Friday 16th July
It has been a busy week at college this week, with our year 13 Biology Students starting the week on a Field Trip on Monday and Tuesday to Leeson House. Then on Wednesday our enrichments programme started in full. It was great to see students taking advantage of the diverse range of opportunities available to them, from sports to art, photography, volunteering, meditation, STEM, LGBTQ+, knitting and much more.
This week I was able to go and visit WSE Academy and meet with Louise Henderson the new Headteacher who gave me a tour around the school. I look forward to meeting some of the other local Headteachers from our feeder schools over the coming weeks, to help build on our already strong ties with them.
This weekend may be quite a poignant and memorable one. Whatever you are doing I hope you have a good bank holiday and we look forward to welcoming our young people back to college on Tuesday.
Regards
Ben
Mental Health
Catherine Pennington – Mental Health Lead
With comments from Shannon-Elizabeth M – Student Lead of “Change Your Mind” at S6C
Catherine and I initially met when I expressed interest in joining “Change Your Mind,” as it sounded like a fantastic opportunity that, as an aspiring mental health practitioner, seemed perfect and it could really help set me up for a career in that field. As we began talking we realised I had quite a lot of experience and qualifications in mental health and leadership/youth organisations and maybe I could help Catherine run it. From there we discussed recruiting more students, trying to find students who were studying subjects such as Health and Social Care or Psychology. We were thinking of a target demographic of students who were wanting to go into careers such as Childcare, Teaching, Mental Health, Medicine, Nursing or Volunteering. Our aim was to try and find the most suitable candidates who not only could fit the programme and be able to teach this information to younger years, but also was keen for some of their own personal development and wanted to make steps toward their future; helping the little ones get to their own in the process.
Biology Trip
Nicola Miller – Teacher of Biology
The Year 13 biology students went to Leeson House near Swanage to complete their ecology core practical tasks. Our first study site was Kimmeridge Bay where we looked at the periwinkles and limpet populations. The students also took the opportunity to rock pool and found a wide variety of species. We spent one night at the study centre where students completed the mark, recapture release technique and small mammal trapping. Our final visit was to Studland Bay to look at sand dune succession. The students covered a wide variety of practical techniques as well as finding time to socialise. See the comments from our students below
Our trip to Swanage was a great way to learn the practical skills such as learning how to measure along a transect. Anna was great as she showed so much interest in Kimmeridge Bay and Knoll beach and showed us how to properly use the equipment given. Leeson House was super accommodating and it was great to spend the evening with friends and doing more practical work with Woodlice to estimate their population. All in all it was a great 2 days and I myself am very glad to have taken part in it. – Nick.
Overall, I enjoyed the biology trip. I definitely made some memories with my friends that I’ll remember forever. We went to Kimmeridge and spent the day down there – doing some rock pooling and transects. Even found some little creatures hiding in the rock pools! Then, going down to Leeson House in the evening, spending some time with friends in the dorms and having a look round the house grounds. The next day we went to Studland Bay, and we had a little walk down the coach and did some transects of the sand dunes (despite the rain) – interesting seeing the different layers of sand dunes changing the further away you go from the sea. -Amy
Art
Sophie Bellars – Teacher of Art
It’s been a pleasure welcoming our Year 12s to S6C and they have been really busy in Fine Art. The Fine Art course is vibrant and thought provoking and the first year is an opportunity to develop their skills and techniques across a range of disciplines. Already students have created mini sculptures, made their own mark making tools, discussed what makes art, Art, watched films and read articles linked to this term’s theme as research for an essay and performed acts of destruction on a piece of paper.
When asked about their art experience, Nick H said, ‘Inspiring and exactly what I wanted from the course so far!
