Sawtry Community College received the Specialist Schools and Academies( SSAT) Future Vision Award for Community Engagement in 2008 which highlighted the long standing tradition at the College of Community Education and Cohesion since the College opened in 1963. The College has grown but has never lost sight of the value given to working in partnership with families and the wider community. The pioneering work of Citizenship and Social Enterprise are integrated into the curriculum and the wide range of extra curricular activities are embedded in community partnerships.

 

Online Student Book Club

Students and teachers at Sawtry, along with several other local schools, have established a ‘virtual book club’ for the discussion of literature both classic and contemporary. The site is called ‘The Library of Babble On’ and can be found at www.libraryofbabbleon.blogspot.com .

For further information about the book club: <click here>

Or visit the online bookshop is at http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/login/school?fwd=/601

 

Sawtry Village College to Sawtry Community College

In 1992 Sawtry Village College in Cambridgeshire became grant maintained to secure sixth form education at Sawtry and re-design community education. The College decided to move from the traditional Village College name led by a Warden to including community in the name, Sawtry Community college and having a Principal. In 1993 the College secured sixth form education and in 1994 applied for specialist Technology College status. The successful bid required school and community action plans for four years. The community plan and linked funding was the new lifeline for community learning and ensured a period of transition away from the declining local authority funded community education between 1994 and 1997. In 1997 the new Labour government further reinforced the community dimension in the role of a specialist school.

 

Sawtry Multitask
In order to maintain and develop community education, facilities and services at the College a new company was formed called Multitask ( a registered company by guarantee-not for profit ) and a Managing Director appointed. The company was accountable to the Governors community sub-committee.

 

Sawtry Day Nursery

Henry Morris talked about Village Colleges in the 1930’s caring for people from “ Cradle to Grave”. Sawtry prefers to work with people from six months old in the Day Nursery to retirement in the Day Centre.

In the 1990’s at Sawtry there was the traditional crèche offered to people whilst they attended an adult education course or leisure activity. This was very costly and gradually did not meet new regulations for child care. In 1994, Dawn Quince drew up a plan to locate a privately run day nursey on the College site. The College would provide an appropriate piece of land and she would provide new portable buildings which met all the relevant regulations. The site chosen also allowed for a creative garden to be incorporated into the plans. The college offered a lease arrangement on the land and charges an annual rent. The College staff, students and the local community now benefit from excellent crèche and day nursery facilities. Dawn became a Governor at the College and is a member of the Sawtry extended schools cluster.

The Day Nursery were successful in bidding for an out of school hours scheme and have over 60 young people attend B.K’s in the Youth and Community Centre 8.00am to 9.00am and 3.00pm to 6.00pm.

 

Caresco
This scheme and organisation is unique to Sawtry and was founded by Marjorie Dybeck to offer care and resources to senior citizens in the community. In the 1990’s the organisation was located during the day in the adult common room and in an old mobile. However, facilities were becoming poor, funding low and the College was expanding and needed more space. As a result the College identified a piece of land near the Youth and Community Centre and offered this on a long term lease in order for them to bid to the Lottery for a new purpose built care centre. The bid was successful and new portable units erected. The Care centre receives a grant from the local authority and also fund raises as a registered charity to expand the range of support offered to senior citizens.

By having a Day Nursery and Care Centre on the College site it offers a unique opportunity for the students to participate in volunteering schemes, fund raising and vocational education work experience. There are strong links through the College Citizenship and Social enterprise schemes.

 

Sawtry Public Library
In order for Sawtry, with a population of 7000 people, to have a Public Library Cambridgeshire local authority pay an annual rent for sharing the College Resource centre. This arrangement enables a Public Library to exist in the village and enable the general public to access a wide range of resources and free access to the internet. The College library staff and the Public Library staff work closely together to offer a very cost effective service. The Cambridgeshire online Cambook scheme is used by the College and general public.

By working together new schemes and funding are attracted to the area. For example, the Peoples Network to offer free access to the internet via a broadband connection was located in the Public Library and six computers made available.
           

Connexions and Next Step
The College have created a shared office space for Connexions, Next Step ( Career Guidance for people over 19 years old ) and Adult Education next to the Public Library/College Reference and Career Information area. By extending the Public Library area into a room used as a lecture area it combined all the services responsible for career support and guidance. Computers were also located in this area to offer free access to online careers information and employment opportunities. The computers could also be used to develop I.T. skills through UK online and learndirect courses supported by the Public Library service.

