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.

 

 

Construction Excellence at Newcastle under-Lyme College

On 1st July Year 10 pupils from St. John Fisher Catholic College and Newcastle Community High School joined Newcastle-under-Lyme College for a day experiencing the construction trade. The pupils enjoyed learning new skills in electrical installation, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery and painting and decorating inside our skills and technology centre.

In bricklaying the pupils learned key skills in mixing cement, building a wall and pointing. The pupils learned the importance of maths whilst calculating the number of bricks required, pupil Laura Barker, said: “I loved bricklaying, I’ve always wanted to build and I would love to do it as a career.” A number of the learners also remarked how they didn’t realise how much hard work went into bricklaying.

In the carpentry and joinery session, after a talk on the importance of health and safety in the workshop, the pupils were given personal protective equipment (PPE) to wear. They learnt new techniques to enable them to make a coat hanger to take home with them.

After a fantastic dinner in the College food hall, the pupils got stuck into their final two sessions.

In painting and decorating the pupils had different stations to visit, they were taught how to create various effects with different brushes and paints. NULC’s experienced staff taught the pupils how to create a simple but impressive marble effect and were able to decorate a tile to take away. Bryony Watkins enjoyed this session, she said: “I loved painting, it was fun and artistic, five out of five.”

In the pupil’s electrical installation session, they were challenged to wire a 13 amp plug using a range of tools and different wires. Each pupil had a set of instructions to follow and NULC staff were on hand to explain and support. In the session the pupils found it useful to learn about the inside of a plug, how they work and also the importance of being safe with electrics. Laura Barker said; “electrics was fun and I enjoyed it a lot”.

Overall pupils from both schools enjoyed their day at Newcastle-under-Lyme College. When asked what he enjoyed most about his day, Dan Williams replied; “I got to see what being in a college and doing different college courses is like and I enjoyed it.”

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.

 

 

Gifted and Talented pupils get a heads up from NULC about University

On 30th June 2014, a group of talented Year 9 and 10 pupils from Trentham High School experienced tasters at NULC in four core A Level subjects that top universities are looking for in their selection process.

Every student that attended the College taster day have aspirations to gain entry to the best universities,  so NULC gave them a helping hand by giving them advice on which universities to choose from and what they are looking for in applicants.

The tasters were in English, History, Science and Geography and were all taught by current NULC lecturers. The taster day was about giving the pupils an exact A Level standard lesson and seeing how they went on.

The pupils, who have already been highlighted as gifted and talented in school for specific subjects, were encouraged to experience two relevant A Level subject areas. The challenge was to see how the pupils coped with studying a topic above their current learning level.

The feedback was very positive, Year 10 pupil Ross Woodhouse who chose Science and Geography, said: “We learnt quite a lot of new things about temperature and energy.

“I enjoyed learning about what A Levels I could take and how different college is from school”.

Year 9 pupil, Zoe Marsh, was impressed with visiting the College for the first time and appreciated the guided tour of the facilities, she said: “We saw the key aspects of the building and were able to experience the atmosphere of the college”.

It was important for the pupils to not just experience a college lecture but also see the College as a whole and get a sense of what life would be like as a student here. They were treated to lunch in the College food hall and were able to chat to current science students about life at NULC.

Trentham High School assistant head teacher K. Gardner was impressed with the day’s activities, she commented, “I hope to bring more students next year!”.

 

Two days of College Life...

On 18 and 19 June the Newcastle-under-Lyme College School Liaison Team welcomed 45 Year 10 pupils from The Co-Operative Academy of Stoke-on-Trent for two days experiencing college life.

On day one the pupils got to experience various A Level tasters in; Law, Psychology, Sociology, I.T., Science, Textiles, Dance, Art History and Media Studies.

The pupils enjoyed an introduction to the key concepts in Psychology and Sociology, including social norms, values and the process of socialisation. Susannah Gayle commented; “This session was great! Really active and engaging as well as interactive. It made me want to study it at college.” A number of pupils have mentioned that they didn’t understand what Psychology or Sociology were before this session and now they are thinking of taking it at college!

They were also introduced to the basics of Computer programming with the students eventually able to use the knowledge learned to construct images of trees and rockets using various colours, on each line of the screen. Lewis Brown described this session as “The best lesson today, it was fun, enjoyable and interactive”.

Other comments included Jade Johnson talking about her Theatre Studies session; “This was very entertaining and informative and this is something that I will consider taking at college.”

Simran Iqbal summed the day up; “I really enjoyed my visit to NULC. I think it is an amazing college with great facilities.”

 

On day two the pupils looked forward to experiencing various tasters in vocational subjects that they had chosen. The students were split into their groups and began the first sessions in Photography, Hair & Beauty and Bricklaying. In Photography the students were introduced to the college photography studio and dark room and made a number of black and white photograms each. Amy Pearce said; “Photography was amazing! I learnt so much about developing photographs.”

In the second session the pupils were able to choose between Sport, Fashion and Painting & Decorating. In Fashion the pupils learnt different skills to enable them to produce a shirt that they had designed. In Painting & Decorating the students not only learnt practical skills to produce various designs using different techniques but also went home with the knowledge needed to do their own DIY. Sport included both theory and practical sessions and concluded with a very competitive game of Frisbee!