Birmingham Metropolitan College students cleaned-up more than 6,000 bricks that will be used for its new skills centre.

The college’s original Erdington Skills Centre, which dated back to the early 20th century when the site was a technical school, was demolished to make way for a new £4m building.

More than 6,000 bricks were taken from the site to the college’s James Watt Campus, in Birmingham, where level one brickwork students used heavy machinery to clean cement and grime from them.

They will be used for the new centre that will contain purpose-built classrooms and workshops for the construction trades.

Learner Francis Dean, aged 49, who is studying brickwork after being advised to register for the course by Jobcentre Plus, said: “It was great to see how the bricks would have originally looked after we had finished cleaning them.

“It’s a good idea to re-use materials and has been an interesting project to work on.”

Assistant faculty director for construction Keith Acton said: “The bricks are probably around 100 years old. We were especially keen to recycle materials from the original building to keep some historical context.”

 

Picture caption: Learner Francis Dean

 

A healthcare-support charity has a new website thanks to Rugby College student Lewis Flavell.

The Friends Support the Hospital of St Cross and the Community and Mental Health Services in Rugby approached the college to see if they could help to revamp the charity’s website.

Computing management curriculum leader Ed Shuker gave 11 students from Rugby and Royal Leamington Spa colleges the project as part of their website design module.

Charity representatives were kept informed as the learners developed plans and designs over seven weeks before they opted for the website developed by 19-year-old Lewis.

He said: “It’s a great project and I’m proud with what I’ve come up with. I’ve also been working with the charity to help with some technical challenges with transferring my design to the charity’s own content management system. It’s good to know that the website I designed is now live and being used to help local people.

Picture caption: From left: Lewis Flavell and The Friends Support the Hospital of St Cross and the Community and Mental Health Services in Rugby communications leader Willy Goldschmidt by a screen showing a page of the new website

Performing arts students from Croydon College acted alongside comedian Steve Coogan in his latest Alan Partridge series, writes Paul Offord.

It is not every day that students are encouraged to wreak havoc on the set of one of the nation’s best-loved comedy shows.

But that was the basic instruction given to 19 performing arts learners from Croydon College when they starred in the second series of Alan Partridge: Mid-Morning Matters, set to be screened on Sky Atlantic in the new year.

They played unruly youngsters from a local comprehensive invited into the fictional North Norfolk Digital studio to talk to Mr Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, about their school’s playing fields being sold off.

Level three learner Kellie Blair, aged 20, said: “We sat in Alan’s little studio and were basically told to throw things at him while he tried to present his show. Some of the students then started shouting at him and we were all winding him up until a big argument broke out.

“The students with speaking parts probably only had about half an hour to learn their lines and the rest of us were given a basic idea what they wanted and left to improvise. Then Mr Coogan would ask us to do certain things slightly differently and we’d see how that went until everyone was happy with it.”

Programme makers Baby Cow Productions approached Croydon College after Mr Coogan specifically asked for youngsters from outside of traditional stage schools to act in the episode.

The show’s producer Ted Dowd, from Baby Cow, said: “Steve [Coogan] was keen not to have stage-school kids because they always seem to have their natural instincts and realism sucked out of them.”

Mr Dowd was full of praise for the college learners’ good manners behind the scenes during filming on November 13.

He said: “It was so great to have them come up after and say thanks for letting them be involved. You don’t expect that these days.

“Steve did a good job of directing them — without making them feel intimidated or self-conscious. It is always a fine line to tread… but he’s an old pro. Steve had great fun and it worked a treat.”

Level three learner Mark Choppin, 17, was one of six students who had speaking parts.

He said: “It really was such an amazing opportunity. We learned so much in a short period of time about film acting and production. It will look impressive on my actor’s CV.”

James Miller, the college’s programme leader for performing arts and production, said: “It was a fantastic and valuable experience for the students, who gained practical knowledge about acting and filming. It was also pretty special to think they were directed by Mr Coogan.”

