The 2025 Awards were the fifth year of the Natspec Awards. We made adjustments to the schedule, inviting applications for the awards in the autumn. We also welcomed a new chair to our judging panel, Jim Aleander.
Winners
2025 winner of the Kathryn Rudd Innovator of the Year Award
In 2025, the first winner of this prestigious award was the Deaf Academy for their successful campaign for traffic calming measures outside the school and college.
Engaging with the local community, local and national media, and the local authority, students helped to raise Deaf awareness and educate the hearing public about their right to have their voices and views heard. Students were able to secure funding from the community, a local trust, and three local councillors via Devon Council’s Locality Budget to fund a puffin crossing, zig-zag road markings, 20mph signs, and flashing lights outside the school and college.
This was a powerful use of the Student Voice that demonstrated what can be achieved from whole communities rallying together, led by young Deaf people, when skills, energies and resources are brought together.
The innovative part of this was the student’s leadership of external campaigning and fundraising over a period of time, resulting in much greater community awareness, media engagement, local authority changes to budget and, of course, the traffic calming they achieved.
The Kathryn Rudd trophy was designed and made at National Star College where Kathryn was Principal. It was presented to the Deaf Academy at the Natspec National Conference.
Curriculum innovation
Petty Pool Vocational College – Petty Pool launch new digital pathway partnerships
Phoenix College – Local Offer (Subject)
The Orpheus Centre – Who Am I?
Treloar College – Let Me In
Winner: Treloar College
Let Me In is a student-led business where students from Treloar College go into companies to assess and improve accessibility to the premises for disabled people. Students run all aspects of the business including social media, administration, marketing and sales. Let Me In forms part of the Supported Internship and employability curriculum. Students have the chance to develop a wide range of valuable skills through real world experience, including having to apply and interview for their roles in the business.
The project not only benefits the students involved, but also the companies they work with, other disabled people and the wider community. It demonstrates the powerful contribution young disabled people can make in influencing society and is an excellent example of innovative curriculum design and delivery.
Category judge Nigel Evans said:
“This is an excellent project that has positive implications for the students involved, their peers, other disabled people and other members of the community and beyond. The project has excellent links with local community and demonstrates the powerful contribution young disabled people can make in influencing society. Students develop a wide range of valuable skills that will be necessary as they progress into adult life.”
Innovative interdisciplinary working
Condover College – Integrated Therapy
St Piers College – Learning for Life: A Holistic Approach to a Life-Centred Curriculum for Students with PMLD
Winner: Condover College
Inspired by a student with complex health needs and a life-limiting condition, who found traditional physiotherapy uncomfortable and sometimes painful, Condover College have developed a non-clinical, fun, group approach to supporting each student’s therapeutic needs. Speech and language therapists work alongside physiotherapists to create sessions centred around a sensory story or activity with music, lighting, sounds, smells and objects to engage the learners. The sessions also benefit the staff, each learning from the other discipline through observation, practical demonstration, and mentoring.
This innovative, interdisciplinary approach has ensured that students’ physiotherapy programmes can continue throughout the week, extending beyond the integrated therapy sessions and becoming an embedded part of their learning programme.
Category judge Lorraine Mulroney said:
“Condover College staff and students past and present should be proud of the work they have done in ensuring that interdisciplinary working is at the heart of what they do. The fact that this been driven by listening to student’s experience is what matters. They have truly worked their magic to combine physiotherapy and speech and language therapy (which is not common practice between professions) to ensure a personalised and holistic approach delivers impact and progress for all students. Speech Language and Communication is the key to everything! This way of working has shown wider benefits to all staff and students.”
Innovation in student voice
The Deaf Academy – Innovative road safety campaign by Deaf students with additional needs results in success
St Piers College – St Piers College Values
The Orpheus Centre – Student Safeguarding Ambassadors
Winner: the Deaf Academy
The Deaf Academy students launched a successful campaign for traffic calming measures outside the school and college. Engaging with the local community, local and national media, and the local authority, the students have helped to raise Deaf awareness and educate the hearing public about their right to have their voices and views heard. Students were able to secure funding from the community, a local trust, and three local councillors via Devon Council Locality Budget to fund a puffin crossing, zig-zag road markings, 20mph signs and flashing lights outside the school and college.
This powerful use of the Student Voice demonstrates what can be achieved from whole communities rallying together, led by young Deaf people, when skills, energies and resources are pooled.
Category judge Poppy Garton said:
“The student council worked with all school stakeholders democratically to find solutions that yielded a successful route to achieving their goal of improving road safety. The voices of students were heard across a wide range of organisations, media, online and in the local community.
Students worked with 3 local councillors to obtain a budget to make the required changes. This initiative had a positive and material impact on students, the academy, the community, and also nationally.”
Innovative specialist/mainstream partnership working
National Star College – National Star at The Heart of Worcestershire College
Ambitious College – Unaccredited Learning routes to mainstream courses
Winner: National Star College
A three-way arrangement between National Star, a specialist college, The Heart of Worcestershire, a general FE college and Worcestershire County Council has opened up new educational opportunities for young adults with disabilities in Worcestershire. An under-utilised building at the general FE college has been developed into a bright, warm and welcoming teaching and sensory space for post-16 learners. National Star College tutors, therapists, and care staff deliver the holistic learning programmes, bringing their expertise to local learners with special educational needs.
