Portland College
Encyclopedia
Portland College is an education establishment in the county of Nottinghamshire
. It is situated in 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of Sherwood Forest
approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the town of Mansfield
. Portland is a national residential specialist college for students with a wide range of physical disabilities and needs. It is one of the foremost colleges of this type in the United Kingdom
today, providing a first class learning experience for around 270 students aged between 16 and 60.
. The Duchess had been inspired to act after regular visits to Harlow Wood Hospital near Mansfield in the 1940’s. She shared a vision along with Doctor Alan Malkin, the renowned orthopaedic surgeon
, to provide provision for the hope of retraining and re-employment of the patients after they had recovered and left the hospital. In 1947 the Duke of Portland had transferred 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) of his land in Sherwood Forest
to the Duchess’s Charity through a deed of gift and a further 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) had been purchased for the sighting of the new college. Along with these moves a Workers Contributory Fund had been established which encouraged local Nottinghamshire employees to contribute one penny a week towards the £100,000 estimated to open the college. By 1948 some 17,000 workers had agreed to take part in the scheme and by 1949 a total of 20,000 workers were in the scheme. By the end of the year £90,000 had been raised and the Foundation stone had been laid by the then Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen
.
of Portland College was Commander Thomas Cartwright
. His designs were unique and for the time. The buildings were designed with the needs of disabled people in mind. There were no stairs in the student areas, all doors were made wide enough for wheelchairs, and bathrooms and bedrooms were fitted with aids and adaptations. By early 1950 two accommodation blocks, a dining halll, workshop
s and the boiler house had been completed. Staff for the college had been recruited and in June 1950 the college opened its doors to its first students. On the 24th July 1950 Her Majesty The Queen
officially opened Portland College.
, bench carpentry
, boot
and shoe
repair and surgical boot making, and clerical
and commercial. These students included ex-miners and ex-servicemen and there disabilities ranged from quiescent tuberculosis
and poliomyelitis
to limb amputees. Despite their widely varying backgrounds, these students thrived in spite of being away from home in an environment that was conducive to discussion, debate and friendship helping each other with their problems and frustrations associated with all their disabilities. Throughout the 1950’s the college went from strength to strength. It had a close working relationship with the National Coal Board
with efforts particular aimed at the mining communities. The college also became a vital link for disabled and handicapped school leavers supplying further education and the college commitments were extended to provide this along with vocational training. 1961 saw the first female students enrolled at the college. At this time new courses were introduced and these included shorthand and typing followed by course in electronic wiring and assembly, and industrial electronics. The college along with the Ministry of Labour developed a pilot sheltered employment project. Workshops on site produced and marketed its own line of gift local cut oak products with the theme of Sherwood Forest and local legendary hero Robin Hood
.
t, high inflation and political turmoil. The rising inflation meant rising running costs, which in turn affected the funding from local education authorities. Further consequences were that ever urgent fundraising became more difficult. Nevertheless Portland College continued its improvements to its curriculum. An appeal to raise £80,000 to improve and extend the college’s residential provisions and the education and vocation wings was successful. In 1975 the college introduced Literacy courses. A new concept in the teaching of Literacy was pioneered at the college by Don Price MBE
, who was the Assistant Director of the college. Don and his wife Jeune invented the Portland Blend System in 1977. This teaching system was fundamental to great achievements by students at Portland and around the world. As a tried and proven improvement to the teaching of Literacy, this system attracted wide attention from the academic community and the system was marketed under the name ‘Phonic Blend Systems Limited’
, with the college retaining a financial interest through an agreement on royalties
. The later part of the seventies and early eighties saw the rapid increases in modern technology. The college soon saw the potential as training aids the newly installed computers and micro-writers in classrooms. The college positioned itself to be in the fore front of the new technological expertise in this area of education. By 1983 Portland saw a significant milestone when the 5,000th student passed through the college. In 1988 the college opened its Vocational Training Department’s Technical Centre which provided students with courses in computing.
visited the college in June 1990. the royal party spent the day at the college, presenting awards at the prize giving and Her Majesty also laid the foundation stone for a new residential unit which would eventually be called the ‘laurels’. The Laurels was completed in 1992 which added new High-care accommodation for 60 residential learning skills students. The early years of the 1990’s also saw a shift in the college’s Vocational Department to competence based training with the National Vocation Qualifications, or NVQ’s replacing the traditional examinations. In 1993 funds were raised to build Rowan Place independence units. The college’s dining rooms were also upgraded and extended. In the College’s Golden Jubilee
Year a state of the arts hydrotherapy
pool and fitness centre was added to Portland’s excellent campus
facilities. The 1990’s also saw an increase in the numbers of students from around 200 at the beginning of the decade rising to 280 at any one time in 1999. By the new millennium
over 8,000 students had now passed through Portland College.
