This December Ben Hughes, MD, invited his entire staff to the beautiful Cotford Hotel for their Christmas Party, where they enjoyed exclusive use of the boutique hotel and a wonderful three course Christmas dinner in the Cotford’s award-winning restaurant, L’amuse-Bouche. Ben took the opportunity to thank his Area Managers and his office staff for all their hard work this year and gave a special thank you to previous Area Manager Tessa Foulds who was in attendance, as well as his wife Louise and his mother Pippa Hughes, founder of Pippa’s Guardians. After the fantastic meal the celebrations continued in the charming Piano Lounge, where Area Manager Mary Watford presented all the office staff with gifts in appreciation of everything they do as the bedrock of Pippa’s Guardians with particular thanks to Imogen Trevethan, for her boundless energy and as organiser of the whole event.

But the festivities didn’t end there, as the following morning the team all wore Christmas jumpers as part of Free Radio’s new charity Cash for Kids, raising money for thousands of underprivileged children across the West Midlands, and together raised £100! Reindeers and baubles abound, the staff divided into three groups for a series of training workshops in small groups at the Abbey Hotel. Regional Manager Helen Edginton’s sessions were an informative and practical update on Pippa’s Guardians online database, while Evie Kitt and Struan Hellier introduced the new Academic Mentoring service, detailing their new roles within the company with examples of their academic support successes this term. Founder of Crescent Tuition, Henry Pike, briefed Area Managers about Pippa’s Guardians partnership with his premium tuition company, and Yuan Layland, Chinese Liaison Officer, spoke in depth in her cultural workshop about China. Covering everything from geography and history to life and education in China, Yuan included ways to help our Chinese students celebrate Chinese New Year this February, as well as exploring other celebrations and the mechanics of Chinese names.

The hour-long sessions were followed by a full Christmas lunch at the Abbey Hotel and the snow, which had been falling all morning, was the icing on the Christmas cake; a huge thank you to Ben for his generosity and for hosting such a fabulous event. Merry Christmas!