Queen to Make Visit to Brentford

Her Majesty will open Thames Valley University's ‘Paragon House’

Her Majesty The Queen is to officially open Paragon House, Thames Valley University’s award-winning building, on 20 February 2009. Paragon House provides innovative teaching facilities and modern halls of residence and is a former winner in the ‘Major Housing Project of the Year’ category at the Building awards.

The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will take a tour of Paragon House, based at TVU’s Brentford Campus, meet with university staff and students and local officials, and see a variety of demonstrations and performances, highlighting the wide range of courses on offer at TVU.

TVU Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John said, “We are very honoured to welcome The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to TVU. We are looking forward to showing Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the modern facilities our university offers and demonstrating the skills and talents our students develop here. ”

Staff and students at TVU have been busy preparing for the Royal visit. Students from the Faculty of Arts will put on a special film and dance performance, featuring a film created in honour of the Royal visit and showcasing the varied talents of over 30 students including film makers, musicians, dancers and animators.

From the students of the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences there will be practical demonstrations, including an aromatherapy massage and A&E scenario featuring the sophisticated electronic ‘iStan’ dummy. Lecturers from the faculty will give a presentation on TVU’s research on infection prevention and control.

The Faculty of Professional Studies will demonstrate the skills used in a professional kitchen larder, in a pastry kitchen and ‘front-of-house’, including fruit carving, preparing canapés, sugar-spinning, making chocolate, creating petit fours, laying tables, decanting wine and folding napkins. Members of the Royal Household who received their training at TVU will be involved in some of these demonstrations. The Royal Household has special links with TVU through its recently launched Vocational Related Qualification Butler training course as well as a regular work placement scheme with students from the BA in Hospitality Management course.

The Royal party will also be able to find out more about TVU’s FutureSkills initiative – a new business-facing team which works with employers to help them develop workforce skills.

February 13, 2009