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ofsted

Students Help Promote Special Educational Needs Website

The website www.braain.co.uk was launched on Saturday 28 October and was supported by students from our Foundation and Entry Level Studies courses, who created promotional materials for the launch.

BRAAIN, or Be Ready ADHD ASD Information Network, aims to help parents access resources that specialise in supporting children with special needs, as well as information about related schools and charities.

BRAAIN founders, Nikki Roberts, Emma Collyer, and Helen Mardles, are all based in Farnborough, and have children with ADHD and ASD. They decided to set up the website after struggling to find the information they needed to support their children.

BRAAIN Founders and their children pictured at the website launch.

When he heard about the website, Michael Cornwell, one of our lecturers for Foundation and Entry Level Studies, immediately wanted to help. He enlisted his class to assist in promoting the website, and quickly cultivated a strong ongoing relationship between the website and the College.

To help with the launch, students also held a competition to design a social media post to promote BRAAIN. Ryan Thompson, 17, from Godalming, won the competition, and his post has already been viewed over 6,500 times!

Our students will continue to promote BRAAIN, with a view to eventually contribute to blogs, and set up podcasts as well. At the moment, students are designing leaflets that will be given out at GP surgeries and at information evenings.

Lecturer Michael Cornwell, said: “I have been teaching young people with a variety of special education needs for over 15 years, so when I heard about BRAAIN I was keen for my students to get involved.

Ryan’s winning social media post.

“When I initially spoke to the students about helping with the launch of BRAAIN they were immediately enthused. They discussed how they felt about being diagnosed and thought about how their parents must have felt at the time.

“The marketing project has given my students the platform to showcase their design abilities to a far wider audience. The students demonstrated commitment, creativity, and maturity in a real work situation.

“The students have continually exceeded my expectations throughout the project and we hope to develop a number of materials, both video and print, for BRAAIN, I strongly feel that my students, regardless of labels, have the potential to produce high quality work to a professional standard if given the opportunity – BRAAIN gave us that chance.”

Website co-Founder, Nikki Roberts, said: “Thank you so much to everybody that has helped with the setup of BRAAIN – including the students at Farnborough College of Technology.

“We have been very lucky and met some lovely, kind people. We hope BRAAIN helps lots of parents with children with special needs to get the support they need.”

If you’re interested in studying a Foundation and Entry Level Studies course with us, please take a look at the courses on offer, and come along to one of our Open Events.

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