New Year, New Start, New Facilities!
Anyone else feel like they’ve blinked and the summer break is almost over?
Hopefully you’ve all enjoyed your time off and are feeling refreshed and ready to kick-start the new academic year.
Our staff have been hard at work throughout the summer to make sure all three of our College campuses are at their shiny best ready to welcome our students back to College on Monday 2nd September.
But we’re not talking about a quick dust and polish. There have been some major construction works and exciting projects happening across our campuses to overhaul various facilities.
We’ve invested huge sums of money and received capital funding to ensure our learners continue to have state-of-the art work spaces and equipment that makes your time in College a memorable one. We want you to be proud to be an RNN student and take ownership of your College and its facilities.
As we look forward to another productive year, here’s a sneak peek at what’s new at RNN’s group of Colleges for 2024.
What’s new at Rotherham College Campus
New £4m Construction Centre
Following a 12-month renovation project, the Clifton building’s brand-new Construction Centre will be opening for our construction students this autumn.
It’s been the biggest project undertaken at the Rotherham campus in recent years, bringing all four sub-specialisms of bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrical installation under one roof. Previously, the department had been split over two sites: Rawmarsh Road and the Clifton building.
The building’s old library has been renovated to create a two-storey multi-purpose workshop that is flexible, future-proof and meets the needs of our students and staff.
The practical bays are all multi-use, with workings for bricklaying, joinery, plumbing and electrics so that our construction students can develop their cross-trade skills.
There are also breakout areas with IT resources for planning and theory work along with health, safety and welfare lessons. It also has a CAD and VR suite with computer-aided design software and virtual reality technology for students interested in site surveying and construction specific drawing techniques.
There is a new entrance with a lift shaft that will be accessed from the underpass between the Wentworth Building exit and salon entrance.
New digital suite
Our computing and games design students will be able to take their learning to the next level thanks to a brand-new digital suite.
The digital suite, also based in the Clifton building, has VR technology, an animation studio and a green room for podcasting.
It also has new cyber labs for use by our cyber security HTQ students when they’re doing hands-on tasks like pen testing and digital forensics.
In the future, other departments from the Rotherham campus will be able to use the VR facilities for their courses, too.
Revamped health and childcare departments
The third project at Rotherham campus has been improving facilities within both the childcare and health and social care departments.
Childcare students have now got their own bespoke nursery for practical sessions. While the health suite has also had a revamp with a new-look hospital ward simulation area.
These changes have been made to coincide with the new T Levels in Early Years Educator and Health and Science. T Level students are required to undertake at least 45 days of work placement, so we want to make that transition as smooth as possible by ensuring our facilities in College are on par with what students will be working with out in industry.
What’s new at North Notts College Campus
£4 million T Level building
Another major construction project across the group has been the refurbished T Level building at the Worksop campus.
Over the last 12 months, contractors have been on site renovating parts of building to be used by T Level students within the construction, health and social care, and hair and beauty departments.
T Levels are a popular alternative to A levels that combine classroom lessons with 45 days of work placements. One T Level is the equivalent of three A Levels and they are assessed using a mixture of practical tasks, projects and exams.
The new T level building has been designed to ensure our students have the space, facilities and digital resources to complete their theory and practical projects at College. We’ve also made a conscious effort to mirror the equipment out in industry to familiarise our T level students with things they might be working with on placement.
There is a new construction area to support the T Level in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction and foundation T Levels in brickwork and joinery. Similar to the new centre at Rotherham, the North Notts construction area will have multi-use bays for hands-on practical work across all aspects of construction trades.
For the T level in adult nursing and foundation in health and social care, the T level building has its own simulation ward so our students can practice their person-centred care skills.
Works also include a new-look salon for use by the whole hair and beauty department. The new T Level in Hair, Barbering, and Beauty Therapy will start this September. We’ll be announcing the new name for the salon later this year so keep an eye on our social media channels.
What’s new at Dearne Valley College Campus
New £333,000 health suite
The brand-new state of the art health suite officially opens to our learners this September.
There is a simulated operating area with recovery ward, an assessment unit with consultation area, plus a biomedical laboratory for anatomy and dissection modules.
Significant investment has also been made into two new life-like mannequins for practical demonstrations.
GERi is a ten-stone elderly patient with latex skin, arthritic joints, removable teeth, and catheter and stoma entry points. Students can practice cannulation, moving and handling, and elderly nursing care.
ALEX is an AI simulated mannequin that talks, has a pulse, and a camera in his eye to record consultations with students.
The new health suite also has a VR studio with ocular headsets that learners can wear during theory-based lessons. The technology will help our healthcare students visualise the inside of the body, learn about physiology and understand how diseases might progress. The VR headsets can also be used for virtual consultations to allow learners to explore different patient experience scenarios.
These exciting new facilities will be used to support students on the access to health science professions or the new health science associate diploma HTQ.
Debut season for Momentous Football Academy
Not a facility as such, but a significant development for RNN Group’s sports department students.
From September, students who have won a place in the Momentous shadow scholarship squad will be football training twice a week and playing weekly fixtures at Dearne Valley’s sports facilities.
Earlier this year, we announced we’d teamed up with Momentous Football Academy to bring high-level football performance to our sports course options.
The first cohort of players have been busy in pre-season training throughout the summer. Once the new term starts, the young players will undergo extensive and varied training with Momentous’ UEFA qualified coaches, including one-to-one sessions to improve their playing ability in a pressure-free environment.
We’re excited to see how the team gets on so be sure to follow their progress on our social media channels.
