Children at Mary Hare Primary School were treated to an Easter egg hunt and craft day arranged by students from Newbury College.
The event was organised by students studying Health and Social Care Level 3 who had been set an assignment to carry out a voluntary project in the community, which will be marked towards their final grade.
The primary school children created Easter baskets in which to put any eggs they had discovered on the hunt. The eggs were donated by local supermarkets and other materials for making the baskets were provided by the Thatcham Garden Centre.
Newbury College Health and Social Care student Elisha Lees-Smith, aged 24, said "It went absolutely brilliantly and everything went according to plan. This project is all about giving back to the community and we are really happy with all of the help, support, goodwill that the supermarkets have shown us".
The children thanked all of the College students for arranging the events by giving them Easter eggs of their own.
Highclere Castle, the home of Downton Abbey, has seen an increase in visitors recently and is keen to invest in its staff to ensure that they have all the training required to meet new demands of the spectacular venue. They contacted Newbury College to deliver the CIEH Principals of Manual Handling Awareness course on site at the Castle.
Keen to maintain strong links with its local community College at Newbury, Lord Carnarvon joined 12 of his team to participate in the one day course which updated their skills and qualification in safe manual handling.
Julia Morgan from Highclere Castle organised the training and was pleased with the day's sessions and said, "Newbury College have delivered First Aid Courses to Highclere Castle for a number of years and we were pleased to contact them again for a course on Safe Manual Handling. They are very helpful, efficient and the process of arranging the course was straightforward. I am sure we will be contacting them again in the future."
Highclere Castle is one of England's most beautiful Victorian Castles set amidst 1,000 acres of stunning parkland. The Carnarvon family has lived at Highclere since 1679, and the current Castle stands on site of an earlier house, which in
turn was built on the foundations of the medieval palace owned by the Bishops of Winchester for some 800 years.
Emily Chandler, Business Development Executive from Newbury College said "Newbury College have a long-standing relationship with the team at Highclere Castle and we were happy to work with them to develop this day and deliver the training at the castle to meet their needs".
In what has now become an annual event, Newbury College have once again taken on Newbury's local radio station The Breeze in support of Comic Relief.
This year's game of choice was an indoor cricket match where students from BTEC Level 3 Uniformed Public Services and BTEC Level 3 Business competed against presenters and crew from popular station including Drivetime Host, Dave Trumper and Journalist, Emily Tolloczko.
Sports Maker, Joe Pegg who organised the event said, "The cricket match against the Breeze radio station was a great way to bring students from different courses together. We are trying to engage more students into sports and running these one off charity events are essential to developing this new sporting mind set".
It was a close but a well fought battle between the two teams with The Breeze narrowly taking the victory with 86 runs to 73. The event is just one of many fundraising activities taking place over the fortnight around Red Nose Day.
Dr Anne Murdoch OBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Newbury College, has been appointed one of two new board members for Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has announce the appointment of, Dr Anne Murdoch, Co-opted Education Sector Director and Deputy Chair and Cllr David Lee, Public Sector Director and representative of the Berkshire Leaders' Group.
Dr Anne Murdoch OBE has been Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Newbury College since 2001. During that time she has overseen a total new build and move to a new site as well as the development of a wide range of other new facilities for Newbury College students. On receiving the role Anne Murdoch said, "I am really pleased to be working with the LEP in the role of Deputy Chair. This shows the importance The Thames Valley LEP places on education and skills and its role in economic growth."
Dr Murdoch has spent most of her career in education and training, working in schools, University and FE Colleges and during that time has demonstrated a commitment to raising standards and engaging with employers to ensure training programmes meet their needs. Dr Murdoch has worked locally, regionally and nationally on representative groups in education including the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Berkshire.
Steve Lamb, Chair of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP said: "We are delighted to strengthen our board with two appointments that will support key sectors identified in our Growth Strategy. Anne and David are not only experts in their field but also have a real interest in helping the sub region thrive. Their appointment will significantly strengthen what is already an excellent board of directors who are driving the LEP forward successfully."