A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

As the college term came to a close, students were able to join staff for a celebration of the true meaning of Christmas. Lunchtime carols were sung along with Bible readings and prayers. The College Christian Group were helped by Pastor Mark and the Leadership team of the Equippers Church who came to contribute to the event armed with keyboards and guitars.

Attended by members of every faith, and for a while, by the children normally looked after by the Nursery, the warm atmosphere of friendship and comradery spread around the room.

There was a chance to make further donations to The Branches Homeless Charity (see previous articles), and to buy the book of poetry (see previous articles), and to sup on the Christmas tradition of mulled wine and warm mince pies.

And with the carol service we come to the end of the term and this year's contributions to your student blog. We'll be back reporting more good news from the students next term, until then take it easy.

We hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

What a birthday performance

Even though it was her birthday, the dedication to making sure 'the show must go on' was foremost on Carleen's mind during the first Performance Arts Pathway public performance.

Along with Akayla, Aarron, Jean-Luc, Alicia, Du'Jon, Christopher, Ryan, Neil, and Chanique, she played her part in the Christmas show.

Together they danced, rapped, tapped, sung, and acted their way through a complex and impressive routine, taking the audience on a journey celebrating Christmas.

After the performance, Carol Gibson, the Principal got up to say a few words of thanks.

Speaking to the audience about the promising troupe she said, "I think they all belong on stage."

Despite only having been together for 11 weeks, the enthusiast whooping and cheering from the audience certainly seemed to agree.

Food Glorious Food

"My proudest moment was cooking Christmas dinner for 15 people!" admitted 16 year old Alexandra this week.

She is currently studying NVQ Level 1 Food Preparation & Cooking at the college, having been a part of the Junior Chefs Academy since she was 14.

In recognition of her brilliant work, top chef Steve Munkley proudly presented her and 13 other budding young chefs with their very special medals and certificates for having completed a gruelling 10 weeks of the course.

But it wasn't over for them yet. They had to produce a dinner of Curried Beef, Pilaff rice, Vegetable Samosa and Noodles followed by Blackberry and Apple Crumble and Mince Pies with cream, much to the delight of those who didn't take much persuading to eat them.

The awards were presented by Chef Munkley, who is the Chairman of the Craft Guild of Chefs (the UK’s leading Chefs association) and Executive Chef at the prestigious Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, alongside Trevor Nelson the Food Service Training & Development Manager for the Compass Group, one of the sponsors of the course.

“I’m going to carry on to the next level of NVQs and then eventually work in a professional restaurant” beamed Alexandra.

All I want for Christmas is a home

As we wind down for the Christmas break, we need to spare a thought for the homeless.

Vision 12 and Focus 12 students thought it was only right to try and help. After a week of intensive writing and composing, they put together for a local charity a book of their poems (pictured above).

The book was launched at a special signing on Monday.

During the signing a sobering presentation explained the work of the Branches Day Centre, a homeless shelter in Forest Road.

They later benefited from a donation of the initial proceeds from the first of books that were sold. The cheque was proudly presented by Claire on behalf of the students. Afterwards she said, "When I presented the cheque to the Branches users it really hit home to me how much this meant to them."

Then, to round things off poet Neal Zetter read some of his own work, and a selection of poems from the book.

Adam told us, "It was good, Neal read out my poem, I was embarrassed but it was great to hear my words read by a professional."

It's a Knockout

It was a tense fight to the final for Cem and Tiom in the End of Term Pool competition.


After a couple of hours of constant play in the Student Common Room, the two were on cue for the big break to a cash prize.


At the same time as the knockout, the stopwatch was going to try to discover who could make the quickest break.





Erdam, from Business and IT, was eventually crowned for the quickest break, whilst the main knockout battle continued.




Finally the first to pot the black was Tiom, a General Pathway student, who with a smug smile and contented nod walked off with his well-earned £38 top prize.

The height of fashion

It was a very early morning start for students on the Fashion Pathway course on Wednesday.

They boarded a coach outside of the college for a day trip up the M1 to the NEC Birmingham and the finale of the Clothes Show Live.

The main show consisted of a huge catwalk with a dramatic and highly choreographed show that included showing off the By Caprice range.

There was a smaller area displaying some of the other collections. Saidah took these pictures of a couple of her favourites (above) and reported that she "Totally enjoyed the collections shown on the catwalk."


Apparently the catwalk shows were second only to the free goodies as the best part of the day.

Searching around the designs and dress display forms, Rebekha found these dresses and corset the most appealing.




When asked to sum up the day she said, "I thought it was really wonderful you know. I'm really glad that the college brought me here!"

Both say they will definitely be returning to next year's Clothes Show Live and feel a need to get really creative.

The College's Cardboard City

Vision 12 students had just 45 minutes working together as a team to construct these 'homes' just big enough for a lone human to lay down inside.

After a week of studying the complex causes and the issues of 'Homelessness' (you can read much more on the noticeboard displays in the corridor near room 139), it was time to split into two teams and to use whatever cardboard and tape they could scrounge to build the temporary shelters.

Shane commented, "I really enjoyed competing against the other team."

Both teams had to then decide which 'home' was the best, examining the pros and cons of the designs. However, it was Danny that reminded us the full purpose of the exercise. He said, "It was a fun activity that helped us learn about something really important."

DVD? DVD? You want DVD?

If ever there's a movie that comes out on DVD called "Street Crime UK" then you might need to admire the artwork a little closer. Crispin from E-Media designed the DVD cover you can see in 3D on the left, whilst Liam's version is on the right. Which one would a commissioning editor decide should be used?

Nobody would confirm or deny that the Sk8er Boi you see above might actually be a self-portrait of Crispin, but Liam was happy to share that he's really enjoying the course. He added that he is "having fun and working alongside some great people."

The place with friendly staff!

Regular users of the Library (known as the "2Learn Centre"), Jamie and Isha want to share their thoughts on just how good the place is.

"The staff are really nice and there are such good resources here," Jamie said pointing around to the room which has over 50,000 books as well as thousands of DVDs and Videos, talking and interactive books.
"Yes, it's such a friendly environment," added Isha.

The two are studying for their Child Care diplomas and find the free use of the computers essential for writing up their coursework.

The Library not only provides coursework reference support but can loan items (including fiction and entertainment) for periods of up to 3 weeks.

A fashion statement

If you are a fashion student, you can't have helped notice that this year's Clothes Show Live is in full swing until Wednesday at Birmingham's NEC.

The college is represented by a stand that can be found in the 'blue zone' (whatever that is!), proudly showing off some of the excellent work of students from our college.

Visitors get an opportunity to learn more about our college and the courses available, including a chance to watch a fast moving film collage of some of this year's fashion shows that students from the college put on or were involved in.

On display is some of the striking and intricate work that featured in the shows, demonstrating the brilliant results of the hard work and long hours put in by the WFC fashion students.

An aid to AIDS awareness

Today was World Aids Day, when awareness of prevention of the spread of this terrible disease was most on the mind of Student Union President Gavin Foster.


Gavin and a few others spent their lunchtime in Reception asking for donations in exchange for an official red ribbon.

Also available was a little red pack which contained a set of cards with easy to read no nonsense facts about how we must take responsibility for our health. Checking through the cards she'd just opened, Fazzy told us they were "very informative".

By the end of the lunch hour nearly £25 had been collected in donations for National Aids Trust ribbons and quite a few conversations had jolted others into taking the threat of HIV and Aids very seriously.


If you need more information, one of the red card packs or to make a further donation, please come to the Student Union Common Room.