Empowered: From therapy dogs to welcoming local schools

We’re so excited to launch the first edition of our brand new weekly blog Empowered, aiming to share inspiring stories from around campus! We’ve had an amazing week here at Chesterfield College, from the introduction of our therapy dogs to the launch of our new initiative with local schools, Chesterfield Eats Well.

Hospitality and Catering

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Chesterfield Eats Well, this is an initiative in partnership with local schools to show our community’s young people that healthy eating doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

This week, we invited Year 7 students from Parkside School to College to use our Hospitality and Catering facilities and with the support of our tutors, they even got to make their own homemade butternut squash soup! Through fun, hands-on activities, students will learn to make delicious, budget-friendly meals, proving that healthy cooking can be easy, affordable, and fun to create. Whether it’s-fry or crafting a tasty homemade soup, they’ll be equipped with skills and recipes to carry with them for life.

Beauty

This week, Lisa and Tracey, two members of the Bolsover First Responders, came into College to support our students in developing skills following on from their online CSALS save a life training. 

This was an amazing practical session kindly run by volunteers from the organisation and it was a great opportunity for our Level 1 Beauty students to get a hands-on experience in CPR, defibrillators and understand and experience other emergency simulation scenarios. 

Students were able to  ask questions and develop real life skills needed for emergency situations, although they found this scary at times they really took advantage of the volunteer’s invaluable professional knowledge and experience. In the future, the students and staff plan to help them raise money in the future as part of their volunteer work.

Public Services

The Public Services students recently took part in a lively non-uniform event as part of the broader ‘Cleaner Streets and Neater Campus’ sustainability project. Students donated for the privilege of ditching their uniforms for a day, while staff members added to the fun by dressing up as dinosaurs.

The event was a huge success, raising an amazing total of £101! The funds raised will be used to purchase materials for repurposing plastic bottles and to help buy much-needed supplies for the Pathways of Chesterfield charity. This effort not only supports environmental sustainability but also contributes to a worthy cause in the community.

Congratulations to everyone who got involved for making a positive impact and demonstrating the power of community spirit!

Meet Mabel and Ozzy

When our students were asked how the College could further support their health and wellbeing and 80% voted for a therapy dog/connection to nature and animals, so over to summer we worked hard to make sure we could introduce new therapy dogs on campus for this academic year.

That’s why we are so excited to introduce our two newest little members of staff, Mabel and Ozzy, they are here to support the wellbeing of staff and students! This week, Public Service students had the pleasure of meeting Mabel. The students’ reactions to meeting one of our therapy dogs were overwhelmingly positive. Many expressed how much they enjoyed it and how it helped them feel more connected and engaged.

One student said “Meeting Mabel was the highlight of my week. It was so nice to take a break and just enjoy her company.”

We are so excited to have them on campus and if you haven’t seen them around College or in class yet, expect to see them very soon!

Coming up

In the next few weeks Taste Restaurant will be launching their new Christmas lunch and dinner menus, this is a great opportunity for teams to come together and celebrate, so make sure you secure yours now! Take a look at the Taste Restaurant Facebook page to take a look at the dates and menus.

That’s not all, in the next few weeks, we also have the Public Services department who will be holding a short remembrance service in the Heart Space, the launch of our printmaking workshops, our next Open Evening and so much more, so make sure to keep checking back each week for inspiring news and stories from around the College.