A prize evening for all

Wednesday evening saw a packed Mallinson Restaurant as the School of Service Industries put on the Hospitality and Tourism Prize Giving Evening.

Everything was organised very professionally, with 'meeting and greeting' in the reception area, and friends and relatives of those attending being shown the way to the Mallinson.

The event started with the presentations, and ended with canapes.

Here's the 'rolecall': (if we miss anybody out, apologies, let us know)

NVQ Catering Full Time - Chef of the Year 1

MARTIN DONNELLY

NVQ Catering Full Time - Chef of the Year 2

EURELL WATT

NVQ Part Time Catering Students' Award

ABIR HAMMOUD

Smithfield Student of the Year

CHRIS PHIPPS

Smithfield Most Improved Student

CHRIS HUSSEY

The Restaurant Association Merit Awards for Organisational Skills in Food Service & Food Preparation

LEON WILLIAMS & EURELL WATT

Ready, Steady Cook! Competition winners

MARTIN DONNELLY & MICHAEL POOLEY;

JACQUELINE CANE & JESSICA

KELLY;

LEON WILLIAMS & NATASHA HUCKFIELD-HOUGHTON

The OCN Pathway Awards Catering and T.H.L.

JACQUELINE CANE, HECTOR RODRIGUEZ & ACLIMA RUSMAULLY

Travel & Tourism Awards -BTEC 1st Dip.

DAVE ONAWELO

BTEC National T &T Yr 1

SANDRA ASAMOAH

BTEC National T & T Yr 2

SHERBANO JOOMUNNVQ

Best Work-based Student of the Year

MONICA CHARLES

BTEC National Public Services Students of the Year

Year 1 -

STEPHEN DARLOW

Year 2 -

NASEER ABBAS

BTEC 1st Diploma in Sport -

KULATEN SAID

BTEC National, Sports Development & Fitness Students of the Year

LISIMBA WELCH & THEOPHANIS GEORGIOU

HND Special Award for Peer Support -

MELEK OZDEMIR (pictured with her basket of fruit)

HND - Best Work Experience Student

GINA NDOMBE

HND - BEST GRADES - 2006

ANDREZA GONCALVES (pictured with her certificate)

Andreza told us, "I just wanted to let you know that I have applied to the Hilton Elevator General Manager programme and I've made it through all four stages! I was one of 6 chosen out of 3500 applicants! I will be starting in September with a 9 month placement in the UK and thereafter, a 9 month placement abroad. I am so excited."

Emergency in the corridor

Shock news reached the blog this week about an epidemic that we think was covered up! Or maybe the college is sitting on the news for now!

(We bring you the unembroidered truth as only a blog can.)

During the Easter holiday what looks like a triage centre had to be set up on the first floor of the main building.

The outbreak was so widespread that stretchers and treatment beds spilled out into the corridor to hold the poor patients in a depressingly familiar Accident and Emergency line waiting for treatment.

As far as the eye could see, waiting for a bit of loving care and attention, their used and abused legs in the air, there was an entire flock of very unwell chairs.

For some, the wheel had finally come off, for others the bottoms of students and staff had been just too much to bear.

It was a sight so shocking that these secretly taken pictures were smuggled out of the college and into the hands of your blog.

No official mention has been made anywhere of the condition of the chairs today, but the corridors were empty when all returned to normal after the Easter break.

If you have any information as to how the chairs might be today, then please let us know by adding your 'comment' below.

I say chaps, this really is Cricket

It's time for another healthy story here on your blog. This time it's cricket. Here you can see some of our players in the nets getting a good practice in.

But, the WFC Cricket team are still looking for players!!!!

Howzat?

Well, if you're interested in cricket and learning how not to get your leg before wicket, why not make your way down to the Peter May Sports Centre in Wadham Road. We're there on Wednesday evenings between 6pm and 7pm. It only costs £2 per session, just make sure you bring a white top, trainers and your ID badge. All other equipment is provided.

Here's a picture of the team that needs you! Come join us?

Therapy is child's play

Level 2 and 3 NVQ candidates in Children's Care Learning and Development met up with the full-time DDC Year 2 students at Uplands House for a special guest presenter.

Ros Kane is a child-centred play therapist. She is one of few British therapists who practises this type of therapy, and runs Carefree Kids. That's her own organisation in the Borough set-up to support children through child-centred therapy in schools. Carefree Kids has a converted playbus if the schools cannot provide a room for the children.

Ros has also written a book called To Have An Only Child. (ISBN 0-9548934-0-9). (The book will be available from the Library, 4th floor in the Main Building)

We had an introduction followed by a DVD presentation of a therapy session.

This included all the 8 steps and full guidelines.

