The Place Programme | Support for Home Based Learning

Corona Virus Update

Support for home based learners from early years up to GCSE

PLACE is a Bedford Local Authority support service for home educating families managed by Biddenham International School and Sports College. To be eligible to register with the scheme, children should be Bedford Borough residents on the elective home education (EHE) register of the Bedford Borough local authority.

The PLACE Progamme provides significant support for PLACE-registered GCSE learners, including part-time specialist support for a number of GCSE subjects and entrance for public examinations.

PLACE also runs a busy enrichment programme for enrolled youngsters from ages four to sixteen and, in addition, provides guidance and signposting for special educational needs issues.

Chris PulestonMarch 11, 2020One of the things we are trying to do with PLACE music is to give our youngsters as diverse and accessible a musical experience as possible and to encourage them to feel that they can all find something in music to enjoy and with which to get involved. To this end, our music tutor Debbie Milton invited multi-instrumentalist Chris Puleston along to one of our sessions. Chris is nothing if not diverse – when did you last see a sitar, didgeridoo and Tibetan singing bowl all on the same bill? This was such an exciting session for our youngsters, with Chris demonstrating instruments and music from across many cultures. Chris is a wonderful entertainer who demonstrated a great rapport with his young audience and got everyone fired up and actively engaged! Have a look at the little videos below to see Chris and the PLACE kids (and some mums!) in action. And as a bonus, a few photos of our session …...
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Audley End HouseFebruary 28, 2020This term’s theme is “The 19th Century”. To help us to explore this period, we visited Audley End, one of the nation’s grand country houses. Our visit focussed on the role of the servant on these great estates. Working as a servant in a stately home was considered to be a ‘good job’ – mainly because the food was of high quality and clothes were provided in the form of house uniforms – but the hours were long, the pay for most was poor (especially for women) and there was no job security. Servants could be sacked for a trivial misdemeanour or on the whim of the master. It was a time when a long and happy life was for the few, not the many, and those who worked hard to create wealth saw few of the benefits. It wasn’t until the political changes of the next century that we started to see a fairer society, and Audley End was then taken into public ownership … but that’s another story and another visit, e.g., Manchester in July… Here are a few “below stairs” photos of our visit: ...
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Silly Sock DayFebruary 16, 2020Autism Beds has operated for 25 years and works hard to improve the lives of Beds folk with autism. The charity provides social activities, helps to improve skills, runs a helpline, training courses for parents and autism awareness training for professionals. PLEASE SUPPORT THEM AND THEIR WORK and wear your most silly socks to PLACE activities on and around 2nd April – and please donate a little money to assist their sterling efforts!...
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PLACE Kids Make Big MoneyFebruary 2, 2020To celebrate the launch of the new £20 note featuring JMW Turner (possibly Britain’s most famous painter), PLACE decided to commemorate the event with a larger-than-life mural. The event was led by our long-time arts tutor, Paul Nicholson, who took PLACE youngsters through a little history of Turner and his links with Bedford, and then coordinated the creation of the mural. Below are a few snaps of the event … Thanks, Paul, for giving us this exercise in: history, art, teamwork – and counterfeiting (no, not the last one – that would be wrong)....
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Not just bricks …December 12, 2019As part of our autumn “Engineering” theme, we were visited by “Creative Builders”. Creative Builders offer hands-on workshops with a HUGE amount of bricks and equipment enabling youngsters to design and build using LEGO® bricks. Workshops like this give our youngsters a chance to develop a whole range of skills: teamworking, creative thinking, following a plan, and communication skills. Lego – it’s not just bricks! And, of course, on top of all this skill development, everyone had a great time – thanks in no small part to our workshop leader, Stephen Pilling. Many thanks, Stephen! Have a look at our gallery below to see Lego work in progress – and the finished articles. ...
