Portland College near Mansfield launches holiday club so key worker parents can do their jobs and donates visors to care workers and hospital staff

As well as continuing to support their own vulnerable learners and residents both on and off campus, Portland College, in Harlow Wood, has extended is its support to the wider community through a range of initiatives, including the holiday club, donating essential face visors to organisations in need, and supporting local businesses through the Ashfield Ambassador Scheme, a spokesman said.

The Easter Holiday Club enables key worker parents to continue their vital front line work throughout the Easter Break by providing a safe and fun activity club for their vulnerable young people to attend during the working day.

The face visors, which have been manufactured by tutor Chris Wynne and his colleagues using resources already onsite, help protect staff, learners and residents against coronavirus. Having tested and distributed the visors among staff, the college has now donated additional visors to the NHS and care settings.

A total of 15 visors have been donated to Clipstone Hall and Lodge Care Home, and a further 15 to King’s Mill Hospital, in Sutton.

Portland has also signed up to the Ashfield Ambassador Scheme, with members of the senior management team joining volunteers across the district to provide advice and guidance for local businesses to understand and access Government assistance throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The scheme will be launched through www.discoverashfield.co.uk.

Mark Dale, Principal and CEO said: “The Portland spirit is shining brighter than ever as colleagues across the whole of the college are going above and beyond to support learners, residents and each other in these challenging times. We welcome the opportunity to help our local communities by sharing vital resources with organisations in need, and we are hoping to continue producing and donating PPE over the coming weeks. We are also looking into other ways that we can support the Mansfield and Ashfield district. We are a very small cog in a great national effort and we will keep turning.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor