Forth Valley College have won a prestigious prize at the College Development Network annual awards ceremony and were Highly Commended in two categories and Commended in another three.
Held in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on Thursday 21 November, FVC were down to the last three in a total of six categories: College Colleague of the Year (Wai Mun Lee), Employer Connections, Essential Skills, Inclusive College, Marketing and Communication and Sustainability.
In the end they secured a top prize in the category of Essential Skills which recognises a college that has embraced the ethos of Essential Skills in the curriculum. It centred on the exciting ‘Famous Four Save the Planet’, FVC’s Primary Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) project.
The project provides an innovative and engaging set of online learning resources and activities, along with active and lively face-to-face experiences for primary school pupils, delivered by an enthusiastic team of College staff and students. The aim of the project is to enthuse and empower teachers and pupils in developing their essential STEM capacity and skills.
Recognising a need for this in schools, the College built into its curriculum plans for 2018-2019 dedicated staff resource in a Primary STEM team. They created a suite of comprehensive, age appropriate and topical STEM activities, that are also available online, and go out to schools to deliver the most challenging activities face-to-face.
From this, Famous Four Save the Planet was born. They developed four characters - Suzy the Scientist, Tim the Technician, Eric the Engineer and Mandy the Maths Buff. The young participants work through a range of topical activities, such as global warming, renewable energy, and recycling, to complete different challenges and save the world.
On the night the college was also Highly Commended in two categories – College Colleague of the Year (FVC’s Leisure Facilities Coordinator Wai Mun Lee) and Marketing and Communications – and Commended in three others – Sustainability, Inclusive College and Employer Connections.
Dr Ken Thomson, Principal of Forth Valley College, said: “We were absolutely delighted to have been shortlisted this year for a total of six awards. We are delighted with the win in the Essential Skills category and our recognition at the awards really shows that we are setting the highest of standards in the further education sector in Scotland.
“It was a pleasure to attend the ceremony with our staff and partners who were involved in our shortlisted submissions and it shows the depth of talent and innovation that we make use of year upon year and which helps us to continue to a leading college in the country, continually evolving best practice. The annual College Development Network Awards showcases examples of excellence across the Scottish further education sector and for us to once again to be winning awards and be in contention for other top prizes shows just how innovative and progressive we are.”
More information on our award winners to be found on the FVC website blog by clicking here.