City College Norwich wins impressive national award

Seventeen year old City College student Katie D'Avila from Lowestoft in the Rug Room, a specially-designed room for students with Asperger's Syndrome.

TRACEY GRAY
19 November 2009 06:30



A leading facility based in Norwich which helps students overcome their learning difficulties has won a national award.

The RUG room based at City College Norwich in Ipswich Road, which provides support to students with a range of Asperger Syndrome AS, has won The Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.

The 21 winners were announced on Wednesday evening at a special Reception at St James's Palace.

Facilities in the RUGroom are designed to create learning opportunities which cater for the different needs of the students.

The unique ingredient has been the involvement of the College's AS learners - who named themselves, The Really Useful Group, - in the design of an AS friendly physical environment which developed into the RUGroom, which was opened in February 2008 by Charles Clarke MP.

The room has social clubs to help students gain confidence and skills which can lead to enrolment on traditional college courses and activities include beauty, therapy, drumming, jewellery-making, sewing and dressmaking.

The RUGroom also provides the base for Phoenix Purple, a course specifically designed for students with AS who would not be able to access further education without a specialist course.

City College Norwich Principal, Dick Palmer, said: “This award provides further recognition for the innovative way in which the College's provision for learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders is leading the way nationally.

“Thanks to the RUGroom's approach of putting students with ASD firmly at the centre, supported by an inspirational and dedicated team of staff, we have been able to make a real difference to the lives of students with Aspergers and other Autistic Spectrum Disorders.”

The Queens Anniversary Prizes scheme was set up in 1993 by The Royal Anniversary Trust.

Prizes are awarded biennially and in the education category, they recognise and honour outstanding achievement and excellence in UK universities and colleges.

In the autumn of the commencement of each biennial round, all universities and colleges across the UK are invited to make a single entry.

They can offer any subject area or type of work or project which they have initiated and in which they remain currently engaged.

The RUGroom has also won the president's award for being a shining example of further education achievement and the title for widening participation at the Association of Colleges (AoC) beacon awards.

Later this month staff from the RUGroom are up for a STAR Award, the annual Oscars-style awards to recognise and reward the unsung heroes of the further education sector.

The University of East Anglia's School of International Development and its pioneering charitable company, International Development UEA, are also to be awarded a Queen's Anniversary Prize.

It is in recognition of over 40 years' sustained and highly respected responses to environmental change and poverty in some of the world's poorest countries.

Have you or your organisation won a prestigious national award? Contact Tracey Gray on 01603 772418 or email traceygray@archant.co.uk

Email A Friend

News: Latest headlines on Evening News 24