Sally's Story

Sally has worked at Bridge College for almost 3 years, joining as a drama tutor. For the past 2 years Sally has been working in the admissions team.

The role combines everything Sally loves, most importantly she helps supports students in their transition from school to college.

“My role is about making sure we meet the needs of our new students, but the most important part of the job is relationships. Leaving school can feel like such a huge thing, full of uncertainty for our students.

“I first meet our students about a year before they join us. I’ll spend time with them at their school and sit with the students in their lessons. It’s important to have good relationships with schools and teachers to help find out about the students and their learning. Sometimes we’ll bring a few students from the same school in for an assessment or they might come in on their own. We’re lucky at Bridge College to have a multidisciplinary team and I love working as a team to make sure we can support a student from leaving school into independence. We all work closely together throughout the assessment process to create a learning and support programme that is completely shaped to the student.”

“The pandemic has meant we’ve had to rethink how we do assessments and transitions this year. We’ve had one group of students who I first met before Christmas but because of COVID-19 we had to do our assessments over Zoom and by phoning parents and teachers. But it still felt like we knew the students when they were finally able to step into the building just before the summer holidays. It was the first time the students had really been out the house so it was great to get to meet them again so they could see the college before joining in September.”

“It’s been lovely seeing our new students join us this year, I made sure I was there to greet them on the first day. It means a lot for them to see a friendly face and if they need me, they know I’m always there.”

Bridge College is the first step to an independent, happy adult life for our learners. Based in Manchester, we offer specialist education for students aged 16 to 25 with learning difficulties, disabilities, complex health needs and autism.