SINGLED out for particular praise at this year’s Star Awards by chair of the governors Mike Chad-Smith, no group of staff illustrate what the annual evening is all about better than the College’s finance team
Business Support winners in 2010 and nominated in both years since, they scaled new heights when they reached the final six in the Times Educational Supplement finance team of the year awards in November 2011.
So what is the secret behind a team that brings what they themselves admit can be a ‘boring subject’ to life?
Team leader Donna Jones cites strong and lasting friendships, leading to good teamwork and a desire always to go one better as their magic ingredients. “We work with personality and pride ourselves on being approachable and helpful. It’s amazing when I think about it that Sara Cook, Julie Lee and I all started within a few weeks of each other in 1992,” she reveals. “Our service almost seems short compared with Avril Hunt, who has been here since 1983. We have become a good mixture of the experienced and not so experienced. The good thing is that when more recent staff have come, they’ve been able to settle in almost seamlessly. We are a social team with high morale.”