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AerozoneNovember 7, 2019This week, our older PLACE learners visited Aerozone to get an idea of the job opportunities in the world of aviation and to grapple with some problems faced by those working in the field. Aerozone is part of Stansted Airport’s Community Network which allows youngsters to talk directly to professionals working in aviation. This was a really enjoyable and informative day and set some of us thinking about possible careers in aviation: for example, as a pilot or as a member of the cabin staff, as ground crew – or as electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, fire crew, etc. – it’s a long list! Here are a few photos of our day at the Aerozone. And here are a few more moments from our day … ...
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IronbridgeSeptember 14, 2019We start this academic year with a theme of “engineering” – and where better to begin than in the tranquil little village of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire? Why Coalbrookdale? Coalbrookdale is a UNESCO World Heritage site, often referred to as the ‘birthplace of the industrial revolution’. Today, building with iron and steel is quite normal but, back in the late 18th century, this had never been done before. The first large-scale iron construction in the world was the bridge built across the gorge in Coalbrookdale, leading to the village and surrounding area being know as “Ironbridge’. There is so much to see in the Ironbridge area – there are 10 museums devoted to its industrial past, including a Victorian village where you really can step back into the past, dressing as a Victorian and buying things in Victorian shops (with Victorian money!) – you can also have the slightly-scary experience of being a child in Victorian school. Below are some memories of our visit to Ironbridge: Not all of our work focused on engineering from the past. At Enginuity, we concentrated on some very modern technologies in order to design and make simple pewter artifacts: And here’s a little video showing the laser cutting of the design … Finally, here we all are outside Blist Hill Museum – we were all very sad to leave after this final visit – thank you to all in Ironbridge for a truly great learning experience....
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Animals on our ShirtsJune 6, 2019This week, art and animals came together in our stencil workshop led by our Arts Award co-coordinator, Paul Nicholson. Our youngsters brought along T-shirts on which to print their finished work and, during the session, learnt how to cut the stencils and spray-paint in multiple colors – tricky. So, if ever you have wanted to wear a penguin, giraffe, a leopard – or even a chihuahua – (it’s a dog!), this was the PLACE to be! Have a look at our gallery below to see stencils being created and to view the finished work. ...
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Canine PartnersMay 16, 2019We all know that a dog can be our ‘best friend’ – but, for some of us, they can be more than that! For those with physical disabilities, highly-trained assistance dogs can provide practical help with everyday tasks and give their owners increased independence, confidence and self-esteem. To learn more about assistance dogs, we invited Canine Partners (caninepartners.org.uk) to come and talk to us about their work training the dogs and to show us some of their wonderful animals in action. We watched amazed as we saw how the dogs could help with everyday tasks, such as opening and closing cupboard doors, loading and unloading the washing machine, picking up all manner of dropped items, pressing buttons and switches and fetching help in an emergency. They can even assist people with getting dressed and undressed and remove a card from an ATM! Just to give a flavour of what’s possible, here is a little video of ‘Grainger’ helping with the washing. Also in attendance was Beauty, a therapy dog whose owner is Julie Woolerson – one of our longest serving PLACE members. Beauty works with Julie in conjunction with Therapy Dogs Nationwide. And here are a few more memorable moments from our canine encounter....
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Time for cakeJuly 20, 2018Music, drama and all the fun of the fair – yes, it’s the PLACE end of term get-together (there was also quite a bit of cake). This week, PLACE families gathered at Ravensden village hall to celebrate the end of another year with PLACE. This is PLACE’s fourteenth year supporting home educating families in Bedford Borough so, of course, we needed a cake… So, please browse our 2-page gallery below for other highlights of the day – watch out for; violinists, under-cover police, giant tea cups that swirl, castles that bounce (?), corn that pops and a uni-cyclist – who, of course, uni-cycles – and lots of faces that get painted… Thanks to everyone who brought food, thanks to our drama and music tutors and to all performers for the great show – and thanks to everyone who brought stuff and did stuff to make this such a great day. A good time was had by all. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] ...
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