After the presentation we had a question and answer session with volunteers from Carefree Kids. They were also on hand to support students and discuss things further.

Spot the ball?

Hey, look at the way the ball leaves the Wing Attack's hands (above)!

Or, more importantly, could we enter this picture on the left into a 'Spot the Ball' competition?

I mean, right, if we can see it why couldn't they, eh? Only kidding!

Anyway, it's a good opportunity to remind everybody about the WFC Netball Course. Would you like to have a go?

Anyone who is interested in coming along having fun and keeping fit please contact Mark Jarvis on 020 8501 8173 or Jenny on poolside (the Swimming Pool, ground floor main building) or call 020 8501 8300.

Or, why not just turn up? We're over the road at Holy Family School every Wednesday evening from 6:00pm until 7:30pm.

You will need to bring £2 per session and wear comfortable clothing/footwear.

Our team shines in tournament

Eight students represented WFC in the annual basketball tournament hosted by Enfield College.

Leading up to the event we had held trials at Forest Road YMCA and were, to be perfectly honest, rather disappointed with the turn out. Fortunately, of those who did attend, we had a rich mix of talent and were reasonably confident of making a good showing of ourselves.

The format for the tournament meant that the nine Colleges present were pooled into three groups of three. The league phase was played over 1 period of 10mins, rolling clock.

Our first game was against B6 Brookhouse who play out of Hackney. The early exchanges were, as expected, fraught with turnovers and missed opportunities as both sides tried to settle. B6 were first to get into their rhythm and took up a 9-2 lead on 5mins.

However we didn’t panic and with some good accurate passing from Michael and Andrius and some excellent aggressive defence from Mamomi (“Golde”), we cut into the deficit and with 1min of the game left trailed by 15-12.

Iain then picked up the ball on halfway and we all felt assured that we could keep our hopes alive, even though time was running out. But as he made a desperate attempt to drive towards the basketball he was alleged to have fouled the opposition centre and we turned the ball over with only 15secs remaining on the clock.

Playing a full court press, all players dug in, to deny Brookhouse time and space. Under this pressure their number 10 misplaced an easy lay-up and Seb Pardo rebounded the ball deep in his own half. Dribbling up to just in side halfway and, with the clock showing 1sec, Seb released a shot which flew straight into the basket for three miraculous points………..UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

After some celebration involving the majority of those present we went into 1min of overtime and managed to hold off Brookhouse, finally winning the game 17pts to 15pts. A very enjoyable and some would say memorable game.

Our second contest was against Carshalton College and it was clear from the “tip” that we had the upper hand on offence and defence. Michael used his physical attributes to dominate the boards and collect a nine point personal tally.

Javin, Malik and Jeffrey also had strong contributions and we ended the game victorious wining 17pts to 10pts.

Two from two and we were through to the semi finals against Sir George Monoux College.

The last four matches were scheduled for two 7min periods but as the tournament had overrun officials were forced to reduce game times down to a one period of eight minutes.

SGM had been the form side of the tournament showing fluid and well drilled patterns of play during their two qualifying games. We were not intimidated with what we had seen and started confidently matching scores early on. But as the game developed their experience showed and we ended up going down 20pts – 12pts.
A very promising start for WFC Basketball Team, well done lads.

The players:
Andrius and Iain (ESOL New Start), Javin and Malik (Intermediate Business + ICT), Jeffrey (Btec National Sports), Michael (Btec 1st Diploma Sport) and Captain Mamomi (Access to Buisness).

If you are interested in playing competitive basketball for the College please contact Mark Jarvis – Sports & Student Activities Manager: mjarvis@waltham.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8501 8173

Passing out as they pass out

It was a very hot and sticky day back in 2006 when the annual Graduation Ceremony took place. The evening started with a procession of the Principalship and her Curriculum staff along with the Mayor of Waltham Forest and the Corporation that runs the college. All were dressed in their academic robes.

They reached the stage and took their seats whilst the opening speeches were made.

Then each 'graduate' was called one by one to the stage in order to receive their certificates and a warm congratulation handshake from Carol Gibson, our Principal.

The whole ceremony was captured on video and has now been made available on DVD. (Copies can be purchased from the Library on the 4th floor of the Main building)

We've managed to get hold of a streaming version! It was filmed by two high quality video cameras that were also providing 'live' pictures to a large screen on the day. The DVD starts with highlights from the speeches, and then shows every single student walking up to the stage. It concludes with the tradition of those wearing mortarboard hats throwing them into the air.

The streaming version is lower quality than the DVD of course, but it captures the heat of the moment - and it certainly was a very hot evening as you'll see from the number of people fanning themselves.