. This will hopefully be the start of a beautiful new friendship that will continue to blossom next year!”

Students see construction engineering in action

Fabrication and Welding students at Keighley College (KC) visited Leeds City College’s new Quarry Hill site with Wates Construction to see the impressive progress of the building.

The campus, in the heart of the cultural quarter of Leeds, will be home to the college’s creative arts, health science and social care provisions, along with an expansion space for Leeds College of Music from September 2019.

The students got the opportunity to see the steelwork that holds the building up and discovered how reinforced steel in the floor strengthens the development.  They also learnt more about the hundreds of welded joints in each of the upright structures and window supports.

The site manager was very welcoming and imparted some insightful knowledge about construction engineering.

The highlight of the trip was standing on the roof, taking in the spectacular views over Leeds. Learners  watched two giant cranes in action as they lifted large steel beams, hundreds of feet up, within a few seconds.

Overall, it was a fantastic opportunity to see a multi million pound investment being put together with metal as the main component in use.

Summer term is nearly coming to a close and my goodness, what a term it’s been!

Starting with the *woof woof* boring stuff, our students undertook their GCSEs and staff members worked incredibly hard to ensure exam season went smoothly – well done everyone! I, sadly, was not allowed into college much during this period, in case I got too ‘barky’ – apparently students need quiet during exam time!

The past few months have been truly bright and sunny. Every day, the sun has shone and the sky has been blue. It’s been quite warm for a furry creature such as myself I must say – I’ve been a little hot and bothered!

At Keighley College, we filled our bright and sunny days with lots of fun events. These included an exceptionally fun Eid celebration involving more cake than I’ve ever seen in my entire dog life.

We held our Keighley College Awards evening, which celebrated the hard work and achievements of our students and this was then proceeded by the STAR awards at Elland Road in Leeds, where Keighley College students won 3 awards.

We held an end of term party with mocktails and bouncy castles and lots of tasty treats. We had a fun celebration for the Royal wedding and we attended the fantastic Dragon Boat Festival – where Keighley College students – ‘The Cavendish Crew’ raced their dragon rowing boat down the river – coming 4th overall!

The Down Syndrome Training and Support Service Dance Troop performed a dance show in the atrium which was truly inspirational.

In other news, we have now opened the college shop in the Airedale centre. The opening hours are 11am – 2pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The shop will be open on these dates throughout the summer. If you’d like to find out anything about the college, take away a prospectus or take a look at our apprenticeship jobs, please come and visit the shop and our lovely team will be more than happy to help.

Over the summer holidays the college will be open for enrolment. For more information, check out our enrolment page by clicking here.

I’d like to thank all the staff and students at KC for welcoming me into their warm, nurturing community this year. I’ve furryly enjoyed being part of it!

Happy summer holidays!

Chummy xox

Dearest Friends,

I firstly must apologise for my apawling lack of dog blog contributions – I’ve been a very busy pup! Open Days, Events, Careers fairs and general studying has taken up most of my time –

The first big event of the month was the careers fair which took place downstairs in the Atrium. Over 200 people attended and businesses came from all over – thank you to all who participated!

The following week was our Open Evening and the Women in engineering event at Gesipa.

The open evening was buzzing with questions and answers from prospective students and a little visit from our resident Darlick and Angry Bird. We will be holding another Open Evening on June 20^th which is open to all. Please come along and see for yourself what life is like at Keighley College. I might even show my face for some snuggles if you’re really lucky!

News on the college corridor was that the Women in Engineering event was great fun – the girls did some interesting jelly surgery and listened to some truly inspiring women in engineering. Again, a massive thank you to all of you who supported in the event. I unfortunately was unable to attend as they thought I might steal the jelly! Me?! Never…

Upcoming events – The Foundation Studies Open Day is taking place next week and GCSEs are starting very soon.  Good luck to all students sitting their GCSEs!

I think this brings me to the last but definitely not least point of my blog. I recently received a MERIT for my recent speech presentation on THE HISTORY OF THE WOOF IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Feedback was along the lines of, ‘slideshow was excellent. He answered the questions at the end very well too, with one bark for no and two barks for yes. Reward with extra dog biccies.’

And my goodness, those biscuits were delicious! I ate them all up and licked up the crumbs.

That’s all from me for now.

Chummy. XOX

 Keighley College students go on a work experience trip to St Albans Place

As part of their Joinery Course, four Keighley College students recently undertook a day’s work experience at a construction site in St. Albans. This was a great success and twelve more students are booked in to visit the site in the coming weeks.

What was the aim of the trip?

The trip gave the students a greater insight into the world of construction. They visited the site to see a real construction site in action and meet people  on the site. They looked at how larger buildings are constructed, and gained an understanding of how the variety of traditional trades they are studying at Keighley College actually fit into the modern construction industry.

