NEW £15M CAMPUS REDEVELOPMENTWhile the college is closed we are busy getting our facilities ready for students to start in September. We have been refurbishing our buildings at Ardleigh Green and the Sixth Form, and a huge £15million redevelopment has started at our Rainham campus.

The new building at Rainham, interlinked to the current campus which will be completely refurbished and upgraded, will form our Construction and Engineering Centre and will be where all our Engineering, Plumbing, Construction and Electrical courses will be taught.

The centre will have the latest industry-standard equipment and state-of-the-art facilities that will help our students to be work-ready when they leave us.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGEWe want to reassure you during these unsettling times that we are working hard to ensure your son or daughter’s progression from Year 11 to college is as smooth as possible, even though schools and colleges are currently closed.

We would like to keep in touch to give you some news updates and other relevant information from

Havering Colleges. If you would like us to email you each month, please sign up here to receive our Parents’ Newsletter.

This is the time of year when normally we would be inviting students in for Freshers’ Days – giving them a chance to have a taster in their chosen study programme at college. We would also usually invite parents in to find out more about what to expect from the year ahead.

Unfortunately the Coronavirus pandemic has meant that we cannot hold our events in the normal way, but we are currently working on ways to make a taster experience possible – perhaps by holding it online. We will keep you updated on this once a plan has been finalised.

Meanwhile a good way for your son or daughter to prepare for college is for them to have a look at our Year 11 Next Steps online site which has been especially prepared by our teachers. The site is being updated regularly with new information and activities, so please ask them to keep checking back.

I hope that I will be able to meet up with you in person in the not too distant future.

Paul Wakeling Principal - Havering Colleges

MAY 2020PARENTS’ NEWSLETTER

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Architect’s illustration of the new Construction & Engineering Centre at Rainham.

www.havering-college.ac.uk | www.havering-sfc.ac.uk

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PROUD OF FORMER STUDENTS CARING FOR COVID PATIENTSFormer Sixth Form students Louise Galley, far right, and Naomi Herbert have been making the college extremely proud as they continue their work as NHS nurses on the frontline during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Ex-Frances Bardsley School pupil Louise, now 21, studied A Levels with us and works at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Naomi – who was Naomi Skilleter while at college – has led a training programme for other nurses at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, in how to care for patients suffering from the virus. Naomi was recently featured on a BBC News report. See the full story here

PULLING TOGETHER TO SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIESCollege staff are playing their part in helping to support our local community and the NHS by making PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) face visor masks for doctors, nurses and other key workers.

Product Design and Engineering tutors are using a 3D laser printer in our technology workshop, to

cut and then hand assemble 300 visors. These are being distributed to hospitals and care homes – some where our students are on work placements – to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. See the full story here

Many of our Health & Social Care students have written letters and poems to residents of local care homes where they undertake work experience because these elderly residents have not been able to receive any visitors since March.

One care home manager said the letters had brought smiles to the faces of her residents who had really enjoyed reading the lovely words our students had written.

DOOR-PULLING GADGETS ARE LIFE-SAVERSFormer student Elliot Dervish, an ex-Engineering apprentice from Quarles campus, has collaborated with the college to create a special door-puller for NHS staff to use in hospitals to reduce the spread of Coronavirus.

Elliot originally came up with the idea to protect his mum Janine, who works at Basildon Hospital. Our Head of Engineering, Sunny Bamra, helped to print and produce the door-pullers on a 3D printer at home and then delivered them to care homes and hospitals. Read the full story here

GABIE IS DESIGN CHALLENGE WINNERCongratulations to our highly talented student, Gabriele Dulskaite, who was selected as a winning entry in the Royal Opera House Challenge for costume design.

Gabie, as she prefers to be known, studies Fashion at our Ardleigh Green campus. She designed a stunning costume for the Royal Opera House’s production of La Boheme and was named a winner by the judges who were impressed by her imagination and thoughtful approach.

Her prize is a trip to the Opera House in Covent Garden (once it is safe) with a taster day in the costume department, a backstage tour and a presentation of her award.

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PARAMEDIC TARA FACES TOUGH DECISIONSTara Murray studied the BTEC Extended Diploma in Science at the Sixth Form, and is now working as a Paramedic. The ex-Hall Mead School pupil says the COVID-19 crisis has tipped her usual day upside down and she has faced some tough decisions.

She says: “It’s quite scary knowing you are facing someone who could possibly give you a virus you may not survive and then it’s also scary thinking I could be carrying it and unknowingly give it to one of my vulnerable or elderly patients.

“Although I cannot see any of my family or friends for the foreseeable future, I am receiving so much love, thanks and even gifts from the public, it makes me feel appreciated and extremely humble. Even with the current situation, I am so glad I chose to take the BTEC Science course and follow a career as a Paramedic. I can’t think of anything else I would rather do.”

SEWING SCRUBS TO FIGHT THE VIRUSStudents and staff are helping in the fight against the pandemic by sewing surgical scrubs at home. Michaela Lee, below, a Fashion student at our Ardleigh Green campus, and former students, Jasmine Portway, now studying Costume Design at Bournemouth University, and Abby Foley now studying Fashion Design at De Montford University, are all busy at their sewing machines to make the much-needed uniforms for hospital workers.

Many of our staff members have joined up with For the Love of Scrubs– a group which has a huge army of local volunteers all sewing, transporting and delivering scrubs for Queen’s and King George’s Hospitals. So far around 11,000 sets of scrubs have been made.

One student coach at the Sixth Form is knitting pairs of red hearts for Intensive Care patients - one heart stays with the patient, the other stays with their family who are unable to visit.

AMBITIOUS STUDENTS ARE ASPIRING PROFESSIONALSFive of our most motivated and ambitious students studying at the Sixth Form have made it onto the Aspiring Professionals Programme.

Jack Butler, Malali Khan, Fiona Birch, Aliya Auguste and Ewa-Okanloju Adeyemo were chosen for the Social Mobility Foundation’s initiative which aims to give young people with the ability, but without the means or networks, the opportunity to get into a high-ranking university or secure a top job.

The programme has helped students progress to careers in accountancy, technology, banking, law, architecture, science, engineering, medicine, politics and research.

OUR TEAM TAKE THE TOP SPOTTwo students from the Sixth Form took part in an online debating competition against other colleges during the lockdown - and were crowned the winners!

Isabel Tookey and Harry Bruns, both A Level students who attend our Debating Society each week, volunteered at short notice to enter the contest.

They were asked to argue against the motion ‘Childhood vaccinations should be compulsory’ and coped well with the virtual format of debating online. Here is the full story

KEEPING IN CONTACTWe will be in touch again next month but meanwhile if you have any questions, please contact:

For courses at the Sixth Form, email: admissions@havering-sfc.ac.uk

For courses at Ardleigh Green or Rainham, email: admissions@havering-college.ac.uk

PLUS Don’t forget to sign-up here to receive the Parents’ Newsletter