17 June 2011 - SCOLA Principal's visit to French Level 6 class

SCOLA's Principal, Saboohi Famili, made a big impression on loyal SCOLA French students (some have attended classes at SCOLA for over 20 years)when she visited their class on Friday. Comments from the students included : "We are very appreciative of your approach to SCOLA's staff and students".

Of their tutor, Daniele de Mori Calderon, they said that 'such a teacher is priceless!"

It is wonderful to know that these students have been enriched by attending classles at SCOLA and thanks to Daniele for providing such inspirational teaching!

15 June 2011 - Signature Teacher of the Year awards 2011

SCOLA is delighted that Casper Dyne, a teacher at Overton Grange High School and SCOLA British Sign Language Level 2 (BSL) tutor has won the Signature - excellence in communication with deaf people - Regional (South East) Teacher of the Year award. Teachers can make all the difference to a learning experience and this award recognises those who through their drive and enthusiasm, classroom commitment and high-quality teaching have expanded provision, improved access or achieved consistently outstanding results in our qualifications. Regional winners will be entered for the national Teacher of the Year award which will be presented at the evening awards ceremony in London in November.

Congratulations, Casper, on this outstanding achievement!

Saboohi Famili
Principal

14 June 2011 - STEPS & Ways to Work - putting our students to work

Following on from our recent successful bid for “Effective Support for the Journey from Worklessness to Sustained Employment in Sutton”, we have been putting our students to work in more ways than one. We have to help people on their journey to work establishing good partnership links, paperwork and training programmes in the process.

A pack has been put together by Jan & Jo that comes under the title ‘STEPS – Sutton and Training Employment Providers’. The pack includes a series of individual inserts from a range of local partners who are all working together to help those seeking work to become aware of the many ‘Ways to Work’. It focuses on Advice, Employment and Training options and opportunities on the path to gaining employment.

AS Level Graphic Design students were offered the opportunity of working and inputting on this live brief to help them gain an insight into how a real job progresses. 7 students took part. This showed great enthusiasm and dedication from these students as they were working on their final exam projects at the same time and the workshops were extra to their normal class times.

It was felt that the pack needed to be user friendly, engaging, interesting and accessible to a wide variety of people. It also needed to have a professional feel without being too wordy.

Initially the students each designed some STEPS logo options and the best solution was selected. They then worked on colour choices, possible content and suitable quotations to include. Much consideration was given to the layout and folding methods of the pack and the inserts. The idea of a game of snakes and ladders relating to finding work was included to lighten the feel of the pack. The digital artwork needed to be set up in the correct colours for print, images and logo elements in the correct file formats, with cutter guides, mock ups and proofs supplied for the printer to work from.

I hope you will agree that the students have done a fantastic job. We would like to thank them so much for giving their time, creative and technical skills plus enthusiasm to this project.

Please ask Jan if you would like a pack. They will be going out to all of the partners in the Ways to Work project together with libraries and other suitable distribution points. We will also be looking to others who may want to place additional inserts. Carshalton College has indicated interest for their Apprenticeship programme. If you think of other suitable contributors, let us know.

14 June 2011 - Quilts4london

Sutton College of Learning (SCOLA) in Sutton, Surrey, have been making pennants to support Quilts4london. This project has inspired many students at the college who have enjoyed designing and making the pennants. 80 pennants have been made and they are currently on display in the Sutton Library. The majority of the pennants have been made by SCOLA Quilters who attend Patchwork and Quilting courses at the Wallington and Sutton centres, with their tutor, Amanda Paul. Other classes in the college have also taken part and pennants have been made by students attending clothesmaking classes and a textile class for adults with learning difficulties.