Jeff’s story

National Star student Jeff, who has cerebral palsy and autism, embraces every placement opportunity to prepare for his next step in education. Later this year, Jeff will leave National Star as a work outcomes student and transition to a Supported Internship at Choices College, close to his family.  

While at National Star, Jeff has been a residential student and has thrived in a supportive environment developing essential social skills. Jeff now has refined the use of effective communication and has gained confidence to ask questions when uncertain.  

Due to Jeff’s cerebral palsy, he wears stents on his legs and experiences physical fatigue. To prepare for his upcoming internship, Jeff is working closely with his job coach Ruth, identifying areas that require change. One key goal has been improving his punctuality for various responsibilities. 

Experiencing a variety of placements, including working in tea rooms at Tewkesbury Abbey, stewarding at local community events, answering phone calls on reception at National Star and within the on-campus shop Star Mart has allowed Jeff to identify that placements with a mix of standing and sitting tasks work best for him.

A new opportunity at The Cotswold Listener

Jeff for a 6-week placement at local charity The Cotswold Listener, a local charity run by a group of sixty-two volunteers. The charity identifies news, stories, and snippets from articles that would be of interest to their audience and records them as audio files. The audio files are then distributed via USB sticks. 

Weekly Jeff would arrive to meet June and Alison in their recording studio to support with the admin tasks. These included opening all the post, alphabetising the listener’s name cards, and then inputting the information into the system.  

While on this placement Jeff showed enthusiasm and engaged with the other team members asking relevant questions, such as: ‘What is franking?’, ‘Why are there different colour envelopes?’ and confirming the overall process to ensure he was inputting the information into the computer correctly.  

June, Chair of Trustees at The Cotswold Listener shared: ‘It was wonderful to meet Jeff, he has lots of enthusiasm. He has engaged with the entire process, and he is very fast on the computer.’

Jeff shared: ‘My dream job would include working at a computer, but I am still exploring my options.’

He and his Job Coach Ruth are continuing to explore new opportunities. His next placement will be as a Gallery Inductor at the Wilson Gallery in Cheltenham.  

Partner with us

Are you interested in supporting students like Jeff through meaningful work placements? Our job coaches are ready to collaborate with businesses and organisations to provide opportunities that help students thrive. 

Contact Us
Email: rfisher@nationalstar.org
Telephone: 01242 527631