Lawn Manor Academy gives parents and carers a helping hand with career development

Parents of students at Lawn Manor Academy have been given free access to a vast library of online courses and webinars that can help them brush up their CVs.

Lawn Manor Academy, which is part of the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy Trust, has invested in online training provider The National College so that staff at the school can develop areas of practice including leadership, teaching and safeguarding.

But Marek Koza, the school’s Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for achievement, says the school wanted to offer the opportunity to all parents and carers too.

“Our school is far more than just the building and playing fields,” says Mr Koza.

“We are very much at the centre of our community, and we always want to play our part in that wider community. We became members of The National College so that we could give our colleagues opportunities to continue their own professional development, but we wanted to extend those benefits to our students’ parents and carers too.

“This year has been particularly difficult in terms of employment opportunities across our community, and lockdowns and shielding have meant that many people who wanted to change career or take up employment after a break have struggled a bit to do so. We hope that our parents and carers will find it useful to be able to access courses and webinars that are delivered by experts in their field at no cost to themselves, and that it will give them additional skills that will help them in their professional and personal lives.”

The award-winning National College covers a range of topics that would be useful to volunteers, as well as to those progressing on the careers ladder. One topic is mental health, which this year’s coronavirus pandemic and its associated challenges such as isolation and anxiety have brought into sharp relief.

Once participants have completed a course or webinar, they can download a certificate to confirm this. The training can be accessed via any internet-enabled device, so that it fits around the commitments and daily routines of each learner. The platform also allows participants to save their progress as they go, so they can start and stop a course as many times as they need to without losing the progress they have made.