That's it: Happy Easter

We've come to the end of term. Hey, it's Easter!!

Don't forget that next term starts on

April 23rd,

which is when we'll be back with more blogging, hopefully three times a week.

If you have any stories you want included in this student blog just let us know anytime.

Look over there for ways to make contact - - - - - - ->

Meanwhile, a very Happy Easter.

Have a good break.

Later.

Entwined in Fashion

Waltham Forest College was last but not least at the Alternative Fashion Show in London's Spitalfields Market.

As the very last exhibitors we tried to give those who were braving the freezing cold winds a show to remember.

This is Katie just one of the ten models showing off the 'Entwined' collection created by the BTEC National Diploma fashion students.

Anyway, when we first got there we were put through our paces and at first were terrified (erm, as you can see below) but it all worked out brilliantly in the end.

Students were given a basic foundation shape from which they were asked to be as creative as possible.

The entwining of various metallic coloured fabrics resulted in visually beautiful evening dresses capturing varying shades of gold and silver, as you can see.

Phew!

Hair we go again

Scary or what?

But, here's a winning horror creation from Millicent.

It was a 'Total Look' that made this year's Hair and Beauty show the best ever.

Students from the Hair salon and the Beauty salon had to make stunning creations out of their models and get them to walk down a special catwalk.

As the models walked down, the students would stand at the back waiting.

Blinding lights and loud music accompanied the show which was split into different themes and had video cameras showing everything on a large screen.

Everybody's names were read out by the announcer as first the beauty and then the hair themes paraded.

The Restoration Period, the Weather, and of course Bridal all featured as well as Horror.

At the end there was a really long wait whilst the judges picked their winners, but we really enjoyed the evening completely.

Netball - One for you Ladies?

The guy holding his ball in both hands is Mark Jarvis. He's the Sports & Student Activities Manager.

He's standing next to Michelle Cox. She's a Business and ICT Lecturer, and knows a heck of a lot about Netball.

They are working in partnership with Netball England to organise a Netball course next term. The course is open to all ages and abilities and all those who show particular interest may well go forward to playing competitively for club/College.

Michelle has a wealth of experience in coaching netball locally and has offered her time to help increase opportunities for female students to “step in to sport”.

Could she help you?

For more information please contact Mark on 020 8501 8173 or email mjarvis@waltham.ac.uk

A new kind of high

It's Official.

Vision 12 students have their head in the clouds.

Geddit?

Ok, then, here's what we've been up to.

As part of our outdoor pursuits we have been going to an outdoor activity centre called Stubbers.

For six weeks we have been going there learning and practicing land-boarding.

We’ve learned different tricks, techniques and safety which we have all put into use to avoid death! Only kidding, it's not quite death, as it's safe but you have to do it right and not mess about or you can get hurt, trust.


So, today the Vision 12 students went out for the day land-boarding at an amazing track on the South Downs called Haredown.

It was a great day out with many injuries by the end of it (and no death - see, the training had come in useful).

Anyway, everybody had a good day on the long runs, jumps and ramps, and all we're wondering is if we can borrow some wheels off some buggies to make our own land-boards.

The Double-M team get the cream

You're looking at a winning dish! Well, the food sitting on the dishes was a winner. It was prepared and cooked by Martin and Michael, and it was placed as the number one meal above all others by the judges in the Final of the Ready Steady Cook competition. The competition focused on Healthy Eating Options.

Coming in second were Jessica and Jacqueline, whilst Leon and Natasha were third.

Once again it was great fun for everybody cooking against the clock, apart from the fact that those that were knocked out of the first round of the competition had to constantly come round and judge us for preparation and hygiene. We were marked down if we didn't respect the 'law of the kitchen', and they were watching us very closely.

Anyway, here are the lucky winners, and they'll be the first names on a trophy that will be added to year after year as the competition becomes an annual event, and will be attending a special evening prize giving ceremony with their family and friends.

Vision 12 girls give Vice Principal a red nose

(Click for larger picture)

Any rumours that these three had to bribe a Vice Principal to wear a silly nose are unfounded, honest. What you actually see in his right hand is just some of the money that they managed to raise for Red Nose Day.

Inspired by Vision 12’s Charity Week project, Ashley, Kelly and Rebecca from the programme, took it upon themselves to raise money for Comic Relief!

They donned their pyjamas for the day and took to the college collecting as much money as they could for this worthy cause.

By the end of the day through their superb efforts they managed to raise in excess of £170!

Ready Steady Cook (round one)

Hello from the mega-hot training kitchens down on the Ground Floor.

We're the 'Ready Steady Cook' team!

We've recipes fit for a king.

Well, with no king available we've had to try to please one of the Assistant Principals and Vice Principals alongside our Chefs.

It started by us working against the clock.

We had exactly one hour to produce from scratch a dish that would be judged on taste and presentation.

We were split into teams of two and straight away we started feeling the pressure.

There was a constant reminder from Chef as to just how long we had to go as the minutes ticked away.

We had to keep our heads and work together as a team in order to make sure we didn't finish too early (and let the food get cold) or too late (and leave the plates empty).

When the final whistle blew and Chef rather bluntly turned off the gas, we were thrown out of the kitchen!

It was at this point that the team of judges armed with clipboards took their forks and spoons from dish to dish, and did a lot of 'ums' and 'ahs'.

They had to decide what tasted good and what didn't.