 

Adult Community Education
Huntingdon Regional College were offered a service level agreement to run adult community education at the College in 2002 in order to access funding from the Learning Skills Council. They fund a part time administrator to co-ordinate the adult community education programme for two evenings a week. Activities range from Ballroom Dancing to Sugar Craft. There is also a range of GCSE’s and Computer courses offered at the College or in surrounding Primary schools.

 

Sawtry Leisure Centre
In 1994 Huntingdonshire District Council took out a thirty year lease on the College Sports Centre and funded the building of a new community swimming pool. They took on the responsibility to staff and manage a community Leisure Centre, with local primary schools and the College buying in on an annual basis swimming and sports hall time in the school term. The College governors and senior staff sit on the joint management committee with representatives from the District and County Councils. There are also people from a range of extended services. The partnership working enabled a joint bid to go to Sport England to fund an extension to the Leisure Centre. The extension included Fitness suite, dance studio, new changing rooms and Public foyer area and creche. The successful application would not have been possible without the joint working between different Councils and community partners.

The Leisure Centre serves a large area throughout the year and offers a high standard of service and excellent facilities which the College before could not offer with the declining levels of funding for community education.

 

Sawtry Youth and Community Centre
The Youth provision contract with the local authority was transferred from the College to a Huntingdonshire area group in 1997 in order to ensure appropriate staffing levels and facilities were maintained by a Youth management team. The College maintained a partnership role by hosting the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and making a financial contribution towards specific projects involving students from the College.

 

Local Government
Although Sawtry Parish Council, Huntingdon District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council have been under pressure to cut funding for any non-statutory educational or community provision, they have been a source of funding for youth projects. For example, the PARC Project involving young people deciding on how to improve facilities in the village for young people. The funding provided youth support workers and a Youth Shelter.

 

Microsoft I.T. Academy
In 1998 the College became a school partner with Microsoft UK to pilot a scheme called Anytime Anywhere Learning. The scheme enabled students at the College and adults in the community to access learning via the internet and laptop computers. Community tutors piloted IT courses in village halls by taking a dozen laptops out in their car and linking up to the internet via telephone lines or wireless connectivity. There was also the establishment of a regional IT test centre at the College, which was located next to the Public Library. The specialist IT Centre was able to offer online tests for RSA, ECDL and Microsoft courses with a full qualified assessor present.

The IT Resource Centre has proved invaluable as a high quality IT facility for the school and community. It has now been accredited with Microsoft IT Academy status which enables it to offer IT courses to local business groups which brings in additional income to ensure staff and facilities costs are covered.

The Microsoft IT Academy also offers video conferencing facilities and these can be booked by community groups or businesses. The College are registered with a company called face2face who handle the bookings for companies wishing to use the College video conferencing equipment.

 

Conference and Business Centre
The College has been a long time member of the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce in order to raise the profile of the College as an important partners and resource for local businesses. The Chamber of Commerce have Sector Skills groups which range from construction to retail. The Learning and Skills Sector group meet regularly at the College for business breakfast meetings to discuss how best to support the development of the regional economy and solving the employee skills shortage.

The College is able to offer excellent facilities to local businesses and host conferences. As well as increasing revenue through letting out the Conference room, the College catering service also benefits from the Conference events. By upgrading our facilities and having a business critical approach to working with local businesses it has enabled community education to play an important role in lifelong learning  in the business sector..

 

Professional Development Centre
The College became a Training school in 2004 and this provided the opportunity for some of the professional development and ICT competency programmes to be co-ordinated and delivered through Multitask. For example, arranging for the Cambridge Partnership Graduate Teacher programme to be hosted at the College in the Conference room. The Overseas teacher training events have also been hosted annually at the College. There are also courses run for teaching assistants working towards the higher level qualification.
The Eastern Leadership Centre as part of the Cambridge Consortium now book facilities at the College to offer courses to teachers and teaching assistants in the Peterborough and Huntingdon area.
Professional development programmes range from First Aid at Work, Food Hygiene, Coaching Skills and Behaviour Management.

 

The development of community education at Sawtry Community College has relied upon being pioneering in creating collaborative partnerships with  the private and public sector organisations. There has been a clarity of purpose to secure and further develop opportunities for all citizens to access world class courses, facilities and services to achieve lifelong learning.
By working together Sawtry has excellent facilities in a rural area which could not be sustained by one organisation alone. It is through the creative working of several organisations which pulls together a community to ensure that everybody can benefit from using shared facilities on a learning campus which is part of a connected learning community.