College named national leader in virtual school delivery
An early festive celebration arrived for West Highland College UHI and its partners in North Highland College UHI, Inverness College UHI and Highland Council with the winning of a national Digital Learning Award for Highland Virtual School at the College Development Network (CDN) Awards this month.
The award is the third plaudit the virtual school initiative has received this year. In May it won the Outstanding Use of Technology in Delivering Remote Teaching and Learning category at the Tes FE Awards. More recently it was shortlisted as a finalist for Best Use of Technology in Education at the Herald Digital Transformation Awards.
Virtual School is an innovative and sustainable partnership initiative delivering high quality technology-enhanced learning and teaching across the UK’s largest council area.
Three colleges, the council and 29 high schools serve these rural Highland communities where many schools are small with less than 200 pupils.
Several years ago, senior phase pupils had a limited choice of curriculum compared to pupils elsewhere in Scotland and some pupils endured lengthy travel to attend college courses, often hampered with poor weather.
Thanks to the virtual school, 20 qualifications are now offered to pupils based anywhere in the Highlands.
The college was also delighted one of its lecturers was commended in the Learning and Teaching Colleague of the Year Award category.
Katy MacDonald is the supported learning programme lecturer who devised the highly successful use of online teaching and collaboration for students who would previously have found the use of digital platforms challenging.
Ms MacDonald and her team ensured their students not only learned new digital skills to allow them to continue their courses, they also widened its use to include social activities and enable new friendships and connections to be made across different college sites.
Lydia Rohmer, principal and chief executive, commended staff at West Highland College UHI: ‘I want to commend the leadership of our Academic Affairs Team and the many colleagues across West Highland College UHI involved in shaping and delivering this fantastic approach to school-college partnerships. I am also delighted that Katy MacDonald was commended for the outstanding work she and her team undertook to create a successful digital learning space, connecting their supported learning students in new and innovative ways during the pandemic.
‘Katy’s project ensured our most vulnerable learners were able to continue to connect with each other whilst being isolated at home, continuing their learning as well as adopting new skills allowing them to make new friends across the West Highlands they otherwise would have never met.’