Television broadcaster Discovery recently invited Harrow College students with learning disabilities to their annual volunteering Impact Day. The project was coordinated by national organisation, Volunteering Matters. A group of seven students accompanied by tutors and support staff demonstrated the art of Decoupage (decorating an object by gluing coloured paper cut-outs onto it) to a team of Discovery Volunteers.
Volunteers' decoupaged wooden objects which will later be sold in the college's Paint Pots Shop - an enterprise where students make and sell their own products. This year students are raising money to equip a brand new Sensory Room. The room will feature in a new LLDD building (Learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities) currently being constructed at Harrow College and due to open in September 2015.
During the Discovery Impact Day, students were given Discovery passes and treated to a tour around the transmission areas and audio mixing booths where they recorded their own voices to introduce a Shark Attack programme.
Terry Knight, Curriculum Manager for LLDD, was in attendance with the students on the day. He said "the learners really enjoyed explaining their work to the Discovery volunteers and helping them make the various craft items. The volunteers pitched in enthusiastically and were able to relate to the students and some of the things they do at College. There was a lot of creative work going on all round – a thoroughly productive day for all involved".
Harrow College would like to thank Discovery, Volunteering Matters and Craft Consortium who kindly contributed additional sets of decoupage paper.
For more information on additional learning support at Harrow College, click here