Walsall College’s Students' Union has been commended for its commitment to good environmental practice after being named further education union of the year at the 2016 NUS Green Impact awards. For decades, students’ unions have been at the forefront of social and environmental campaigning. Green Impact is the NUS’s flagship sustainability accreditation scheme, helping unions to green their campuses, curriculums and communities.

Families hoping to save cash by going on holiday before the schools break up for summer could face millions of pounds worth of fines, according to new research from Santander UK. In the last full academic year (2014/15) parents were issued with an estimated £5.6 million worth of fines for unauthorised holiday absences. Parents across England and Wales can face fines if they take their children out of school early without prior permission.

Pupils will be tuning up for a musical tour of Italy with a concert in Wolverhampton this week. A total of 77 members of Wolverhampton Music Service’s Youth Orchestra and Youth Wind Orchestra will take part in a series of prestigious concerts in the Umbria region of Italy at the end of July. There they will perform classical pieces by a range of composers including Verdi, Grieg, Ellerby and Dvořák.  Before they leave, they will be in concert at St Peter’s Collegiate Church, St Peter’s Square, on Thursday 21 July, 2016.

Walsall College is inviting prospective students to come and find out about its affordable university level courses at its HI:ED Open Day on Thursday 7th July, from 4pm – 7pm. Boasting a HI:ED achievement rate of 97% and a commendation from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education, the equivalent of Ofsted, Walsall College offers a range of HNC, HND and degree Level 6 courses in subjects ranging from Construction to Hospitality Management and Fashion to Sport.

Walsall College Construction students answered an emergency call from West Midlands Fire Service and put their skills to good use to help promote car safety. The Green Watch team at Walsall community fire station required a creative way to help drive home the importance of using car booster seats, for children under 12 or a certain height, and in their hour of need called upon the expertise of the college’s students.

A free event celebrating Wolverhampton’s rich engineering past - and its bright future - is being held at Bantock House Museum and Park as part of this month’s Enjoy Wolverhampton programme. The historic house and park, off Finchfield Road, is hosting the Discover Engineering Family Day on Saturday, July 9, from 10am to 4pm. Check out live experiments, vintage cars, have a go on the miniature railway and see - steam engines, armed forces vehicles, a JCB, as well as the University of Wolverhampton’s Formula 3 racing car.