Kellie, who hopes to act on TV after graduating, said: “It was pretty surreal to be working with him [Mr Coogan], but I found it very inspiring for my future career. He was really nice. He seemed to care a lot that we were all happy with what we were doing during filming and was even nice enough to pose for photos with us afterwards.”

She added: “It was good to see how they make a TV show like that and everyone was very professional. It’s definitely something that I would like to go into one day.”

 

Picture caption: Mr Coogan directing the learners

Level three graphic design students from Kingston College have designed Christmas cards for the African Vision Malawi charity.

Learners were challenged to come up with images reflecting ‘The warm heart of Africa’.

Designs for five cards were selected by the charity that supports children and vulnerable people in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Graphic design tutor Alison Richards said: “They found the charity’s work very inspiring and have developed ways to visualise themes such as Christianity, shelter, peace and unity, while reflecting the culture of Malawi through their use of fabric patterns and colour palettes.”

Charity chair Heather Palmer said: “I was truly amazed at the professionalism of these young students.”

Visit www.africanvision.org.uk/shop to to buy the cards.

 

Picture caption : From left: Students Nikola Ban, aged 17, and Malaika Hardy-Fraser 18, show-off their cards with Karen Alderson and Heather Palmer, from African Vision Malawi, and fellow learners Paige Coote, 17, and Lisa Mason 18

Macclesfield College students curried favour with guests at an Indian-themed fundraising evening.

A buffet was prepared at the college by level two and three catering students featuring lamb curry, chicken masala, bhajis, samosas, shish kebabs and popadums.

Level three travel and tourism learners dressed in colourful saris to serve around 50 guests.

There was also a prize raffle with money raised helping to fund a four-day trip for travel and tourism students in February to the Spanish resort of Benalmadena, where they will work as holiday reps.

Travel and tourism teacher Nwyla Tatton said: “The students did a fantastic job of organising the Indian-themed event and putting into practice the skills that they have developed on their course at the college.”

 

Picture caption: Staff and students on the night

Hearts were racing as staff and students from Chichester College jumped from an aeroplane to raise funds for schoolchildren in Kenya.

A group of 23 people, including some partners of college members, were sponsored to jump with instructors at the Go Skydive centre in Salisbury.

More than £3,000 has so far been raised through this event and other fundraising activities that included running the 10-mile Great South Run through Southsea, Portsmouth, in fancy dress.

The money will help pay for books and uniforms that college learners will give to schoolchildren in the village of Nakuru, Kenya, during a trip there in April.

Charlie Copeland, health and social care lecturer, said: “We left college at 8am [for the skydive] and by 10am we were training how to land safely by landing on a bench. Staff and students went up in groups of six and started jumping just after lunch.

“After completing the jump some people were buzzing and wanted a career change, but others went green and, unfortunately, two were sick.”

 

Picture caption: Head of learning Jo Henderson skydiving with an instructor

 

 

A cake baking competition helped raise more than £300 in memory of former head of Barnsley College music department Richard Tolson.

It was judged by chair of the EnRich charity Josie Whiteley, Barnsley College assistant principal Dianne Murray and local baker and businessman Dr John Foster MBE.

Other fundraising activities included a raffle, tombola and a name the teddy bear competition.

The money will be split between Macmillan Cancer Support and Enrich, a charity that supports performing and creative arts in Barnsley. It was launched in memory of Mr Tolson who died in 2013, suffering from cancer.

Learner development and support team leader and event organiser Jessica Lee-Henderson said: ‘’It’s been fantastic to see our learners and staff celebrating the life of a wonderful colleague while raising lots of money for charity. The bake off went down a sweet treat with everyone.”

Mr Foster was impressed by the level of effort put in by the bake-off entrants, especially winner Hayley Jenkins who works for the college as a graphic designer.

He said: “The overall standard of the cakes was very high with some particularly showing great innovation in their design and decoration.

“The winning ‘Simply Red Velvet cake’ was beautifully moist, looked fantastic and well deserving of first place.”

 

Picture caption: From left EnRich charity chair Josie Whitely, bake-off winner Hayley Jenkins and local baker Dr John Foster