. With this the college was accredited to become a regional Academy and has continued to offer excellent training opportunities for the students of Portland. The Karten Trust provide funds for the college’s CTEC centre and this has been instrumental in giving students skills in Web Page
Design and to create a hugely successful Computer Aided Design program with student being able to access the latest software and producing live work for both internal and external customers. The department has an outstanding record for securing employments for graduates of the College. In 2003 the college became Microsoft
Office Specialist Authorised Testing Centre and with the Microsoft Academy giving students the opportunities for qualifications in the full range of Microsoft Programmes. After over half a century of steady growth, the number of students at Portland has stabilised in recent years to a level of between 250 and 300 students. With around 30 of these being day students from the surrounding area. The employment students attend the course on a steady roll–on-roll off basis rather than an academic year.
. Just as his mother, the Queen, had laid the foundation stone for the college in 1949, Prince Edward carried out the unveiling of the foundation stone for the new centre almost 60 years later. The buildings Architects were Patel Taylor of London
. The main construction contract was given to a local company Clegg Construction of Lace Market in Nottingham. Work commenced in May 2005 and the finished building was handed over in June 2006. The new building has ten teaching spaces. These teaching spaces include the IT Essentials Suite, Computer Aided Design Suite, CISCO and Microsoft Academies, Job Club and Transition Suite, Skills for Life/Learning Resource Suite, Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) Suite, Learning and Skills Information Learning Technology Suite and a Research and Development Centre. There are also various meeting rooms and a new main reception. The new centre is furnished with equipment and furniture of the highest quality and specification. There are specially designed desk with integrally fitted computers and interactive whiteboards and ceiling mounted projectors
in some of the rooms. All the workstations have High quality ergonomic chairs.
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
. It is situated in 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) of Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...
approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the town of Mansfield
Mansfield
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....
. Portland is a national residential specialist college for students with a wide range of physical disabilities and needs. It is one of the foremost colleges of this type in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
today, providing a first class learning experience for around 270 students aged between 16 and 60.
Foundation
The college was originally established as institution for the training for men who had been disabled through war injuries and for miners injured or made ill through working in that industry. The college was founded in 1949 and since that time over 10,000 people have benefited from the ‘Portland Experience’. The college’s early development owed much to the energy, enthusiasm and vision of Winifred, Duchess of PortlandWilliam Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland
William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland KG , known as Marquess of Titchfield until 1943, was a British Conservative Party politician....
. The Duchess had been inspired to act after regular visits to Harlow Wood Hospital near Mansfield in the 1940’s. She shared a vision along with Doctor Alan Malkin, the renowned orthopaedic surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
, to provide provision for the hope of retraining and re-employment of the patients after they had recovered and left the hospital. In 1947 the Duke of Portland had transferred 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) of his land in Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...
to the Duchess’s Charity through a deed of gift and a further 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) had been purchased for the sighting of the new college. Along with these moves a Workers Contributory Fund had been established which encouraged local Nottinghamshire employees to contribute one penny a week towards the £100,000 estimated to open the college. By 1948 some 17,000 workers had agreed to take part in the scheme and by 1949 a total of 20,000 workers were in the scheme. By the end of the year £90,000 had been raised and the Foundation stone had been laid by the then Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
.
Building Begins
The ArchitectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of Portland College was Commander Thomas Cartwright
Thomas Cartwright (architect)
Thomas Cartwright was a 17th century English architect. Cartwright was the architect employed by Sir Robert Clayton, president of the St Thomas' Hospital, to rebuild and the hospital and nearby St Thomas Church on the south bank of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament in London...
. His designs were unique and for the time. The buildings were designed with the needs of disabled people in mind. There were no stairs in the student areas, all doors were made wide enough for wheelchairs, and bathrooms and bedrooms were fitted with aids and adaptations. By early 1950 two accommodation blocks, a dining halll, workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
s and the boiler house had been completed. Staff for the college had been recruited and in June 1950 the college opened its doors to its first students. On the 24th July 1950 Her Majesty The Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
officially opened Portland College.
Initial years: 1950 to 1969
The College was able to offer four courses to it initial intake of 18 students. These were gardeningGardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
, bench carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, boot
Boot
A boot is a type of footwear but they are not shoes. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle and extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece....
and shoe
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
repair and surgical boot making, and clerical
Clerk
Clerk, the vocational title, commonly refers to a white-collar worker who conducts general office or, in some instances, sales tasks. It is also occasionally used to refer to third-year medical students completing a medical clerkship. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record...
and commercial. These students included ex-miners and ex-servicemen and there disabilities ranged from quiescent tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route...
to limb amputees. Despite their widely varying backgrounds, these students thrived in spite of being away from home in an environment that was conducive to discussion, debate and friendship helping each other with their problems and frustrations associated with all their disabilities. Throughout the 1950’s the college went from strength to strength. It had a close working relationship with the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
with efforts particular aimed at the mining communities. The college also became a vital link for disabled and handicapped school leavers supplying further education and the college commitments were extended to provide this along with vocational training. 1961 saw the first female students enrolled at the college. At this time new courses were introduced and these included shorthand and typing followed by course in electronic wiring and assembly, and industrial electronics. The college along with the Ministry of Labour developed a pilot sheltered employment project. Workshops on site produced and marketed its own line of gift local cut oak products with the theme of Sherwood Forest and local legendary hero Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
.
