Learning life skills in Wrekin College campus house
Homework has a new meaning at a Shropshire college where students are getting lessons in cooking, cleaning and ironing.
Sixth formers at Wrekin College in Telford fly the nest to a house on campus where they spend a week fending for themselves.
And at the weekend they are expected to invite their teachers over for dinner.
The practical programme – which includes a term of one-hour weekly classroom sessions to hone their practical life skills of cookery, cleaning, laundry and household repairs – starts in September. It is aimed at getting prospective university students prepared for living away.
Headteacher Richard Pleming, said: "Quite a lot of senior teachers are worried about how pupils are going to manage being away from home.
"We feel we can do more to support them at this stage to make sure they go on to university and their working life with more resilience and a few more skills to deal with the day-to-day living."
The experience of staying in "Our House" is designed to resemble the realities of a student house-share. Groups of six same-sex pupils, will live, cook, clean, study and relax together for a week. They will also plan and prepare their evening meals on a budget of £15 a week each while they practise the skills of negotiation and tolerance.
Deputy headteacher Haydn Griffiths said: "We have converted one of our houses into something where six students at a time can spend a week sampling life as a student.
"We give them a budget and expect them to fend for themselves. The idea is by the end of the week they invite staff to share a meal they have cooked and show them what they have learnt."
