College Blog – 20.1.23

English Update

Welcome back everyone! This half-term in English we will be continuing with our theme of Crime and Punishment but focusing on our writing skills. This week, the students have recapped on various language and organisational features that they will need to include in their writing. We then looked at how to produce a detailed plan to help structure and strengthen our writing.

Our crime theme this week was murder and we had a very thought-provoking discussion around whether the death penalty should be reintroduced. Many of our students felt it was a just and deserved punishment in the right circumstances.

Next week, we will be focusing on our descriptive writing skills.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Chloe and Abbie.

Lumenus Update

Leon Harrop Interview

It is a very special blog this week! On Thursday 19th January 2023, Lumenus KS5 joined forces with the performing arts pathway students from Samuel Laycock!

Mrs Wilson invited the Lumenus students over for a BIG interview! Lumenus would be interviewing someone special, someone with Lumenus flowing through their veins: A BAFTA award winner, BBC superstar, former Lumenus student, LEON HARROP!

Leon is best known for his work as the series regular Ralph in all three seasons of the BBC Series THE A WORD and reprised the role in the spin-off series, RALPH AND KATIE.

When we arrived at Samuel Laycock, we received a very warm welcome from all the staff and students. We visited their performing arts space, where Leon soon made his entrance.

Lumenus were so excited to be reacquainted with one their own. Soon enough, the questions were flying at Leon. He took it in his stride though and did an amazing job!

Leon, well used to being interviewed, discussed his journey from the Lumenus classroom, to the big screen, and everything in-between. Leon spoke of some of his fondest memories from New Bridge. He shared some of his best stories and gave advice to the current crop of aspiring performers in the Lumenus pathway.

To finish the afternoon off, Leon taught everyone one of his dance routines which he performed in his new show Ralph and Katie. Everyone took to the floor whilst Leon delivered his step by step routine. The students (and staff!) all picked up the routine instantly; they were such naturals! The session finished on such a high!

It really was a lovely experience! We want to say a big thank you to Mrs Wilson, Ms Loughran and the team at Samuel Laycock. There definitely will be more Lumenus and Samuel Laycock partnerships in the future.

We will leave you with one of the question and answer from the session.

Ciara – “What advice would you give to me, as a person with additional needs, wanting to become an actor?”

Leon’s reply – “I know I’m disabled and some of you lot might be as well. But you can do acting, you can do it. Go out there.. don’t be afraid. Go out there right and go be the best! There’s two people here that can help you. That is these two (Leon pointed towards Mrs Wilson and Mrs Preston). You can do it…. I’m not just saying that.. you really can do it and if you go out there and do it, you can win a BAFTA like me.”

Maths Update

Happy January everyone! Our students have settled back into their routines and lessons and in Maths our first topic this term is all about Time. We have looked at putting familiar events in order, converting between hours, minutes and seconds, understanding the difference between times on analogue and digital clocks and solving problems with elapsed time.

Each pathway group had completed various activities that have included demonstrating to and testing their peers, using manipulatives and independent work. I would like to give a special mention to Daniel, Connie, Callum, Imran, James and Corey for being focused and committed to completing their work.

Well done everyone keep up the good work!

DIGI Update

After an intense December involving lots of filming and editing (not to mention running our stall twice a week in the Spindles Shopping Centre!) the next step for Digit4ll in this new term is to come up with fresh designs for our Young Enterprise product – TinTastic!

With Valentine’s Day and also Mother’s Day on the horizon, we decided that these would be ideal subjects for the next batch of tins to be based on. So, we set to work looking for new ideas and quotes to decorate the tins with and have already come up with some great hampers that will hopefully appeal to the customer.

As well as our current Young Enterprise product, we have also ventured into new territory with our vinyl printer. Karten Network, who support the Young Enterprise project, singled out New Bridge College to create some awards for them! Hopefully this could open up another avenue for production here at Digit4ll!

In addition to this, the college has recently been contacted by Oldham Community Radio (who have interviewed various Digit4ll students in the past when we have held stalls close to their studio in Oldham Market Hall) asking would we be interested in letting them broadcast from the college itself! This would involve interviewing students from all of the different pathways and also introducing any students who may be interested to the world of broadcasting and radio!

When we agreed to this, they suggested that a student might want to go to the studio to be interviewed, giving themselves and the public more information on New Bridge College itself. We suggested that a member of the student council might be interested in this and our very own Waj immediately accepted the opportunity. He went along on Wed 11th to appear on OCR’s “Oldham Today” programme and did an excellent job of representing the college and explaining the opportunities that are available here. Well done Waj!

And finally, more good news! Three students from Digit4ll have achieved 100% attendance this year! So well done Oliver, Ashton and Sameh – keep up the good work!

PSHE Update

Happy new year, everyone!

I’m absolutely thrilled to be back at it and share all things PSHE with you all.

Throughout the course of this term, we will be tackling an array of topics and subjects.

First of all, during PSHE, our students have turned their attention to the dangers of smoking.

Over the last few weeks the college across their different classes and pathways have held tonnes of group discussion and collaborated to wonderful affect and put together some absolutely fab work!

Nicole, Declan.B, Vincent, Tayla, Lewis.K and Josh all stood out producing top class posters. They have all done extremely well bringing their pieces to life and illustrating the effects of smoking.

I’m absolutely blown away by their contributions. WELL DONE EVERYONE!

Throughout the duration of these sessions, we have set a variety of different challenges for our students. The response from each group has been exceptional! We have put the fantastic resources we have at our disposal to good use! Our students have completed some extensive research as well as watching some quite upsetting, but necessary, clips on the effects of smoking.

On a number of occasions, students compared smoking to vaping. That was like throwing the cat amongst the pigeons! Some concluded that vaping was a good and healthier alternative to smoking; others felt that vaping was as harmful as smoking and is on the rise and a current trend. Declan stated that he felt the consequences of vaping and smoking could not be compared due to the lack of research gone into vaping.

What do you think? What’s your view?

Please feel free to enjoy some of the work the NBC students have put together.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs.Sarwar

Creative Arts Enrichment Update

This week students have had lots of fun making musical suits with Jon large and Eva Schlunke. They have been inspired by Morris Men and One-Man Band artists.  

They have decorated paper suits with paint, feathers, bells, felt shapes, string, foil strips, shakers, tins with beads inside and various other things. They will create music as they move.