New College Lanarkshire. School College. Partnership Newsletter

Transcription

1 New College Lanarkshire School College Partnership Newsletter

2 Welcome to New College Lanarkshire s first School / College Partnership newsletter. New College Lanarkshire prides itself on the strong relationships between the College and its schools and authorities, local authorities and employers. The Schools Development Team in the College works hard to create unique, exciting and insightful opportunities for school pupils to sample College life and the many vocational opportunities that are offered at New College Lanarkshire. This newsletter aims to provide you with a snapshot of the many benefits of the partnership, and shows the various ways in which the College can partner with schools and employers. Our comprehensive schools programme sees over 2000 school pupils visiting the College or being taught by College lecturers each week. The team and all staff at the College also look for innovative ways to benefit or enhance local schools through the various skills and talents students at New College Lanarkshire possess. If you have any questions or enquiries about the schools programme, please contact any of the team: Arlene Byrne Schools Development Manager Arlene.Byrne@nclan.ac.uk / Jim Stevenson Schools Liaison Officer Jim.Stevenson@nclan.ac.uk ext Annette Thomson Schools Development Administration Assistant Annette.Thomson@nclan.ac.uk ext 7200 Emma McRae Schools Development Administration Assistant Emma.McRae@nclan.ac.uk ext 2274

3 Pupils get taste for Architectural Technology School pupils recently visited the College s Motherwell Campus for a taster session in Computer Aided Design and Architectural Technology. Fifth and sixth year Graphic Communications pupils from five schools in the local area were given a tour of the facilities on offer at the College including trying out the state-of-the-art software. After receiving extremely positive feedback from many of the pupils involved, the college hopes to make this a regular feature in its calendar. Lecturer and organiser of the visit, Vivien Townsley, said: Working with secondary pupils was a great opportunity for both the College and the pupils in attendance. They were given the opportunity to use state-of-the-art AutoDesk Revit software - which is not currently taught in school - to design a house, furnish and render it. This gave them an insight into different types of software available in the industry. The pupils were also given a brief overview of the courses available in the curriculum area, including the Computer Aided Architectural Design and Technology course and the Computer Aided Design course - both on offer at HNC and HND level at the Motherwell Campus. This also gave them a further understanding to the employment opportunities available as a result of study and what future prospects these courses could offer. Some of these pupils will be our future designers, so we hope that they enjoyed and learned from the taster sessions offered and look forward to welcoming them back for future events.

4 School pupils visit to college goes with a Bang! Primary five pupils from St Augustine s Primary School visited New College Lanarkshire s Coatbridge campus to get an insight into the range of careers available in Dental and Science. Curriculum and Quality Leaders, Kate Wilson and Derek Steven, engaged the group of over 50 pupils explaining the range of jobs available in science and dental while demonstrating some exciting and noisy experiments to show that both can be interesting and fun. Activities and experiments included how fireworks are made, magic bubbles creating fire, dental impressions and oral health. The pupils also had the chance to visit the College s state-of-the-art Dental Facilities, with its clinical skills lab featuring phantom heads. Students on Dental programmes gave pupils the opportunity to work with the equipment, using the tools on models of mouths and taking dental impressions. The activities were designed to give pupils a taste of work, as laid out by Skills Development Scotland s World of Work initiative in line with Developing Scotland s Young Workforce. This encourages young people to think about the range of careers that are available across many different skill areas.

5 Head teacher Caroline Docherty, said: The children enjoyed their experience at the College enormously. They were hugely impressed with the facilities and the experiences they had on the day - many children expressed a great interest in the field of science and dentistry as a future career. We would like to extend our great thanks to New College Lanarkshire for hosting this fabulous event which linked in with the pupils work on the world of work. We are now looking forward to a return visit! The visit allowed College students to gain a taste of working with young people, developing confidence in their own knowledge and giving them an opportunity to put their learnings into practice. Clare Flynn, Head of Faculty for Care and Science, said: This was a great opportunity for New College Lanarkshire to engage with pupils from a local primary and introduce them to our College and its students and to experience the world of Science and Dentistry as a career. I am confident all of the students and pupils thoroughly enjoyed the event. New College Lanarkshire s Faculty of Care and Science maintains a number of partnerships with local schools and organisations to ensure a mutual benefit for its students and members of the community to learn more about the subject areas.

6 Industry experts give unique insight into music business Music pupils from schools across Lanarkshire were given a unique insight into the industry during an event held by New College Lanarkshire students. Hosted in the College s 101 Park Street venue in the Coatbridge campus, over 50 attendees heard from 11 speakers from all of the music and creative industries, gaining insight, advice and tips about breaking into the music business. Organised by NQ Music Business students from the College s Coatbridge campus, the event aimed to provide insight into the range of careers available, insider information and key contacts. The event included interactive Skype calls with Matt Pelling from software provider Loopmasters and Louis Osbourne from management agency, All Night Artists, both giving an insight into their unique experiences in the music business. Representatives from the Performing Rights Society Limited and the Musicians Union were present to discuss the importance of each organisation to artists and performers. Jazz guitarist James Birkett, booking agent Gavin Lawson and radio presenter and DJ Callum Gallagher also attended the event to speak about their range of experience in the industry and the variety of careers available. Focussing on the marketing and business side of the industry, Bright Signals Digital attended to discuss the importance of effective content creation, while representatives from Business to Business and the Scottish Institute for Enterprise spoke about business strategies and funding. Finally, Chris Strachan, from the College s record label Don t Steel Mine Records, took to the stage to discuss the future of the label and what opportunities it could offer to local artists.

7 Winter Leavers take on college project for local school A group of pupils set to leave school in January were given a taste of college life during a winter leavers programme in New College Lanarkshire. Pupils from several South Lanarkshire Schools have been visiting the College s Motherwell campus for 16 weeks to complete a construction course and project for Wallacewell Primary School in the north of Glasgow. The group designed and constructed raised beds, bird houses and a bug hotel for the school gardens. Once these had been manufactured, the pupils had the opportunity to deliver and assemble them on site. The items were designed to allow pupils to have an outdoor area to enjoy and learn about the environment. They have already planned to undertake a plot to plate project plating, cultivating, harvesting and eating their own crops.

8 The winter leavers programme gives pupils who are leaving school and considering a future at college a chance to experience a number of subjects including construction and automotive. St John Ogilvie High pupil, Nathan Cassidy, 16, from Hillhouse, Hamilton, said: This has been a great experience as it has given me the chance to see what college is like before I apply. It has made me definitely want to continue to develop in construction, and the project will hopefully help me in my application to college. Fellow pupil, Declan Murray, 16, from Fairhill, Hamilton, said: It s a privilege to be involved in the project and helping out a school. It will also help us in future getting college places, apprenticeships or jobs. I ve really enjoyed taking part in the project and visiting New College Lanarkshire it s been a great experience. Martyn Campbell, the College s Curriculum and Quality Leader in Construction and facilitator of the project, said: This has proven to be a great opportunity for pupils of South Lanarkshire Schools to work on real commissioned work - from its design, through production and onto delivery and installation. These pupils should be very proud of the work they have done here and I am very pleased that it may have inspired some of the construction industry s future workforce. By completing this task to the highest standards they have shown themselves to be successful in their learning and responsible for the quality and workmanship they have produced. They have contributed to their primary school by providing real time work in a confident and enthusiastic way. Upcoming events/courses Focus West campus visit Routes for All Science and Dental facilities launch Vex Robotics competition Association of Hairdresser and Therapists (AHT) competition