01-08-2007
Wakefield ACES Good News Bulletin August 2007
Result!
The service was delighted with this year's GCSE & A Level results:
- English GCSE - out of 23 learners 17 achieved grade C or above with 5 learners achieving grade A, 5 learners achieved grades D and E
- Maths GCSE - out of 21 learners 17 achieved grade C or above and 3 learners achieved a grade D
- Law GCSE - out of 13 learners 12 achieved a grade C or above with 3 learners achieving a grade A, 1 learner achieved a grade D
- Art & Design (Fine Art) A Level - outstanding results with 10 out of 10 learners achieving a grade B or above and 8 learners achieving a grade A. Two of our learners Michael Whiteley and Jenny Peacock have since gained places on the Foundation in Art & Design Course at Wakefield College!
Well done to all the learners and tutors!
How Family Learning has Impacted Upon My Life
After taking a career break from the civil service to have a family Joanne Heywood found she had changed from being a confident and capable career woman into an unsure, unhappy, isolated, depressed new mum. Eventually it was discovered that Joanne was suffering from type 1 diabetes and life was very difficult coping with two young children and administering insulin injections five times a day.
It was then that somebody suggested a family learning course which Joanne joined with her eldest daughter. They both thoroughly enjoyed the course and Joanne soon made friends with other mums in similar situations. Joanne explains that the time she spent with her daughter learning together was invaluable and refreshed skills she had long since forgotten from her own school days.
They went on to complete the numeracy course and then Joanne repeated the whole experience again with her youngest daughter before going on to complete Share, Active Tots and computer courses achieving many qualifications along the way. The children have continued their love of learning attending gymnastic classes and Joanne is very proud of them both. As if all this wasn't enough! Joanne has just completed her first Painting with Parents course.
Attending all these courses gave Joanne the confidence to resign from her office job and she gained a position at a local school, Joanne says she loves going to work everyday and being a mum. Joanne expressed her thanks to all her tutors in the Adult Education Service who have inspired her along with the staff at St Helen's School where she now works.
Gateway to Health - What the Learners Had to Say!
Wayne Kelly
- Completed Level 1 & Level 2 BTEC awards in Healthy Eating and Nutrition Awareness.
- Completed Basic Food Hygiene course and gained an ICT qualification.
- Currently on work placement 16hours per week at St Georges, Lupset completing an NVQ L2 in Customer Service as part of the WORKEXPO project.
Wayne's comments:
"The Gateway programme has boosted my confidence so much. I now feel I can accomplish anything when I set my mind to it."Nirmal Kaur
Nirmal Kaur comments:
"I have really enjoyed the course. I have made new friends and have found the tutors great to get on with. I am now a volunteer at St. Georges. Now I have finished my BTEC Award in Healthy Eating and I have achieved my Basic Food Hygiene certificate I will be cooking a 'Healthy Indian Meal' once a month for the attendees at the healthy living centre. I am going to continue with my studies at St. Georges because I have enjoyed it so much. I have also gained a qualification in ICT and Skills for Life."No 'Mystery' to Our Success!
"Adult Education was the best of the services sampled", said Monika Wilcox the Senior Officer - Citizen Consultation.
This is the result of the 2007 Wave 1 Mystery Shopping expedition carried out across 5 services within Wakefield Metropolitan District Council during March and April 2007. Adult Education was visited, emailed, received letters and telephoned in connection with a wide range of information available to the general public for over 600 courses giving advice and guidance, fee remission information and dealing with enrolments from 1000s of prospective students. Although there are areas where improvements can be made, overall the results were very positive, with mystery shoppers feeling that they had had 'good' or 'excellent' help with their queries.
In some areas Adult Education even scored above the national average!
We are delighted to have such a positive result and congratulations are given to our staff across the district.