News & Press
Uxbridge College Travel & Tourism lecturer and Section Manager Michelle Bradley is celebrating after being selected as the winner of two awards in the London Teacher of the Year Awards 2020.
Michelle scooped not only FE College Academic Support Staff of the Year Award, but London FE Member of Staff of the Year Award.
She was recognised for supporting excellent attendance rates, learner engagement and success rates, as well as building strong employer links, and providing a great learning experience and career opportunities.
Michelle is a winner in the awards run by the KM Charity Team, part of Inspire Schools Educational Foundation, in which the top 25 teachers were selected from nominations from schools and colleges across London.
She was nominated by colleagues and by British Airways, who she works with to provide opportunities for students to gain real experience.
Michelle works with British Airways to organise guest speakers, as well as arranging three visits a year to their training centre at Heathrow, where students receive additional Cabin Crew training. She helps ensure the company hosts a stand each at the College’s annual careers fair, and has also taken part in their ‘train a teacher’ days where staff undertake work experience.
As the awards ceremony originally planned for the summer could not take place due to Coronavirus, Michelle received her trophies in the post and attended a virtual ceremony on 9th October.
Michelle, who is also Section Manager Travel & Tourism at Uxbridge College, based in West London, said: “I was so shocked to have been nominated, let alone to have won two awards in the London Teacher of the Year Awards 2020! But it is a great honour, and I am incredibly happy to have this recognition of the work that I do. I put everything into what I do and get huge satisfaction out of seeing the Travel and Tourism professionals of the future progress on their journeys into industry - so getting an award as well really is the icing on the cake.”
Michelle previously worked as Cabin Crew for Virgin Atlantic, did a degree in Travel and Tourism management and worked as a Travel Agent in Thomas Cook. She played a leading role in setting up Cabin Crew training courses at the college, sourcing and designing the mock aircraft cabin on the college site in Uxbridge.
Inspire Schools Educational Foundation is a registered charity trading as KM Charity Team and Inspire Schools that delivers literacy, road safety and walk-to-school initiatives to support schools, families and children, as well as supporting the charitable sector by staging collaborative fundraising events.
This week Colleges Week celebrates all the fantastic work done nationally by colleges all over the UK - including at Uxbridge College.
We will be sharing highlights of our great work across all our social media platforms under the #loveourcolleges and #collegesweek hashtags, reaching out to our MPs to lobby for a better deal for us from Government, and inviting students to join in special activities to mark the event.
Despite the many challenges of Covid-19 this year, Uxbridge College has continued to provide a high level of support for young people and adult learners alike, as well as to the businesses whose training needs we support, and to our local communities.
Highlights this year at Uxbridge College have included:
* Supporting local communities during lockdown with donations and support including care packages, sweets and donations of PPE
* Staff and students supporting individuals in lockdown through the NHS Volunteer Responders programme
* Use of online learning tools during lockdown and beyond
* Supporting adult learners with free courses to help boost their careers and learning potential
* Working with 700 employers in 25 sectors to help them develop their workforce.
Dr Darrell DeSouza Group Principal and CEO of HCUC, the merged college group for Uxbridge College and Harrow College, said: “Throughout the college year we make every effort to share our achievements and let all our communities know what we have to offer, and our supporters how they can help - but Colleges Week gives us a special opportunity to really shout about it. Personally I would like to say a huge thank you to all our staff and students this year for making our colleges such amazing places and for pulling together through such difficult times.”
Students have been invited to take part in the Colleges Week competition to produce creative work including art, songs and performances which celebrates our achievements.
We have also invited our MPs to support us by asking the Chancellor to provide colleges with the investment they need, signing an Early Day Motion, and supplying a video that can be shared with staff and students.
Colleges Week is led by the Association of Colleges, the membership, support and lobbying body for colleges across the UK.
Uxbridge College students are celebrating their hard work and commitment and looking to the future after receiving their GCSE results.
Controversies around this year’s academic and vocational results, which have been subject to major revisions under Government policy changes due to the Covid crisis, are not stopping the college’s students going from strength to strength and progressing on to the right programme of study for them.
Our 2019/20 students have continued a strong tradition of progressing in high numbers with the majority of students achieving the GCSE grades that enable them to continue to a Level 3 qualification. Many will be coming back to college to do A Levels or a Level 3 BTEC, often planning to continue to university.
Uxbridge College Sixth Form Centre, which offers a full-time one year GCSE programme for students who are either doing the exams for the first time or who didn’t fulfil their potential at school, achieved an 81% pass rate at GCSE grades 9-4 (equivalent to the old A*-C) and 99% overall pass rate, grades 9-1.
The college’s top performer at GCSE this year was Toluwalase Lawale (pictured left, doing the 'Covid handshake' with Principal Dr Darrell DeSouza after collecting his results), who achieved three grade 9s - the equivalent to what used to be A* - in Maths, Biology, and Chemistry, a grade 8 (formerly A*/A) in Physics, and a grade 6 in English (formerly B).
The 17-year-old, who studied in Nigeria before coming to the UK and plans to study A Levels, said: “I have had a fantastic experience at Uxbridge College and made really good friends. It was fine studying during lockdown but now it’s time to take a fresh breath and be chill - everyone gets to relax now.”
Marion Pinto (17), who achieved a grade 9 in Biology, and 8 in English, and 7s (formerly grades A* & A) will be going on to take science A Levels so she can become a doctor. She said: “I preferred coming to college than being at home during lockdown, but the study material the teachers gave me helped me a lot. I was a bit worried about the results because we did not know if our predicted grades were being taken into account, but I am happy with what I have got.”
Sumayya Noor, who came to Uxbridge College after studying GCSEs at school, got a grade 9 in Chemistry, 8s in Biology and Physics, and 6s in Maths and English. She said: “College is more relaxed than school and I am looking forward to coming back to study A Level sciences. I’m really happy with my results and my family will be happy too.”
Dr Darrell DeSouza, Group Principal of Uxbridge College and HCUC said: “All our students have worked extremely hard particularly with the additional challenges of continuing their studies during lockdown, and I am extremely proud of the commitment both they and our staff have shown during this time. Congratulations to everyone.
“Uxbridge College is pleased to continue to run a successful full-time GCSE programme where students can either sit the exams for the first time, or study them again if they have not been able to fulfil their potential at school. This gives young people a chance to progress to higher study at A Level or join vocational programmes including Apprenticeships, which means they can then progress to University or into a career of their choice.
“As the college GCSE programme is completed across just one year, students normally take up to five subjects as opposed to the higher numbers taken at school, where this is part of the final two years of high school study.”
BTEC Levels 1 and 2 and some other vocational qualifications which would normally have been released on the same day as GCSEs, have been delayed due to changes in how they are calculated. A Levels and Level 3 vocational qualifications such as BTECs are also due to be re-graded.