WINDSOR College has been honoured with Centre of Excellence status - making it one of only four in the country to win the award from the British Display Society.

The college is part of the Windsor Forest Colleges Group which also includes Langley.

It has won the award before - but being reawarded the status has been particularly pleasing - especially as Windsor is one of only four BDS centres of excellence in the country.

A team from the BDS including their chairman Iain Kimmins spent the day at Windsor, which is home to the college’s visual merchandising (VM) department. They were impressed by the standard of work produced by Level 3 students which included scale models, plans and elevations and prop constructions. This flagship course is very much part of the fabric at Windsor College, with the building featuring working windows for students to showcase their visual merchandising designs right into the heart of Windsor’s St Leonard's Road.

Mr Kimmins said: “It was a pleasure to listen and talk to the students as to what inspires and motivates them. It was great to view their work which ranged from initial sketches, designs to model making, prop building to dressing the mock-up windows. Given the level of passion and enthusiasm, it proves that there is certainly a generation of inspiring and up-and-coming Visual Merchandisers in the making."

Tutor Sue Leadbeater leads the Visual Merchandising department at Windsor College. Her students’ progress to highly regarded art colleges such as the London College of Fashion and The Retail Academy. Her alumni include a Visual Merchandising Director at M&S, the visual merchandiser for Harrod’s windows and a number of gold medal winners in the highly celebrated WorldSkills competitions.

Windsor College offers visual merchandising and design courses including Level 3 BTEC (equivalent to three A Levels) in window display and interior design and an HNC at Level 4.

To find out more go to www.windsor-forest.ac.uk.