Welcome

college

voice

Dear colleagues,

Ihope you had a restful half-term if you were on annual leave last week. It certainly feels like spring is in the air as we move into March. Throughout last half-term, the Executive Team has shared a Monday briefing and I have circulated my weekly round-up. I hope that you find these helpful and feel communication has improved.

We made great progress last term including launching our revised values and strategic plan (view here) and our HE strategy is in the final stages of being approved. We had a successful Open Event in January and need to ensure the event on Wednesday 30 March is engaging and positively showcases the great offer we have for students of all ages and levels.

I have been consistently advising you over the past few weeks that our priority remains our journey to an Ofsted ‘good’ rating, and achieving healthy finances. At this point of year, it is critical that we do all we can to maximise achievement rates through a relentless focus on attendance, retention and assessment, and this will help us secure a positive inspection in the future. At the same time, we also have to scrutinise our expenditure to identify potential savings and look to increase income where possible. The best colleges in the country are those that have a good quality of education as well as a robust financial position – the two should go hand-in-hand. We are moving out of Davy House at Ashley Down as scheduled. We are still on-track to open a new supported-living centre (Hawking House) at Ashley Down and this will mirror the fantastic provision we offer to students at the Brislington Centre. We continue to invest, where we can, in our estate and facilities to ensure that we provide a first-class learning experience for our students. Our Academy Café, run by Hospitality and Catering students, is now open at our South Bristol Skills Academy and the re-launch has been very successful - they do a wonderful caramel shortbread if you get the opportunity to have a treat!

There are a range of events taking place this term and we are delighted to be hosting the Business West members event early this month. We will welcome around 100 local business people to come and hear about our offer and find out more about how we can work with employers, particularly on two of our projects: Work Force for the Future and Bristol Talent.

I look forward to seeing you over the next few weeks and thank you for your ongoing support and dedication as we do all we can to make 2021/22 a successful year for our College.

Rich Harris

Chief Executive and Acting Principal