Trentham pupils train with ex-Stoke City F.C star

On Tuesday 30 of June, 12 pupils got the opportunity to receive a football coaching session from ex-Stoke City F.C captain Andy Griffin as part of a project to raise aspirations and motivate them to succeed in the classroom.

The project was run by Newcastle-under-Lyme College (NULC) and Assistant Principal at Trentham High School Laurence Morris who put the whole of the Year 10 boys into groups with a simple challenge- improve their grades, attitude and the winning group would receive a suitable reward.

One of the many rewards on offer was a coaching session at NULC by Andy Griffin and the colleges’ Football Coordinator Dave Beswick. Both Dave and Andy coach the colleges’ first team squads during term time and were on hand to offer individual advice to any pupils seeking a career in the game.

The session was designed to give the pupils a realistic idea of how a Premier League club trains with Andy drawing on his experience of playing at the highest level with both Stoke City and Newcastle United. The pupils were given one to one coaching during the session and were made to feel like professional footballers. There were drills based on shooting, passing and how to beat your marker in any part of the game.

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the session, enthusiastically taking on board what the coaches were telling them and were keen to learn and put into practice what they had be taught.

The project was designed to raise the aspirations of the year group and started with a Q&A session with Dave and Andy in school where pupils were given the opportunity to ask Andy about his career and discuss with him the importance of a good education and how vital it is to have a strong mentality in whatever career you set your sights on.

The success of the project was down to the pupils achieving better grades in the classroom and taking responsibility for their own careers by understanding whatever you do in life, it is ultimately down to you.

If you or your school are interested in receiving a training session with both Andy Griffin and Dave Beswick as part of a project at your school, please get in touch with either Gareth or Tara in the Schools Liaison Team on 01782 254347 or e-mail schools@nulc.ac.uk

Expert craftsmanship in stunning new construction project

Newcastle-under-Lyme College (NULC) hosted its annual construction project on Tuesday 30 June and Wednesday 1 of July with 20 pupils attending from a variety of different schools across Staffordshire.

There were four schools that participated in the project, sending five of their most skilled and practical students to compete to become Construction Champions 2015. Pupils from St Peters Academy, Biddulph High School, The Co-operative Academy of Stoke on-Trent and Thistley Hough Academy all attended the event.

The project was to design and produce a bespoke piece of garden furniture to be displayed in their own school grounds. Prior to the ‘build days’ the pupils were invited in to college to do all the necessary calculations and design work. An important skill of any job in the trades is to have a level ability in both Maths and English, when pricing jobs up or ordering materials, these are vital skills.

Once the pupils had designed their piece of furniture, worked out lengths of materials required and calculated real costings for the ‘job’ our lecturers discussed what this would be like in the workplace and how they would use these skills to a real brief.

The pupils worked in the college’s state of the art professional workshops and were required to wear industry standard steel toe capped boots and overalls to comply with health and safety regulations, so important in today’s industry.

They learned bricklaying techniques with the block paving element to the garden piece by the bricklaying lecturers and NULC students helping out. They were able to work with our carpentry and joinery lecturers to mould the wood into the shape they wanted.

The design of the garden piece was decorated using paint techniques which our painting and decorating lecturers assisted the pupils with. Some schools decided to add some plaster castings to their work and this was also done in our workshops.

A difficult section of the build was the lighting, the pupils had to wire two lights to each piece and were shown by our electrical installation lecturers how this is done. The students did all the important cutting of the wire before our lecturers connected the circuits.

Each piece was of outstanding quality and the schools were immensely proud of their achievements but an overall winner had to be decided, after serious discussions amongst the lecturers it was decided that The Co-operative Academy of Stoke on-Trent were to be crowned Construction Champions 2015!

Project organiser and Joinery lecturer Chris Johnstone was thrilled with the quality of this year’s pupils commenting ‘The enthusiasm of this year’s pupils was fantastic, their quality of work was college standard even though these pupils are only in Year 10, they should be very proud of themselves’.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Construction project, contact Gareth or Tara on 01782 254347 or e-mail schools@nulc.ac.uk

Thomas Boughey Year 10 Day at NULC

On Tuesday 16^th June the whole of Year 10 from Sir Thomas Boughey High School joined NULC to experience college life. The pupils were given a choice of a number of subjects to experience including; Construction, Hair & Beauty, Social Media Apprenticeship, Music, Performing Arts, Fitness Instructing, LEGO Robotics and various A Levels.

Pupils were encouraged to explore their imagination in the art room, by painting whilst music echoed loudly in the workshop. The paintings were then passed on for their neighbours to add their creativity, to eventually create beautiful, inspiring pieces of group art work.

The Psychologists amongst the group were treated to a session using the brand new LEGO Education Emoti kits to create how they think prisons should be designed.  The pupils designed the prisons very differently with some choosing punishment and others choosing rehabilitation as the main aim of the prison… the jury’s still out!

Utilising our Brand New LEGO Education Innovation Studio, the pupils built and programmed robots in pairs, to compete to manoeuvre their robot around a circuit without crashing. Jack, Year 10, commented; “This lesson has really improved my knowledge of programming and computer skills.”

Thomas Boughey High School has a number of talented stylists & beauticians who enjoyed experiencing the commercial salons to create different hair styles and experiment with different nail designs.

Sporting pupils chose to experience our new Fitness Instructing course by learning how to use the fitness testing equipment and taking part in a Personal Training session, ran by current NULC students.

In Biology they got a surprise when they were handed a box of wood lice. Future Biologist Ben, Year 10, said; “I found the exercises very interesting, interactive and enjoyable.” The pupils enjoyed studying how the wood lice react differently to various living conditions that they created.

All were impressed by the excellent facilities in our brand new Performing Arts Centre. Pupils made the most of the state-of-the-art professional recording studio where they performed and recorded a song that they were able to take with them- just like professional artists. Megan, Year 10, really enjoyed being in the studio; “The NULC students that helped were great, the session was very productive and I enjoyed using the awesome equipment in the Performing Arts Centre. I have had an amazing experience.”

In Law the pupils took on different acting roles in the court room and learnt all about court proceedings and most importantly how to argue their case!

The Health & Social care pupils discussed real-life experiences that can affect people of all ages in many different ways. Subjects covered included, Katie Piper’s story and how one incident can change people for the rest of their lives- sometimes for the better!

Overall the Sir Thomas Boughey High School pupils had a great experience of College life with most pupils getting their first experiences of certain subjects. We look forward to meeting the new Year 10 pupils next year for a fun-filled day at Newcastle-under-Lyme College.