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News from The Royal National College for the Blind
Go BackIt's official - RNC is the UK's leading college of further education for people with sight loss.
Phil Pope MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills, presents the Beacon Award to staff and students of RNC.
The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) is one of only 8 colleges in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Learning and Skills Beacon Status (2005)
Following its 'outstanding' (Grade 1) Ofsted inspection earlier this year, which placed RNC as the number one college in the country for the education and training of people with sight loss, the College has been awarded the prestigious Learning and Skills Beacon Status.
Only educational institutions which have received first-class inspection reports from government inspectors are short listed for the accolade which recognises and rewards excellence. The statistics speak for themselves, out of approximately 450 colleges in the UK and following a rigorous process RNC joins the other 70 top performing colleges that have been awarded the Beacon Status. There are only 3 specialist education Beacon colleges in the entire country, with RNC being the first in the field of visual impairment, recognising RNC as an expert practitioner in the delivering of education and training and preparation for employment to people who are visually impaired, at a local, regional and national level.
The Beacon Awards are firmly established quality marks for the education sector, highlighting the exceptional and remarkable ways in which colleges such as RNC have developed provision to enhance and enrich the experience of their learners. As a Beacon Status college, RNC is now regarded across the education sector as a model of excellence and will work with the Department for Education and Skills and the new Quality Improvement Agency to actively support the drive to improve standards by sharing good practice with other colleges.
The Principal, Roisin Burge described the award of Beacon Status as the high point of the Colleges recent achievements, "2005 has been an outstanding year for RNC. In February Ofsted Inspectors described RNC as an "outstanding college". This week the Chief Inspector of the Adult Learning Inspectorate has named us in his Annual Report as "one of the best training providers in the country", then the College was included on the Chiefs Inspector of Ofsted's list of particularly successful schools and colleges. The award of Beacon Status for RNC as a National Specialist College is the icing on the cake. There is intense competition for Beacon Status and I think it is the most prestigious award to get. It recognises outstanding achievement, but it also considers the ethos of the College and its capacity to help others"
Roisin went on to say, "Whilst the College team felt we were doing good creative and innovation work, the affirmation of this by an independent party at national level really has a lasting impact on the staff and students involved. It has confirmed our position as a leading college and has spurred us onto even greater efforts and challenges"
The rigorous selection process reviewed the work of College in a number of areas including programmes delivered, opportunities for students to gain vocational skills which prepare them for a number of careers, the success rate in terms of student progression to higher education and the work place, how the college engages with employers and helps learners develop not only skills for independence living but also for the work place.
RNC offers programmes to help people with sight loss to move onto further and higher education, employment and self employment and a more independent life. The College offers qualifications leading to careers in Leisure, Massage Therapies, Sport and Recreation, Music, Media, Performance and Arts, ICT, Business, Administration and Customer Service as well as a full range of GCSEs, AS and A Levels, distance learning and specialist qualifications in braille and mobility.
Andrea, Barry and Anne from RNCs Independence Team with the Star Award
RNC RECOGNISED IN NATIONAL AWARDS
The Independence Team at Hereford's Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) were last week recognised as 'outstanding', at the national STAR Awards ceremony in London.
The Team, which includes over 70 staff members, won the 'outstanding team' category (sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council), which recognises the outstanding contribution to the quality of learning that students receive every day at RNC. Each member of the Independence Team, who work with over 200 students, plays an essential role in enabling our students, who are all blind and partially sighted, progress to the next stage in their life.
Included within the College's Independence Team there are: Rehabilitation Officers, Residential Support Workers, Counsellors, Nurses, Independence Workers, Student Services and Leisure staff, and Student Support Workers.
Manager of the Independence Team, Andrea Llewellyn, said: "We are absolutely over the moon to have been recognised as an 'outstanding team.' The STAR awards recognise and celebrate the dedication of people all over the country who work within the vastly diverse learning and skills sector. The commitment and enthusiasm of all staff at RNC has given hundreds of students belief and self-confidence in their ability and has inspired them to reach their potential, whether that be employment, self-employment or higher education."
This award is particularly relevant at this time, following RNC's Ofsted / ALI inspection report being issued at the start of the year, where the same team were awarded a grade one, which is outstanding.
Chief Executive of Herefordshire and Worcestershire
LSC, Alan Curless, joins RNC principal and students in celebrating their
"outstanding" Ofsted inspection report
The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC), Hereford, a specialist residential college of further education and training for people (16+) who are blind or partially sighted, has been confirmed as number one of its kind in the country after receiving a glowing testimonial from education watchdogs Ofsted and ALI, describing RNC as an "Outstanding college providing high quality education and training where students' individual needs are very well met".
The Principal, Roisin Burge, commented: "I am delighted that the commitment to the students and enthusiasm of the College staff has been recognised and rewarded in such complimentary terms. What gives me great pleasure is the recognition given to the very good teaching and support in the College and the very high level of student success".
"I am also pleased about our leadership and management grade, which the Inspectors rated "outstanding". The entire College team shares the belief in achieving high quality through encouraging and enabling both students and staff to be innovative and not to simply accept barriers to learning. This is what makes us so successful and is what drives everyone involved with the College to continually higher standards".
For some time, many have considered RNC as the UK's leading college of FE for people with sight loss. Now these findings provide hard evidence that this claim is indeed true. The outcome of the inspection was extremely positive with all 7 of the College's curriculum areas graded as good or outstanding. Inspectors considered the teaching standards in Sport and Leisure, Massage and Complementary Therapies and Independent Living Skills and Mobility to be outstanding. To date this is the best grade profile that has been awarded to a specialist residential college aimed at people with sight loss, across the entire UK.
The inspection identified among the Colleges many strengths:
- Very good teaching and learning. "The quality of teaching is significantly above that found within the Further Education sector"
- Very good achievement by most students
- Excellent range of specialist resources
- Outstanding support for students' individual needs
- Outstanding leadership and strategic management - RNC has become one of the few colleges (mainstream and specialist) to be described as "outstanding" (the top grade) for its overall performance in leadership and management.
- Very good promotion of equality of opportunity and diversity.
These key strengths heavily outweighed the 3 areas the inspectors feel RNC needs to focus on, namely: teaching accommodation for some curriculum areas, the use of additional resources in some teaching sessions and access to external work placement for some students.
The government inspectors said that the College demonstrated an "... exceptional culture of placing the needs of students at the centre of planning and of all the College's activities and developments" and that "A common feature that permeates the curriculum is that students' overall programmes are tailored individually to meet their specific needs".
The inspection listed a number of things which the students liked about the College, including:
- broad range of opportunities and activities
- greater independence
- friendly staff who are excellent role models
- excellent teaching
- good accommodation
- good resources for music technology
- the sense of a friendly community
- being treated like an adult.
All Ofsted reports, including that of RNC, can be found on www.ofsted.gov.uk.
The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) is one of only 8 colleges in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Learning and Skills Beacon Status (2005)
Building on the achievements and success of 2005, in 2006 the College will launch a £20 million fund raising campaign to develop Centre of Excellence teaching and training accommodation on campus. To support the work of RNC or to make a donation, contact RNC Fundraising on 01432 265725 or email ra@rncb.ac.uk or select this link.
RNC perfectly placed.
Students chatting at the college.
Students studying together.