Over the last six months, everybody has had to adapt the way we live due to current circumstances. Despite this, the testing times did not stop our students making a positive contribution to the local community.
During lockdown, students of New College rose to the challenge of supporting the local community whilst developing work experience skills. Working collaboratively from their homes, students worked hard to develop resources allowing support of local primary schools, nurseries and care homes.
The students developed some engaging activities for the care homes to get involved in, including memory sheets and quizzes ranging from the 1930s to 1960s, prompting memory recall and mental stimulation for the care home residents. Creative activities including quizzes, word searches and games were provided for the schools and nurseries.
After getting involved with helping over 300 care homes, schools and nurseries, the impact our students had was fantastic. Stella House Care Home had some great words to say about the students’ efforts, thanking them for ‘reminiscence resources’, while also stating that ‘our residents will have a great deal of enjoyment’ taking part in the activities provided. Furthermore, there were more positive comments from the schools supported too, with Normanton Common Primary School saying ‘what a lovely idea’ it was to help with their pupils and that they ‘look forward to working with [New College] moving forward’.
It also had a positive impact for New College by providing good opportunities for the students to further develop their skills and have a positive impact in their local community. Work Placement Co-Ordinator Jayne Ramskill mentioned how she was ‘keen to continue employer engagement during lockdown, giving students the opportunity to research and develop suitable resources in relation to their course’. She also commented on the want to ‘provide support to the local placement providers’ to say ‘thank you for the valuable support they give our students during work experience’.
Overall, the effort shown by students of New College had a great impact on local society, and in turn provided the students with some great benefits themselves. It provides a fine example of how people can come together and help each other in extreme times of need.
