Message to Staff – 17 September 2024 

Dear colleague

A warm welcome back to a new business/college year at Portland Charity. I hope you enjoyed the summer, which probably seems a long time ago as we get stuck into a new term at the College and Pollyteach School.

 

Portland main campus – busy times

We have again experienced quite significant growth in the number of further education students enrolled at College – this pressure is something all specialist schools and colleges are facing with demand for places rising every year. We are not actively seeking to grow student numbers but our Outstanding further education is understandably in very high demand.

The Senior Management Team have been working together on a number of initiatives to try to mitigate the effects of growing numbers:

• We have successfully recruited new tutors and learning support staff and continue to actively recruit for those roles.
• £1million investment in the new Nottingham hub on Forest Road West. Which is planned to absorb some of the growth in student numbers and has made a promising start. It also provides a permanent base for the group working on the restoration of the walled garden at Wollaton Park.
• Move to five day teaching delivery on the main campus. We sought to encourage Learning Support colleagues to move to a 4 or 5 day contract with a signing up bonus for those who increased their hours. The signing bonus is still available until the end of September.
• We have cancelled the majority of commercial day time functions at the College to ease the pressure on the dining room and on-site parking. This also frees up space in the Eastwood suite for classroom use.
• We are completing work on a new barn for the horticulture area which will improve housing for small animals and provided further teaching space.
• We have a planning application under consideration for a new classroom to support the FE sports curriculum which will be next to the MUGA.
• We are winding down the residential adult training programme operated by Savant and the residential rooms at the rear of Oaks will be converted into additional classroom space for Further Education. This will happen over the course of the year so we won’t get an immediate impact.

Changes to the Senior Management Team structure

For 2024-25 the Governors have supported an evolution of the current Senior Team structure which I have illustrated below.

Angela Newton-Soanes has been promoted to Principal of the Further Education College. She will also be leading on a new Quality Assurance Team to work across all provision, which we are currently recruiting for.

Edward Johnstone is promoted to Deputy CEO of Portland Charity Group reflecting the much wider range of responsibilities he has taken on over the last 18 months.

Shaun Pollard became the registered head teacher of Pollyteach School in April and his role has been re-titled to Executive Headteacher to acknowledge our acquisition of Jumpstart AP Ltd at the end of August (more on that story below).

Ike Onwukwe and Dan Stanway have a new job title but the same responsibilities, reflecting the fact that old job title “Assistant Principal” really only works in the context of the College.

As Group CEO my responsibilities are very similar to the previous version but it does reflect Portland Charity’s continued growth and development with school age provision, community outreach and social housing (in the near future) in addition to our established further education and adult social care provision.

 

Introducing Jumpstart AP Ltd

I mentioned above the expansion of the Charity Group. Jumpstart AP Ltd is an exciting relatively young company based in Mansfield which delivers Alternative Provision for young people (aged 11-16) who are not in mainstream school or struggling with school attendance. Jumpstart offers motor vehicle mechanics courses, a range of fitness activities and is developing e-sports. I am looking to open up a motor vehicle course as a vocational option for FE College students at Portland.

 

Planned works on campus

It will hopefully be a slightly quieter year for construction works on campus now that the water main is complete and the majority of the new data network is constructed. We are going to continue with designs for renewing our aged electricity infrastructure and within 2 years I anticipate that the main campus will have an infrastructure that will last another 75 years.  

Local building contractors Vaughndale, who did such a great job on the new Manufacturing Centre, have won the contract to reconstruct Pines. They will be vacating the Manufacturing Centre car park very soon and moving their site compound to the back of Pines. Hopefully this will mean no overall loss in the number of parking spaces as we mark out the Manufacturing Centre car park, even though we will lose some spaces temporarily at the back of Pines and Oaks. The Pines project should be substantially complete by June 2025.

 

Opportunities for additional shifts

If you would be interested in completing any extra shifts in Care, RotaGeek presents an easy solution to know what shifts are available and to indicate your interest. Get in contact with the Care Operations Manager – Daniel Janek to sign up for the app.

We have introduced RotaGeek an app-based workforce management and scheduling solution which is being piloted by the Care Team. Since introduction this year, RotaGeek has helped us to optimise the care rotas, schedule shifts effortlessly matched to actual service need, staff availability, staff skillset and reduced staffing costs. Care staff can view their rotas through the app, holiday balances, request leave, and update their availability and shift preferences. Push notifications have kept staff updated in real-time as rota schedules are published, shifts become available and leave requests are approved. With access from any device at any time, you can keep on top of your working schedule on the go.

 

Sorry for the lengthy bulletin but there was lot to update you on.

Take care and I will be back in touch again soon.

Mark

 

Christmas Party Nights 

As the nights start to draw in and we speed towards the end of 2024, some of you may be looking for options to celebrate the festive season with your colleagues, friends or family. Our colleagues in Portland Functions in partnership with local entertainment company LLP Events, have two dates in December that are set to be a fantastic night out!

DIVAS Night is on Friday 13th December, and Through the Decades is Saturday 14th December, tickets are just £20 per person including wonderful food and entertainment, are available online now.