Earlier this month, Teesdale School's entire Year 7 cohort visited East Durham College's Houghall Campus for a fun-packed careers day. The recently redeveloped Durham-based campus, which is a leading provider of land-based training and education in the north of England, provided students with a unique taster of life after secondary school and a glimpse into the world of work.
During their action-packed day, students, guided by expert staff from Houghall, toured the new facilities including the small animal care, agricultural, and equine centres. Along the way they met all manner of inquisitive creatures including pigs, horses, cows and even a tortoise called Sherman. They were also treated to a range of exhilarating activities including rope climbing amongst the trees with the college’s tree surgery training team, where braver students could be seen suspended upside down well above the ground!
Dr Janice Gorlach, Executive Headteacher at Teesdale School and Deputy Chief Executive of our sponsor, the North East Leaning Trust, who accompanied students to Houghall, said:
“The visit forms part of an exciting partnership between Teesdale School and Houghall Campus that aims to make land based-agricultural courses more accessible to students in the Dales. The day was to enable our youngest students to begin to explore the range of possibilities that lie in front of them in the world of work. They enjoyed talking to staff at the college about their roles and were excited and inspired by the shear range of their possible future options.”
Ready for September 2018, plans are being developed to offer pre-16 students agricultural teaching in school together with placements at the Houghall campus. The college will be offering post-16 students improved free transport options as well as flexible timetables and changes to its curriculum to allow more young people to access their agricultural courses.
To say thank you for such a great day out, every student in Year 7 wrote a personal thank you letter to staff at the college - let's hope they don't get lost in amongst all the post on it's way to the north pole at this time of year!