A sad farewell - au revoir Clo'

Today is a sad day..after 6 weeks working with us our French student Clo is leaving us to return home....
Good bye Clo, please stay in touch, we will all miss you.

Our new brochure

Wow, our new Work Placement brochures have arrived - really pleased with the results!

Student meeting in sunny Brixham

What a fantastic afternoon in Brixham... The sun shining and Greenway Ferries doing a great job of transporting our students across the bay.

While we were there Simon received his certificate (and enjoyed a small beer in the sun!)

Then all too soon some of us were in the queue for the trip home to Torquay.

This is also my first attempt at blogging on the go from my iPhone. 

TTPL news as it happens!

Elizabeth is the new Harbour Sports star!

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What a great video...one of our students, Elizabeth, working with Frank at Harbour Sports. A great place to be!

Another Bank Holiday!

Hello again..here we are at yet another Bank Holiday weekend on the English Riviera...

This week I have asked one of our students to write his view of one of our student meetings, you can read Lorenzo's blog here 'Student Blog' - it is very entertaining!

From our point of view, this week we were saying goodbye to two German groups (including Mirela, one of our office students - picture above with Gemma) and a small group of Spanish teachers - they all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed their time here in Torbay.

On another matter entirely...and in addition to the lovely long weekend we are looking forward to, it is Friday and Nadine has brought us cake...          jolly nice it was too!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Whoooosh...there goes another week!

Time travel is, I am sure, possible...it is hard to believe a week has gone by!

Say hello/Say goodby, exciting times and sad times...our students arrive and all too soon have to return home. I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of Spanish Teachers earlier this week - I am always amazed at the language skills and dedication that our students demonstrate - we spent an interesting couple of hours at the excellent Dots Pantry enjoying a coffee and talking about their future plans and how much impact the experience of their time here as Teaching Assistants has had on them. It is so motivating to see and hear first hand the difference that TTPL makes.

One of our weekly highlights is the student meeting...almost 70 students enjoyed the sunshine at Applebys in Torquay - what a fabulous afternoon.

It is a vital time for both the students and the team at TTPL as it is one of the few times when all students come together to meet and chat, an opportunity for us to ensure that everything is ok and that any potential problems are resolved. It is also a great time to make sure that wherever possible we support the work placements that host some of our students.

 To finish off the week Nadine and I went to the Torbay Business Forum at The Grand...an interesting event that was very entertaining - Giles Chichester, a man who has helped us in the past, was guest speaker, what a fascinating insight into the European Parliament. Good to catch up with friends from the Torbay business community too.

So I am looking forward to the weekend and hope you are too...on a personal note this weekend sees something of a milestone for me...on Sunday I will have been 100 days without a cigarette! Feel quite pleased with myself.

See you all next week

Ciao for now :0)

Bank Holiday fun, work placements and a journey underground!

Well I hope you all had a great Bank Holiday Monday...one of the brilliant things about being here in Torbay is the constant supply of things to do. Last weekend, the first May Bank Holiday, was blessed with fairly good weather which is just as well, in addition to the usual seaside activity we had the BMAD motorcycle festival in Paignton, a Food Festival in Torquay and the annual Pirate Festival in Brixham - great fun for all involved and almost wall to wall Festivals! The Bay was really buzzing!

Once again we hit the working week with some great students being introduced to their Work Placements, this time it was some German engineering students and a Spanish Telecoms Engineer - It is always such a pleasure to take such enthusiastic young people to begin their placements.

We are also revamping our Work Placement brochure - so watch this space! 

Thursday was student meeting day and this week we took two groups (nearly 100 students!) deep underground at Kents Cavern - always a favourite and this week we had the owner Nick (Cavog the Caveman) Powe as a guide, brilliant!

Some scary fun in the dark depths of the caves and a nice sit down when back on the surface... 

                   
As another weekend looms we will be saying farewell to some of our students - a group of German Apprentices, some Spanish teachers and our footballing superstar Alejandro. At the same time we will be welcoming French, German and Spanish students - I know they will have a great time here in Torbay!
                        So, have a great weekend and see you all on Monday

Ciao :0)

What a week - Sunshine and Birthdays!

It has been another amazing week for TTPL - in addition to all the usuall student activities around South Devon we welcomed for the second year running a group of 2nd year student nurses from Quimper in France. Hosted at The Toorak we set up a range of presentations and seminars from local healthcare providers and a vist to Brixham and Paignton Hospitals and to the Horizon Centre at Torbay Hospital. Fantastic...the group learned a great deal about how UK healthcare is provided and the weather showed Torbay off perfectly - we could not have wished for better.

This week the student meeting was at Pier Point - the perfect venue for an afternoon in the sun, we had a good turn out and it was clear that the students all had a good time socialising - some saying hello for the first time and others preparing to return home...a great way to spend the afternoon.

 

In addition to all this we have had a couple of Birthdays in the office - Jayne and Gemma are both celebrating this week so we all wish them a very Happy Birthday xxx

 

This week is a Bank Holiday and there is so much happening in Torbay - BMAD bike festival in Paignton, a Food Festival in Torquay and a Pirate Day in Brixham to name but a few...have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the sunshine

Ciao