FE Week Reporter | FE Week

Science students scoop up awards

Young biology and chemistry boffins from Stockton Riverside College (SRC) Bede Sixth Form in County Durham collected gold, silver and bronze medals in the British Biology and Chemistry Olympiads. The national competitions, run by the Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry, are open to students studying post-16 sciences James Fryatt won gold […]

Hitting the high notes in Wiltshire

Students from the South West helped their lecturer to strike a chord in an innovative musical video project. Wiltshire College lecturer Patrick Williams was one of 20 people from around the world to sing in a virtual choir via Skype. Their performance of Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby was produced and edited by creative digital media […]

Sports student in a league of his own

A Rochdale sports student is in rugby heaven after signing a professional contract with St Helen’s Rugby League Football Club — nicknamed the Saints. Jack Ashworth, 17, is in his second year of a BTec diploma in sport, at Hopwood Hall’s rugby academy, which allows him to split his time between training and studying. Jack […]

Boxing champ steps into the ring

Former world champion boxer Barry McGuigan has opened a new £5m college sports centre in Berkshire. The boxing legend joined East Berkshire College principal Katie Webb and chair of governors Tony Dixon at the opening ceremony, and later made time to sign autographs, answer questions and give advice to young boxers. He said: “The college […]

An ace for Birmingham’s bull

Young designers from Birmingham gave the city centre’s iconic bull statue a tennis makeover in time for the Aegon Classic women’s tennis tournament due to be held in the city just before Wimbledon. South and City College Birmingham HND fashion students Leigh-Anne Rogers, 25, Natalie Segelov, 18, and Minna Watson, 22, spent three weeks creating […]

Giving every woman the chance to reach her potential

Women dominate the FE workforce, but only 41 per cent of principals are women – and even fewer chair governing bodies. The Women’s Leadership Network is determined this will change, as Eleanor Radford reports How more women can make it to the top in FE topped the agenda at a recent Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) […]

Ceremony marks the ‘wonderful things’ that tutors do

Adult Learners’ Week winners recently got together in London to thank their tutors. Rebecca Cooney was there The dedication of FE tutors was honoured as part of Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) with a special celebration ceremony in central London. David Hughes, the chief executive of the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education, said the event […]

Cracking the glass ceiling

FE can show the private sector a thing or two when it comes to the representation of women in top jobs, says Sally Dicketts The media has been paying a lot of attention to the representation of women — or lack of it — in top roles in FTSE 100 and 250 companies. It’s not […]

Time to climb aboard the internship

Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week, every month One of my most enjoyable meetings of the last fortnight was with a Labour MP — a major champion of FE — and his research assistant, currently on placement […]