Charlotte

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Charlotte
Charlotte is a post-16 student taking the
Advanced Diploma in environmental and land-based
studies. She has a visual impairment and
determination to succeed. She engaged well with
the curriculum at key stage 4 thanks to sensitive
support in the classroom and achieved a range of
GCSEs, including Applied Science. She enjoys
being outdoors and she was one of a group at
school who set up a sensory garden. Charlotte
responds enthusiastically to the prospect of
taking the ELBS Advanced Diploma at a land-based
college. She has specialist equipment such as an
enlarging camera that she uses with her laptop.
She continues to have some individual support and
her teachers are good at ensuring that
instructions are given verbally, and information
and assignment sheets can be enlarged for her.
Her primary interest is in working in
horticulture, and she chooses a specialist
qualification for her ASL.
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Charlotte Advanced Diploma in environmental and
land-based studies
additional and specialist learning 360 GLH
generic learning 180 GLH
3 x functional skills at level 2 (prerequisite)
Level 3 BTEC National Award in Horticulture (360
GLH).
extended project qualification (120 GLH)
10 days work experience
personal, learning and thinking skills (60 GLH)
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Work experience
Extended Project

Charlotte became interested in plant-breeding,
particularly some of the rare exotic plants she
encountered in the colleges greenhouses. As her
project, she decided to undertake an
orchid-breeding programme, using aseptic
techniques and sowing and growing orchid seeds,
to determine the feasibility of conserving rare
species by breeding and raising them out of their
natural habitat. As part of her research, she
visited the orchid house at The Royal Botanic
Gardens at Kew and was able to interview one of
the specialist orchid curators about her work and
the importance of conserving rare species. She
also visited the Eden Project to see how they
were building their orchid collection and how
they chose their stock. She filmed both visits.
In her report of the project, she produced a
rationale for the importance of conserving rare
species, a commentary on the process of growing
the rare orchids and an evaluation of the success
of the methods she had used in growing the
plants. Her presentation took the form of an
informative video.
Charlotte spent 10 days in a plant nursery
working with horticultural technicians on plant
propagation and plant production. She was trained
in several of the techniques used and was able to
cope well with the work, with the aid of her
enlarging camera where necessary. She then spent
a further week in a garden centre, where she
looked after plants and answered queries from
customers. She examined health and safety and
access issues within the setting. She enjoyed
both experiences and learned useful skills as
well as having the chance to test out her career
plan.
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