Meet Claire Barr and Kyle Brown from Plumpton College

This month we’re meeting Claire Barr, Student Personal Development Manager and Kyle Brown, Student Personal Development Coach from Plumpton College.

Tell us about your roles

Claire – I oversee the teaching of personal development at the college. All of our FE learners have one hour of personal development a week delivered by our team.  We have a team of coaches, of which Kyle is one. We have a scheme of learning providing weekly themes of teaching, covering topics such as getting a job, forming positive relationships, emotional intelligence, careers and work experience. We work together with the wider team across the college, particularly for learners who are our bursary students (previously free school meals) to have 1:1 sessions with our team at key points throughout the year.  

Kyle – I teach personal development sessions and lead on student voice and college trips. I undertake individual sessions with students both formally and informally, as a key point of our work is to form positive relationships to support students. Our coaching is underpinned by making sure the students feel they belong and to support them with being successful at college and as they move on by addressing topics such as relationships as well as work.

What work is the college doing to support learners eligible for bursary students

Our bursary students are those previously eligible for free school meals as well as a range of students who are vulnerable, such as those that aren’t eligible for free school meals but require financial support and students who are disadvantaged in other ways. We meet regularly as a team to discuss who should be targeted for additional support or for recognition of hard work and success.

We have financial bursaries to support students which can cover travel, trips, PPE, food on campus and a range of other things that may prevent a student from fully participating in college life.

Our coaches know the students eligible for bursaries and have additional 1:1 sessions with them, both formally and informally. For example, before a trip is launched one of the team would speak about it, understanding any barriers that would stop them applying. There has been a change of dynamic over last few years and we’ve identified an increasing number of students who have never been to London or never been away from the home.  Our trips provide not only cultural capital but also the opportunity to support students in learning skills such as support in travelling, what it means to be independent and practical skills such as applying for a passport.

We provide free food and drink at the start of the day at beginning of each half term, this benefits all students not just the ones who receive a bursary. From next year, the college is planning on providing free breakfasts to our entire student body, every day.

For our residential students, bursary students are eligible for significant reduction in accommodation costs, and our staff check in on them to ensure they have someone to speak to. Our residences are both full time and short term, for some of our courses students may need a temporary stay, for example if they need to be working on the farm outside of core hours and our bursary students are eligible for a reduction or in some cases to have this without charge. 

How does the college support staff in understanding additional needs of learners eligible for free college meals

We work across the whole college supporting our cohort leads with training to understand the needs of our bursary students; what support is available, what trips are on offer and the other opportunities open to them.

The college is enhancing the role of cohort leads by investing in extra time, training and funding for this team of staff. This includes understanding the barriers of students, looking out for mental health issues and identifying progression routes .

As a whole college we work together to know our students and recognise patterns and behaviours, looking at underlying need. Staff are trained to ask questions to understand why a student might not be coming in, is it money, is it equipment, travel, family issues.  We can then address some barriers immediately, such if a student isn’t able to get into campus that day, student services can take a minibus and go and collect a student to get them to campus so they don’t miss the opportunity to attend.

What has been most successful at Plumpton that has supported learners and staff?

There have been two very successful programmes. Firstly, our FE mentoring programme was launched this year, training students to be peer mentors.  Students are given the opportunity to be mentored and to mentor. This has provided the opportunity for students to not only learn key skills that are important in the workplace but also learn skills where they are able to learn more about themselves and able to be there for their fellow peers.

It’s an incredibly impactful programme, increasing emotional intelligence to support students both personally and professionally. Getting peers to think about what they can do to improve various aspects of their lives and enrich their learning and personal lives. It is very powerful and we’re working towards embedding mentoring into the culture of Plumpton. 

Secondly, our Aspire Higher programme supports cohort leads to work with L3 Year 1 students focusing on ‘what are your plans’. We identified that a significant number of our bursary students weren’t identifying L4/L5/L6 education as a pathway for themselves. Noticing this and working with the HE Team and Aspire Higher has allowed us to flag this with cohort leads to have discussions about progression. We have led training for cohort leads to support them in asking students to identify their next steps whether it be education, work or apprenticeships.

We ensure students know all of the options and plan for their future. A significant proportion of our FE students are capable of progressing in education but hadn’t thought about it as an option for themselves. Aspire Higher ensures our bursary students receive extra 1:1 sessions and a range of other support such as lifting the ceiling around their beliefs about themselves to speaking with families to explain options after their current qualification.

How could a learner interested in coming to Plumpton find out about support they could get at the college

In the first instance, they can look on our website for details:

How can people get in touch in touch with you to find out more?

They can contact our Advice and Guidance team who can answer most questions and will be able to ensure you speak to the correct member of staff at the college.

Schools can bring students to the college and our schools liaison team visit schools, they provide information and guidance surrounding study opportunities at Plumpton College.  They can be contacted at schoolsliaison@plumpton.ac.uk.