(Here's a picture of one of them taking a mouthful - Dennis, one of our Assistant Principals - he doesn't look too scared, and we hope he didn't drop anything on his tie!)

In the end, we were all shuffled back into the kitchen to be told the results.

Chef called out:

Jackie and Jess (OCN)
Buyo and Oliver (OCN)
Leon and Natasha (Level 2)
Rebecca and Rhiannon (Level 1)
Karl and Eurell (Level 2)
Courtney and Kurvil (Level 2)
Michael and Martin (Level 1)

But is that the end of it? No. These teams have to cook-off against each other next week, to be judged by those whose dishes didn't get through this time. Ouch!

Well, we'll tell you how it concludes next week, here exclusively on the blog.

Working at this experience

When students spent a few hours of work experience within the college they discovered just how complex the inner workings of the college's Learning Support services are. Amina told us, "Today I have been showed how to work in Reprographics and the Media. And then I got to work in the library to help students, finding books, check IDs and how to search for books on their tracks."

But it was working in Media Resources that was the real eye-opener for Amina.

The small Media Resources team of incredibly handsome men and stunningly beautiful women has a confusingly wide range of responsibilities, and Amina was amazed that one moment they were sitting down trying to creatively edit video to produce DVDs, design posters, prepare music and lighting plans for an event in the main hall, whilst dubbing and preparing streaming video files for staff, and then suddenly the next minute they would be running to classrooms to assist worried tutors who needed help using the data projectors or other equipment.

She certainly marvelled at these college super-heroes when she realised that they also dealt with loaning out equipment on demand such as TVs, cameras, CD players, laptops and DVD players, as well as maintaining and teaching people how to use a radio studio, a video filming and photography stage and this very well put together completely unbiased student blog.

International Women's Day

We celebrated International Women's Day this year with a number of events across the college.

First up, on Wednesday the films shown as part of our regular weekly Enrichment Activity were Nikita and Jackie Brown, keeping 'Women on Screen'.

Then when it came to Thursday, International Women's Day there were a whole host of activities to check out.

There were separate displays all around the college. Some in the corridors were put together by ESOL, Early Years, and Health and Social Care, and there was a multi-media presentation in the Library.

All were highlighting the life stories of famous women from history.

The Women's Royal Signals Squadron were invited to talk about careers in the military service, including the T. A. - they even pitched a tent up in room 318, and brought extremely heavy looking equipment along for us to try on!

Meanwhile, it was half-price day in the Hair and Beauty Salon.

This meant students were working hard to provide manicures and conditioning treatments.

Everybody proudly wore their International Women's Day ribbons.

(Here, in the picture you can see one of us re-attaching a toe that had accidentally fallen off a client's foot)

During the afternoon, the Mallinsons was the base for the displaying of all the entries into the 'WFC Woman of the Moment' competition.

This competition was the one where you could take a photo of a female student and nominate them by writing a paragraph or two on anything they've achieved.

(Hey, that's a bit like what this lovely Student Blog is all about as well, innit! Don't forget to use us to celebrate your achievements, too.)

The winner of the WFC Woman of the Moment competition will get a prize of a dinner for two, and will be announced soon.

On a serious note, the police came in to assist students with their enquiries.

This was all about personal safety, and a female police officer was accompanied by a female police support officer ready to give advice and guidance.

We learnt that most of our safety on the street and in public places is down to common sense - including not being pre-occupied when texting or talking, or listening to mp3s so we can see and hear who's around us and be 'streetwise'.

A Doodle earns a dongle

This is the doodle that won Jacobe his dongle, memory stick, pen, or whatever it's called!

To mark National Doodle Day, a small competition gave us the opportunity to doodle a design for a logo for this very blog.

Determined not to lose, Jacobe put pens to paper and out came a whole stream of highly creative examples of his ability.

He said, "I join the blog contest of logo making to contribute art in my college and I want to share my art skills to others."

Below you can see him surrounded by his numerous entries, still finding the inspiration for yet more!

When he's not doodling, he's concentrating hard on his OCN Care Pathway course.

Over the coming weeks you'll see examples of his art appearing right here on your blog.

We'll also be starting a little bit of a publicity campaign using the winning doodle on posters and hand-outs.

Thanks to everybody who entered, and once again well done to Jacobe for penning the winning entry.

And finally, hey Jacobe, when's your first illustrations for a comic book coming out?! We think you're brilliant.

A lifesaving lift to safety

For Alexandra's suspected spinal injury, the team training as pool lifeguards had to work very carefully together to get her out of the water. Almal, Anthony, Carrie-Ann, Danielle, Jamie and Joe all know that a false move could paralyse her for life.

Fortunately, Alexandra was only involved in roleplay as part of our 12 week intensive RLSS National Pool Lifeguard Award Seventh Edition course.

With instruction in both the classroom and the college swimming pool, the course is preparing us for every eventuality, and we each take it in turns to be the 'victim', trusting the others to 'save' us under the careful eye and instruction of our tutor.

Alexandra says, "This course is fun because we get to do a lot of swimming and learning First Aid isn't as hard as it looks!"

Brought to Book

World Book Day was celebrated by the Uplands based students of the Children's Care Learning and Development NVQ Level 2 course (pictured above - click on the picture to see a bigger one!).

The day was dedicated to first discussing the different types of books that can be used - including braile and different textures for sensory exploration - and then demonstrating and practising how to read to children using a number of different methods.

We added our own hand made games and other activities all designed to encourage language and participation.