After the tour, students took part in a quiz about Sodexo—a global company that employs people all over the world.

Everyone who attended the open day had a great time learning about Sodexo and what it has to offer. Becky, a tutor at Bridge College, said:

"As a tutor, it was great to see the amazing progress that our past students have made. It was great to see them thriving.”

It is hoped that several students from the Steps to Work pathway will take thisortunity to work with Sodexo in the future.To find out more, click the link below:
https://www.sodexo.com/

As part of their enterprise projects, students made products to sell. Parents and carers were invited to come and buy these creations. We made £760 pound! 

We had performances from the sing & sound group and a dance group.

The performances went very well at the winter market and the parents and staff enjoyed watching the students  performances.

We also had lots of fun!

Lucie:" I enjoyed working on the stall and showing my dad my hard work".

Mandy: "It was a fantastic experience. Parents and cares loved it as did the staff and students. It was well attended, and we sold lots. Looking forward to this year's markets."

General Election Learning  

The student council were talking about the next General Election on the 4th July and wanted to learn more. The Together Trust organization's Campaign and Advocacy Officers, Stylianos and Iliac, came to Bridge College to shed some light on the matter.

Together Trust’s  Styliana and Ilinca visited on the 14th June to tell the student council why voting is important, how to vote and their legal rights to vote. “Peoples’ voices and opinions are important.  We may want change. For change there needs to be Acts of Parliament. Our government makes important decisions, so it is important we can vote, for who we want in power.” 

They explained to the students how to vote and the 3 ways of voting which are: 

• In person locally 7 am-10pm on the day.  

• By post (before the 19th of June 5pm).  

• By proxy (parents or your chosen person does it for you). 

Students had the opportunity to practice voting for the first time and know how to do it now or in the future when they're old enough to vote (18 years old) in a general election. 

So what did the students have to say about what they learnt?

Yasmina, a student in her final year at Bridge college shared what she learnt, “People keep it a secret and fold their ballot sheets”, she mentioned needing a “bus pass” for photo ID. A new rule that has been brought in this year. Other students gave suggestions for other forms of ID, Paul said, “passport” and Hifza suggested, “blue badge.” Lilac, gave the students some advice, “you must look like your photo ID, even if it's out of date.” 

The students also learnt about how difficult it can be for some people to vote, in particular people with a disability. For some disabled people, it’s the environment in which they are asked to vote in person for example, there are no ramps for people who are using a wheelchairs, the ballet box is too high or loud noises and overcrowding can be an issue. You may think, "Why don’t disabled people just vote by post?" Well for some it’s the lack of help around reading and writing which means proxy is the only option. 

Although you may have missed voting this year, there is always the next election. Here is the link to Where you can REGISTER to vote online Register to vote - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . You will also find out more information on how polling stations are advised to think about accessablility for all here Accessible voting for all - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). We can’t wait for you to get voting!