1970 to 1989
The 1970s saw the college having to cope with the climate of high unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
t, high inflation and political turmoil. The rising inflation meant rising running costs, which in turn affected the funding from local education authorities. Further consequences were that ever urgent fundraising became more difficult. Nevertheless Portland College continued its improvements to its curriculum. An appeal to raise £80,000 to improve and extend the college’s residential provisions and the education and vocation wings was successful. In 1975 the college introduced Literacy courses. A new concept in the teaching of Literacy was pioneered at the college by Don Price MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
, who was the Assistant Director of the college. Don and his wife Jeune invented the Portland Blend System in 1977. This teaching system was fundamental to great achievements by students at Portland and around the world. As a tried and proven improvement to the teaching of Literacy, this system attracted wide attention from the academic community and the system was marketed under the name ‘Phonic Blend Systems Limited’
Phonics
Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations...
, with the college retaining a financial interest through an agreement on royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. The later part of the seventies and early eighties saw the rapid increases in modern technology. The college soon saw the potential as training aids the newly installed computers and micro-writers in classrooms. The college positioned itself to be in the fore front of the new technological expertise in this area of education. By 1983 Portland saw a significant milestone when the 5,000th student passed through the college. In 1988 the college opened its Vocational Training Department’s Technical Centre which provided students with courses in computing.
1990 to 1999
The new decade marked Portland’s 40th anniversary and to celebrate this achievement Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of EdinburghDuke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
visited the college in June 1990. the royal party spent the day at the college, presenting awards at the prize giving and Her Majesty also laid the foundation stone for a new residential unit which would eventually be called the ‘laurels’. The Laurels was completed in 1992 which added new High-care accommodation for 60 residential learning skills students. The early years of the 1990’s also saw a shift in the college’s Vocational Department to competence based training with the National Vocation Qualifications, or NVQ’s replacing the traditional examinations. In 1993 funds were raised to build Rowan Place independence units. The college’s dining rooms were also upgraded and extended. In the College’s Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee
A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...
Year a state of the arts hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy, involves the use of water for pain-relief and treating illness. The term hydrotherapy itself is synonymous with the term water cure as it was originally marketed by practitioners and promoters in the 19th century...
pool and fitness centre was added to Portland’s excellent campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
facilities. The 1990’s also saw an increase in the numbers of students from around 200 at the beginning of the decade rising to 280 at any one time in 1999. By the new millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
over 8,000 students had now passed through Portland College.
2000 to the present
In the new millennium Portland faced new challenges with massive changes taking place in the education, care and inspection directives. In the Learning and skills Department, Essential Skills Programmes were enhanced with student placed into the programmes according to their individual needs and aspirations. The Employment Department saw the emphasise shift towards Information Technology-based training which it embraced.The college won a prestige’s award for ‘Best Local Academy for the year of 2000 in UK, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For its work in its CISCO AcademyCisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
. With this the college was accredited to become a regional Academy and has continued to offer excellent training opportunities for the students of Portland. The Karten Trust provide funds for the college’s CTEC centre and this has been instrumental in giving students skills in Web Page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
Design and to create a hugely successful Computer Aided Design program with student being able to access the latest software and producing live work for both internal and external customers. The department has an outstanding record for securing employments for graduates of the College. In 2003 the college became Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Office Specialist Authorised Testing Centre and with the Microsoft Academy giving students the opportunities for qualifications in the full range of Microsoft Programmes. After over half a century of steady growth, the number of students at Portland has stabilised in recent years to a level of between 250 and 300 students. With around 30 of these being day students from the surrounding area. The employment students attend the course on a steady roll–on-roll off basis rather than an academic year.
Information and Communication Technology learning centre
In 1997 the college Principal Mike Syms put together the concept of a new vision of an Information and Communication Technology learning centre. These first seeds of a vision for this centre of excellence would take almost nine years of hard work and dedication by the whole Portland community to become a reality. By July 2006 the college had reached its fund raising target of £3.2 million and a further £370,000 for equipment and technology. This figure was reached with the dedicated commitment and enthusiasm of the members of the steering committee put together to make Mike Syms concept a reality. In May 2004 the official ground breaking ceremony took place performed by HRH Prince Edward, Earl of WessexPrince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...
. Just as his mother, the Queen, had laid the foundation stone for the college in 1949, Prince Edward carried out the unveiling of the foundation stone for the new centre almost 60 years later. The buildings Architects were Patel Taylor of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The main construction contract was given to a local company Clegg Construction of Lace Market in Nottingham. Work commenced in May 2005 and the finished building was handed over in June 2006. The new building has ten teaching spaces. These teaching spaces include the IT Essentials Suite, Computer Aided Design Suite, CISCO and Microsoft Academies, Job Club and Transition Suite, Skills for Life/Learning Resource Suite, Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) Suite, Learning and Skills Information Learning Technology Suite and a Research and Development Centre. There are also various meeting rooms and a new main reception. The new centre is furnished with equipment and furniture of the highest quality and specification. There are specially designed desk with integrally fitted computers and interactive whiteboards and ceiling mounted projectors
Video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image, and most modern ones can correct any curves, blurriness, and other...
in some of the rooms. All the workstations have High quality ergonomic chairs.