Former NULC student gives inspirational talk

On Monday 29^th September, former Newcastle-under-Lyme College student, Lance Corporal Thomas Capper, visited Year 11 pupils at Trentham High School.

Thomas gave an inspirational talk about how hard work and determination have enabled him to follow his dream of becoming a paramedic. Despite failing to gain a place at University due to his low confidence, he joined the British Army in 2012. In 2014 he was promoted to Lance Corporal and has never looked back.

Having visited a number of barracks across Britain, he completed a course on sky-diving, joined a tour of Kenya and completed the pre-deployment training used for Afghanistan. At the end of September Thomas is off to Canada for 2 months to drive an ambulance and offer medical support for an army training exercise.

Pupils from Trentham High School were given the chance to ask Thomas about life in the army but also about the BTEC National Diploma in Sport & Exercise Science that he completed at NULC.

If you would like the Newcastle-under-Lyme College Schools Liaison Team to arrange an inspirational talk in your school, contact Gareth or Tara on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk

Trentham pupils enjoy dance workshop

On Thursday 25^th September Newcastle-under-Lyme College’s (NULC) Performing Arts Centre Manager, Tina McDonald, visited a group of Year 9 & 10 drama pupils at Trentham High School. Tina brought along NULC Performing Arts student Sian Jones to run a dance workshop with the pupils.

 

Sian, who is an ex-Trentham High School student, helped to teach the pupils a Jazz dance routine to a track from the fantastic Broadway show Chicago.

All of the pupils enjoyed showcasing their dance moves and also finding out new and exciting information about NULC’s brand new Performing Arts Centre, which will open in January 2015.

To find out more about the Performing Arts Centre and courses, please click on this link http://www.nulc.ac.uk/getinontheact

If you would like Tina to run a workshop in your school, please contact the Schools Liaison Team on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk

Students ‘FEAST’ their eyes on NULC’s 2014 Art Exhibition

 

School pupils from around the area have been coming to view NULC art students’ final work at the Colleges stunning annual art exhibition, ‘FEAST’.

Large and small groups were easily accommodated and given guided tours of the exhibition. Thistley Hough Academy brought 35 Year 10 pupils and Windsor Park Middle School had a group of 10 gifted and talented Year 8 pupils.

Lisa Mckenzie, head of art at Windsor Park Middle School, said: “It was a great opportunity for Windsor Park’s gifted and talented art students to see the type of work that is produced at FE Level. All of the Windsor students enjoyed the trip and loved being able to interact with some of the art work and being able to talk to the College students about their work.”

Pupil, Rose Holmes, said: “Some pieces gave me some great inspiration for my own artwork. I also enjoyed seeing techniques I’ve never seen before.”

If you would like to visit the NULC Art Exhibition in June 2015 please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Capper on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.

Wolstanton Students Experience College Life

On Thursday 3rd July, Newcastle under-Lyme College’s school liaison team invited a group of talented pupils from Wolstanton High School for an afternoon of tasters to give them an insight into what life would be like as a photography and fashion student at NULC.

The first session was a taster in fashion. The pupils were able to be creative using different materials and designs. Mia Palmer was impressed saying: “I am looking forward to attending this College and taking the fashion course. I really enjoyed the taster.”

Finishing off their first session nicely with a break in the College’s Starbucks coffee shop, the pupils went on to the photography studio and dark room for their photography taster. Again, the pupils were able to show off their creative skills using various objects and materials to create different images. Georgia Pitula was enthused, she said: “I enjoyed photography because it was interesting and it has made me more excited to come to Newcastle-under-Lyme College next year”.

A number of pupils remarked on how they enjoyed experiencing college life and found it useful to help with future choices. If you would like to give your pupils a taster of college life, please get in touch with Gareth or Tara on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk

Computer Programming – Lego Education Robots!

Year 6 pupils from St Margaret’s C. E Junior School, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Hanley St Luke’s Primary School and Stoke Minister C of E Primary School enjoyed the chance to build and program their own robot using Lego education materials.

Andrew Snape, assistant head of sixth form and maths lecturer at NULC and staff from NULC Sixth Form Centre delivered sessions in St Margaret’s Primary and pupils from St Mary’s came into NULC in June 2014. In July sessions were delivered by NULC to St Luke’s and Stoke Minister pupils at Thistley Hough Academy.

The pupils very quickly assembled the robots, which are made up of various technical components of Lego, including motors, touch sensors and colour sensors.  They then programed the robots using a visual programming tool that introduces the concepts of computer code.  The pupils worked together to complete the tasks within the allocated time. Once the groups completed the tasks, they raced their robots.

Andrew Snape, said: “The aims of this activity are to teach pupils the basics of computer programming, and how we can use maths, computing, science, design and technology in an engineering context.”

Head teacher at St Margaret’s, Mr Andrew Black commented: “The pupils really enjoyed the sessions and they were full of the excitement when I was chatting with them at lunch. You undoubtedly grabbed their learning attentions and gave them something on which to build for the future.”

If you would like to organise a taster session please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Capper on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.

The World of Media at NULC

On Thursday 3rd July pupils from St. John Fisher Catholic College took a short walk over to Newcastle-under-Lyme College to take part in tasters from our Art, Design & Media department.

The day began with an A Level media studies session in the College’s Sixth Form Centre. During this session the pupils learned all about the world of media and details of what a media course at Newcastle-under-Lyme College entails.

Once the pupils had chance to look through previous student’s work, they were split into groups and given the task of inventing a magazine and designing the cover. When the pupils were presenting their magazines to the group, they were all very confident and had each thought about every aspect of launching a magazine, such as the target audience and sale price. They came up with fantastic ideas and designs that were creative and innovative. NULC media studies lecturer Natalie Weatherer commented that she could see the ideas working in the current market.

