Thinking of joining us in 2017?

Our next Information Event is Thursday 13th October 2016 from 1630 to 1800

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91% OF THE WATFORD UTC STUDENTS GAIN GCSE C GRADE OR BETTER EQUIVALENT QUALIFICATIONS

The Watford UTC students and staff were delighted this week to find that over 91% of their Year 11 students, gained a GCSE equivalent vocational qualification in the UTC’s specialisms of Computing/ICT, Travel & Tourism and Hospitality. Student performance in all three areas is well above BTEC levels nationally with over 33% of students gaining the top Distinction*/Distinction grades.

In addition, 80% achieved a GCSE equivalent qualification in Computing/ICT.

Other highlights include 94% A*-C in Additional Science as well as 100% pass rate in French and Spanish.

Over 70% of students sitting GCSE Mathematics gained at least a C grade or above with 64% of students achieving C grade or above in English GCSE. Over 50% of the UTC’s first Year 11 cohort to sit examinations, gained a GCSE C Grade or above in English and Mathematics. The expected progress measure for English and Mathematics is in line with National performance.

Emma Loveland, Principal of the Watford UTC, said: “We’re really pleased with all our results. Well done to all the students and staff who have worked so hard to make this happen. We are looking forward to the next part of our journey.”

Top attaining students:

• Joseph McCracken with 10 A*-B grade GCSE equivalents
• Thomas Lish with 9 A*-B grade GCSE equivalents
• Thomas Stockwell with 9 A*-B grade GCSE equivalents

The Watford UTC works with a range of major local employers, who will provide realistic hands-on projects for students and work with the UTC to ensure its curriculum, meets industry needs. With widely reported skills shortages in both the digital and hospitality industries, the UTC aims to train confident, highly competent individuals to fill the roles of the future.

The Watford UTC’s next Information Event will be taking place on Saturday 17 September at 10am. For more information, visit www.watfordutc.org

Results ready for collection!

Our first cohort of Year 13 students were celebrating their “next steps” as they collected their results following two years of hard work with us. We are pleased to report a 100% Pass rate across the board for students successfully completing A Levels and Vocational qualification programmes.

Initial analysis indicates that students following our specialisms of Computing and Travel & Tourism courses have attained higher level grades well above national averages including 90% of Travel & Tourism students attaining the highest Distinction grade (equivalent to A grade at A Level) and nearly 90% of students attaining at least an equivalent of C grade or above.

Over 40% of our students gained the equivalent to 3 x A-Grade A-Levels (over 360 UCAS points).

100% of our students who have applied for university courses have been successfully placed in a range of disciplines including all forms of Engineering, Computing, Event Management, Travel & Tourism, Commercial Pilot, Business and Architecture among others.

There are a plethora of individual success stories including:

• Year 12 student Lewis O’Shaugnessy gaining A grades across the board in all Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Computing and Physics including full marks in 3 of the Maths module exams.
• Andrew O’Rourke gained A*, A and B grades in Maths, Computing and Further Maths and will study Computing at Kings College, London
• Nhyoumila Tuladhar – top grades in Maths, Physics, Electronics and Computing have secured her a place on an Engineering course at Loughborough.
• Distinction*, Distinction*, Distinction in IT/Computing for Tom Bean who will follow his dream to become a commercial airline pilot by studying for the Air Transport/Commercial Pilot degree.
• Hannah Ferguson who gained Distinction*, Distinction*, Distinction, Distinction in Travel & Tourism and Business and is currently gaining work experience as an Estate Agent before studying for a Business and Event Management degree.
• James Reynolds who is currently recovering from a very serious illness still attained 540 UCAS points from his Travel & Tourism and Business courses, securing a place on a Business degree course at Brighton.
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A Level and BTEC Results Collection: Thursday 18th August, 10am – 1pm

GCSE Results Collection: Thursday 25th August, 10am – 12.30pm

Post-16 Options Drop-in Surgery: Thursday 25th August, 1pm – 3pm / Friday 26th August, 10am – 1pm / Tuesday 30th August, 10am – 3pm

No appointment needed, just drop in with your GCSE Results and speak to Emma (Principal) or Paul (Associate Principal) about options.

Our Event Management and Business students are working hard to put together some terrific events!

Click here to find out more

On 8^th March 2016, in celebration of International Women’s Day 2016, Richard Harrington, MP for Watford, invited two Watford girls to shadow him in Parliament.