Securing the involvement of a local authority to help facilitate the partnership between a general and a specialist college is hugely innovative. It is enabling them to go beyond the typical one-year place planning approach to multi-year planning for future need. This partnership is beneficial to the students currently involved while also giving us a proof of concept that can be learned from nationally.
Category judge David Holloway said:
“This is a genuinely innovative three-way partnership between a local authority, a specialist FE college, and a general FE college. It brings students both the benefits of highly specialised provision and the benefits of manageable commutes and learning skills for adulthood in the area round their homes. The involvement of a local authority to help facilitate partnership between a general and a specialist college is hugely innovative and goes beyond one year’s place planning to multi-year planning for future need. This partnership is beneficial to its own students and it also represents a proof of concept that should be learned from nationally.”
Innovative approach to equality, diversity and inclusion
Petty Pool Vocational College – Petty Pool Launch Neurodiversity in Work Conference
Winner: Petty Pool Vocational College
Petty Pool Vocational College launched a ‘Neurodiversity in Work’ conference to change the local business landscape so that more young people with SEND could gain employment and businesses could create more inclusive workplaces. Learners were involved in the running of the conference, gaining work experience and demonstrating their skills and employability to the range of business professionals attending. This fostered a changed way of thinking about an inclusive approach to hiring and supporting neurodiverse individuals.
Many specialist colleges focus on employability, but Petty Pool’s project goes beyond standard expectations by actively shaping employer attitudes and policies and directly influencing workplace cultures. Their focus on thought leadership, employer training, and policy influence will make a long-term difference in terms of the inclusion in employment of neurodivergent young people in their local area.
Category judge Jeff Greenidge said:
“The approach Petty Pool took demonstrates a genuine and sustained commitment to improving employment opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities and neurodiverse conditions. There is tangible impact on employment and inclusion. Petty Pool is driving systemic change through thought leadership and changing employers’ mindsets and practices.”
Innovative approach to mental health and wellbeing
Catcote Futures – Cultural Delights Wellness Programme
Chadsgrove Educational Trust Specialist College – Cultivate and promote an environment of positive mental and emotional well-being for students through the medium of sound therapy
Portland College – Tough Talks – a peer support group for male learners
Winner: Chadsgrove Educational Trust Specialist College
Chadsgrove has introduced an exciting initiative to help improve the mental and emotional needs of young people with more complex needs through a blend of sound and hydrotherapy. Liquid Listening allows students with complex physical and sensory needs to listen to and feel music during hydrotherapy sessions. It has improved the motor skills of students with limited mobility and given students who have difficulty with sensory processing an immersive way to engage with their emotions; it has been particularly helpful for those with limited speech.
This innovative programme was initiated by the Student Council and students have been involved in testing and personalising the activities which has ensured the therapies are more meaningful and impactful for those involved. The students’ mental health and wellbeing has improved as a result.
Category judge Liz Maudslay said:
“The bringing together of sound and hydrotherapy is truly innovative and has been particularly effective in improving the wellbeing of students with complex physical and sensory needs. The programme was initiated by the Student Council and informed by regular student input. Videos showed how much the programme allowed students to relax, and physical and occupational therapists found that after a Liquid Listening Session students were far more receptive to interventions.”
Innovative routes into employment
Digital Independent Specialist College (DISC) – Digital Advantage
Petty Pool Vocational College – Petty Pool College x BEPO – Breaking down barriers through All Inclusive Fashion
The Orpheus Centre – Unexpected Leaders
Winner: Digital Independent Specialist College (DISC)
The Digital Independent Specialist College (DISC) is an innovative blend of college and professional digital agency. It mirrors the realities of the digital economy which is typically freelance, remote, and diverse, helping its interns to build portfolios and develop essential workplace skills. They partner with a neurodivergent-led agency to secure external work experiences, peer-to-peer mentoring, and project experience with major local employers. Interns gain expertise in website development, animation, branding, videography, and podcast production, working on authentic briefs from organisations such as the National Autistic Society.
DISC’s close collaboration with employers enables them to showcase the value of neurodivergent talent and ensure that their programmes remain aligned with industry needs. These partnerships are mutually beneficial: employers gain access to diverse, creative talent, and interns develop skills and confidence in real-world settings through meaningful, employability-enhancing opportunities.
Their strong track record in securing positive destinations rate suggests this is a blueprint that other FE settings could explore in the context of their own local labour market.
Category judge Laura Davis said:
“Digital Advantage have developed a high ambition partnership approach to layering up young people’s skills to enter the creative industries. This approach has potential to be scaled up and applied to other sectors, matching the strengths of young people to industry experts. The partnership approach working with a neurodiverse led organisation demonstrates a set of values that will support the on-going innovation of the program. I am excited to see the future of this partnership.”