Berkeley Green UTC – Weekly News
Friday 6th October 2017
Message from the Principal
I wrote to you last week to apologise for the delay in delivery of the laptop devices that we have all been waiting for. The good news is that they are now all in stock and the go ahead has been given this morning to ship them. It will take a few days to set them up and install software but we should be able to hand them over to students at some point next week.
The delay has given us the opportunity to re-evaluate the way that the scheme works and we have made the decision to change the scheme, thus saving parents a significant amount of money. Details are included in the attachment to this weekly newsletter. In addition, students who have signed up to the scheme will be handed a letter before they leave the UTC this afternoon. It is vital that you read and return the required information on Monday to avoid further delay.
Our open event on Saturday attracted more than 150 new families to the UTC and it was a pleasure to see many of you doing the pick up and drop off and taking the opportunity to wander around. Our student ambassadors did us proud and their professionalism was commented on by our visitors. They will be having their thank you lunch with Andy and Gareth this afternoon.
On Wednesday, we launched two industry lead projects, which showed excellent engagement from the students and significant creativity. The projects spans 3 weeks and the students will have the opportunity to talk to a CEO, Head of Engineering and a recently graduated apprentice.
Our Fujitsu hub is being installed next week with a view to an official launch on 18thOctober. This excellent facility will be used to inspire our students and support our outreach programme. In addition, we have received a number of accreditations this week and can now proudly state that we are a Microsoft School, a Cisco Networking Academy and Computing At School. Thank you to Rich Williams and Andy Keenan for all their hard work in bringing these additional resources into the UTC for the benefit of our students.
Kind Regards
Paul Ramage
Principal – SGS Berkeley Green UTC
Celebrations
The students at Berkeley Green UTC have had a fantastic week of learning, and there have been many examples of outstanding attitudes from our students both inside and outside of the classroom. The students of the week are Florence Hawker in year 10 (for the second time), and Fin Cottle in year 12. Both Florence and Fin have been consistently outstanding in their lessons, and their teachers have fed back how much of a pleasure it is to teach them.
Dyslexia Awareness week
What do Bill Gates, Keira Knightley, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, Jackie Stewart, Mohammed Ali, Dr Carol Greider, Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Erin Brockovich have in common? They are all dyslexic and iconic in their chosen career. This week has been Dyslexia Awareness week, with the theme “Positive about Dyslexia”. To that end, here at Berkeley Green UTC we have been screening our team members who might have additional needs with their literacy. If your son or daughter hasn’t yet been asked to attend an assessment session and you feel they might have an additional need, don’t hesitate to contact our Inclusion Manager, Abigail Palmer (). There is a wealth of information for care givers and learners available on the British Dyslexia Association website.
Congratulations also to Natty Phillips in year 10 and Lukas Doughty in year 12 for being the most improved students this week.
Other Dates for the diary: Training Day – Friday 13th October 2017
Last day of Term 1 - Friday 20th October 2017
First day of term 2 - Monday 30th October 2017