Samantha Sibanda was chosen by her teachers at Francis Combe and Sophie Richards was chosen from Watford UTC.

The young ladies took part in a workshop to discuss how to get to a 50:50 gender balanced Parliament. After this they took part in #takeovertuesday which meant that the girls took the place of members of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, a group of MPs chaired by Maria Miller, who are elected to scrutinise the work of the Minister for Women and Equalities.  Samantha’s name and school were written on the official Order Paper for the Commons.

Samantha was selected to sit on the committee for the session to ask her question: “Do you think that integration is an issue in our society? If so what are the policies you have in place to tackle this?”.

The girls then had lunch with Richard Harrington, MP for Watford, in a Commons restaurant, discussing the significance of International Women’s Day, discrimination in the workplace and the girls’ plans for the future.

After lunch both girls went on tour of 10 Downing Street and then back to Parliament to watch the International Women’s Day debate in the Commons.

Speaking about the day, Richard said: “I would have loved to have had this opportunity at their age so it’s a privilege for me to be able to invite Samantha and Sophie to have this experience. The girls were fantastic – Maria Miller told me how impressed she was with Samantha’s confident questioning style. I wish them both the best for the future.”

Thank you to Seb Alfano, Daniella Bernard, Clare, Anna and everyone at Elstree for putting this wonderful video together. The Elstree UTC offers full-time technically orientated courses to students aged 14-19, specialising in the entertainments industries. Students work with Elstree UTC Productions on live industry projects building up valuable skills. This video was part filmed by a group of Year 10 and 11 students and edited by Seb, a final year student. The music was written especially for this video by Daniella.

www.facebook.com/theelstreeutc
www.elstreeutc.co.uk

And thank you also to our Team Margot Ambassadors: author of Margot’s favourite Blue Kangaroo books Emma Chichester Clark, comedian Lee Nelson and TV Dr & author Ellie Cannon for all your support.

“This could happen to anybody. If you’d be prepared to take a bone marrow transplant, or any other type of organ donation or blood donation, then I feel that people should be prepared to give also… I’d like people to think about that.”

Vicki Martini, Margot’s mother

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ABOUT TEAM MARGOT

In 2013, 14-month-old Margot Martini was diagnosed with blood cancer and required a bone marrow transplant (also known as a stem cell transplant) to stand the best chance of survival.

Family and friends came together as Team Margot to raise awareness of Margot’s plight and others desperately seeking a blood stem cell donor match.

Margot eventually found a suitable donor match and received her bone marrow transplant in February 2014. Unfortunately, Margot’s Leukaemia was extremely rare & aggressive. She relapsed during that summer and passed away, aged 2 years and 2 months, on the 27 October 2014.

Margot’s family are unspeakably grateful to her selfless donor for his miraculous gift, which gave Margot extra time with her family and loved ones.

Team Margot launched Margot’s donor appeal on Christmas Eve 2013 and are credited as having run the most high profile global donor appeal anywhere in the world, embracing national and international TV, radio, print, online, outdoor media and Virgin America flights. Within the first 6 weeks of launch the charity, Delete Blood Cancer UK received over 50,000 requests for swab kits in the UK alone.

Team Margot’s efforts to date have resulted in tens of thousands of people registering as potential stem cell donors. Statistically, this means that during the next ten years, more than 500 people will now have the chance of a potentially life saving bone marrow transplant.

The first of these potentially life saving transplants occurred by way of peripheral stem cell donation in late 2014 thanks to an anonymous donor who registered after hearing of Margot’s appeal. The second was a bone marrow donation by our friend Katrina Krishnan Doyle – see her video blog: https://youtu.be/QzNxVhCo8do

VISION

We imagine a world where every patient in need of a bone marrow transplant is confident of quickly finding a matching donor.

We want to help save the lives of all those people who, just like Margot and our family, never thought they’d need a bone marrow transplant.

GOAL

Our initial goal: 2.2 million people on the UK stem cell register. There are only 1 million people currently registered (1.6% of the population).

To find out how quick and easy it is to register, please visit teammargot.com – wherever you are in the world, YOU can save a life.

MISSION

We continue to honour Margot’s legacy as a permanent Foundation.

We campaign for more potential bone marrow / stem cell donors to join the register – especially people with a mixed genealogy. Margot’s mixed family background was the key obstacle to finding her a perfect match.

Team Margot
Together, saving lives

teammargot.com