The work experience was a full working day and the visits lasted a total of two hours, this included a health and safety site induction, a tour and chat about the site and an opportunity to ask questions. They got involved with reading and understanding plans and also participated in the logistical aspects of the work.

How did Keighley College benefit?

The college benefited from this exciting visit as it supported the students in their learning while also promoting the college throughout West Yorkshire. The students got a taster of working in the construction industry as a trades person, and got an insight into a professional career in construction. The students have said they found the visit incredibly useful.

Well, it’s been another hectic few weeks in Chummy’s world. The Ofsted results were officially announced and YES – YIPPEEEE – WAHOOOOO! We are officially GOOD with OUTSTANDING features! I’m sure that’s partly down to the Chummy presence in the college! Woof Woof! You can see the full report here: Keighley College Ofsted Report 2018.

And that’s not where the excitement ends! Although I love snuggles with human beings, I’ve been feeling pretty pup pal-less recently. So my human friends thought and they thought hard, and then they had a wonderful idea! They set up a ‘Chummy’s Chums’ photo album on Facebook for friends of Keighley College to send in snaps of their pups – it’s been a great delight for me, looking at other pups in the neighbourhood and watching the KC staff go ‘Awww’ as they stare at those big white screens of theirs!

In other news:

The Telegraph and Argus Education Awards night last week was a great success – we enjoyed sponsoring the leadership award. For more details on the award and Keighley College’s involvement with the award, please click here.

Our Sports Relief activities were so much fun! It made me bark with pride to see so many Keighley College students getting up and involved with the activities. Overall, our students cycled /ran from Lands End to John O’ Groats– this totalled a whopping 603 miles! Students rowed across the English Channel from Dover to Cap Gris Nez – they weathered any storm and managed to total 21 miles! One of the KC students, Jack Firth, ran over 26 miles on the running machine!  What an amazing achievement!

Some of our Joinery students have been on a work experience visit to St Albans, where they went to see a real site in action and took a look at how larger buildings are constructed. They had a fab time and we will be releasing a more detailed press release on the visit very soon!

I joined in with some of the media and makeup students on their big walk. You will find pictures of me in a pink wig dotted around the internet, being cuddled by truly ‘made up’ students. What an experience!

Finally, on Friday we had a race night in memory of Katie Buchanan, a beautiful soul, who worked for Keighley College. We raised a fantastic £650 for Manorlands Hospice.  We provided pie and peas for the guests – I must admit I sneaked some pie for myself! Cheeky Chummy – I couldn’t resist.

It’s the Easter holidays now, so on that note I’m going to dig my paws into the biggest Easter egg I can find and chomp the whole thing up!

Thanks for reading – have a Eggcellent Easter break.

Chummy xox

Keighley College receives glowing Ofsted report

Keighley College, part of the Leeds City College Group, has been awarded an Ofsted grade of ‘Good’, following its latest inspection in February.

The college’s provision for apprenticeships and quality of teaching, learning and assessment were among the areas awarded ‘Good’ for their overall effectiveness.

Inspectors were particularly impressed with the range of industry standard, innovative resources available and the high quality and expertise of teachers. Among others, the SEND provision achieved an ‘Outstanding’ grade. This provision supports students with higher needs, enabling them to integrate into the community and learn vital life skills.

The report highlights the college’s inclusive environment ‘where all are welcome and diverse lifestyles and cultures are celebrated.’

Heather Whitehead, Director of Operations at Keighley College, said: “I’m proud of all staff and students for their hard work and commitment to making Keighley College a great place to learn.

“We strive to transform the lives of students, businesses and our community, and this report shows that our dynamic and enterprising culture is making a difference.”

Please be aware that Keighley College is OPEN as usual on 8 March but we expect some disruption this morning. We hope to run normal timetables this afternoon. Please travel safely!

Mature student transforms his career with Keighley College

A mature student at Keighley College has transformed his life and career after completing a course in computer aided design (CAD).

Nigel Webber, 50, realised that his role as a technician at a school was not giving him the fulfilment and job satisfaction that he was craving.

After discovering the 2D and 3D courses at Keighley College and with a background in design, Nigel decided to enrol.

Nigel said: “I wanted to do something more rewarding and challenging and this course gave me an opportunity to thrive.

“Whilst studying, I secured freelance work at ADM Systems, a company specialising in heat recovery ventilation where I’m involved in using 2D plans to create 3D architectural and mechanical models to assist in the installation of the products they supply.”

Nigel studied part time at the college and worked around his commitments. He added: “I would be up at 5am to study before heading to work and then start all over again in the evening. It was hard work but it was definitely worth it.

“Gaining this qualification has certainly changed my life and I can’t speak highly enough of the incredibly supportive and enthusiastic teachers who made my time truly enjoyable. I now have the skills and ability to pursue a new career that I am fascinated by.

“I would like to encourage anyone who isn’t happy in their current job or career to return to college and do something they feel passionate about.”

For more information about CAD courses at Keighley College, click here.