Education Committee Chair visits RSBC’s Dorton College

On Thursday 8th January, RSBC was delighted to welcome Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood and Chair of the Government’s Education Committee, to Dorton College, our independent specialist college in the London Borough of Bromley.

Dorton College supports young people with vision impairments aged 16-25 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Through RSBC’s innovative and successful hybrid further education model, each student follows a curriculum tailored to their needs, attending a mainstream partnership college as well as accessing specialist sessions at RSBC’s regional hubs.

This unique hybrid education model focuses on early, consistent, long term and intensive vision impairment intervention, significantly improving student educational achievement and EHCP outcomes. Research shows that it provides a better financial return on investment for local authorities than short term or sporadic support.

During her visit, Helen was given a tour of the college’s hub in Orpington, including the specialist learning areas and access equipment students use. She met several of the students themselves, who were happy to speak to her about their experiences of education as blind and partially sighted young people, as well as Dorton College’s senior leadership team.

Josie Grainger-Francova, Chief Impact Officer at RSBC, also gave Helen deeper insight into how the unique hybrid education model developed by RSBC works, as well as providing her with the latest research findings on its effectiveness.

Helen Hayes said of her visit: “I was delighted to visit Dorton College and see the high-quality specialist education and support they offer for young people with vision impairments and their partnerships with mainstream providers. It was good to discuss with students the challenges they have experienced accessing mainstream education and the difference that the hybrid model of specialist support and mainstream education makes.”

Josie Grainger-Francova commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome Helen to the Dorton College hub today, and to explain how our innovative hybrid model blends mainstream and specialist VI education together seamlessly.

“Helen met our students and our College Principal, Edith Windsor-Stokes. She also sampled our Augmented Reality headset to experience how our blind and partially sighted students navigate the world, and the barriers to learning that they face in classroom settings.”

Find out more about Dorton College here: https://www.rsbc.org.uk/pages/rsbc-dorton-college