St. John Fisher pupil George Dodd commented; “This taster was awesome, a really intriguing subject that I would love to study”. Kiera Beeston also enjoyed the session, he said: “The media studies taster was brilliant, it has definitely made me consider taking it as an A Level”.

After a short break in the College’s Starbucks coffee shop, the pupils began their second session of the day, in photography. NULC photography lecturer Terry Kane briefed the pupils on what to expect in the College’s dark room and explained about health and safety when using the different chemicals required to develop photographs. Pupils used a wide range of objects to create various shapes and develop photograms. Lucy Shelley had a great time, she said: “I loved it in the dark room, the session was amazing. I learned a lot and would pick this course.”

When the pupils of St. John Fisher Catholic College were asked what they enjoyed about the day, the most popular reply was “Everything!”

If you are a teacher and would like to organise a taster for a group of pupils, please contact the school liaison team; Gareth & Tara on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk

 

 

Très bon, Sehr gut, Muy Buena ! Pupil’s verdict on Languages Taster Day!

 

Year 10 pupils from three Newcastle schools – Clayton Hall Business and Language College, Newcastle Community High School and Madeley High School came together on 4 July at Newcastle-under-Lyme College to experience a full languages taster day delivered by NULC lecturers and current language students.

The groups had 3 lectures in French, Spanish and German and also chose an additional short taster in Japanese, Polish or Italian. At lunch all students and staff enjoyed a themed buffet with food from France, Spain and Germany. The day was designed to give students an example of an A Level Language lecture at Newcastle-under-Lyme College and to demonstrate the wealth of opportunities being proficient in a foreign language can give you in your future career.

Madeley pupil, Billy Seru, commented, “I enjoyed everything. It was fun, I learnt new things, met new people and ate interesting food- overall, a very good day.”

James Bailey from Clayton Hall Business and Language College, said: “I found the taster session extremely informative and it gave me a clear insight into the structure of an A Level course”

Lucy Webb from Newcastle Community High School, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I will take French at College if possible.”

Bruno Prime, French language teacher at Clayton Hall Business and Language College, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the day, it was very well organised. There were lots of different activities, time flew very quickly and the students were always involved. The different activities were challenging but pitched at the right level.”

If you would like to organise a ‘Très bon’ taster session please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Wallbanks on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.

 

Sir Thomas Boughey KMF Race Day at Darley Moor

Race Day finally arrived on a very sunny Wednesday 9^th July for the KMF Young Engineer of the Year Project. This was the culmination of the KMF ‘Young Engineer of the Year’ annual project run by local company KMF to inspire the next generation of engineers.

This year Newcastle-under-Lyme College has sponsored a fantastic group of Year 10 pupils from Sir Thomas Boughey High School who along with their Design and Technology teacher Laura Tunstall have designed, built and finally raced their car against 18 other local high school entrants at Darley Moor Race Track in Derbyshire.

NULC school relationship manager, Lucy Hancock, liaised with the school throughout the project with NULC’s college lecturers from graphic design, delivering taster sessions to produce the car artwork and with engineering staff and students assisting on the Build Day. The school liaison team supported the school on Race Day and was attended by the College’s senior management team and lecturing staff. NULC engineering student, Matthew Humphries, did a great job helping out both on the build and race days and also driving the car for the Sponsors Race.

The pupils had a fantastic day racing their battery powered Greenpower cars around the Darley Moor racetrack in Ashbourne. The pupils demonstrated excellent teamwork skills, co-ordinating the driver change overs and making sure the car ran as efficiently as possible round the track and confidently dealing with the challenges of the day. Host of the Channel 4’s, The Gadget Show, Jason Bradbury also attended the day and gave out the awards in a closing ceremony.

Sir Thomas Boughey’s Head teacher Stephen Gould, said: “It was our first venture into this type of project and the backing of the College was so influential in the many positive outcomes for our students from this wonderful opportunity. Such has been the success of the event for us as a school that planning is already underway for future events”.

If you would like to organise an activity with Newcastle-under-Lyme College please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Capper on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.

 

 

Invertebrates- clever or clueless?

On 23rd June 2014, Sir Thomas Boughey High School brought the entire Year 10 cohort of 150 pupils to NULC for an afternoon for taster sessions to give them an idea of what college life is all about.

The pupils were given a list of available tasters and they had to choose which subjects they were most interested in, the pupils would experience one 1 ½ hour taster during their visit.

The subjects available were sport nutrition, biology, computing and robotics, early years, public services, floristry, graphics, psychology and sociology and photography.

The early year’s session was very lively as students had to work in teams to create a play activity for children using recycled materials. The students had to be as creative as possible and were given lots of information by the lecturers about children’s behaviour and how this affects play time.

Saskia Fagan enjoyed the early year’s taster saying, “I enjoyed the activity we did because it showed how children have to work as a team and how to create something out of recycled materials”.

The biology session was always going to be interesting, especially with the taster session being titled “Invertebrates – clever or clueless?”

Pupils were given a small family of live household woodlice and had a quiz to find out if they were indeed clever or clueless by seeing if they moved towards the artificial light.

James O’Sullivan enjoyed the taster, he said: ‘The session was different to the stuff we do in school and I learnt a lot of things I didn’t know during the quiz”.

Sir Thomas Boughey High School value the taster day very highly and have written their own article regarding the event, to view more photographs and see what they had to say about the day follow this link www.stb.coop.

If you would like to organise an activity with Newcastle-under-Lyme College please contact the school liaison team, Gareth Hughes and Tara Capper on 01782 254347 or email schools@nulc.ac.uk.