Kurvil cooks the policy makers' books

Congratulations to Kurvil Alleyne, an NVQ Level 3 Pastry student who has been selected as a member of the National Learner Panel for 2007/08.

Kurvil went through a rigorous selection process and will be joining 17 other successful applicants from across England to work alongside Government ministers and other key Further Education policymakers over the course of the year.

The National Learner Panel (NLP) is a high profile group whose role is to influence and steer the direction of DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) post-16 policy by ensuring that the learner perspective is included in the policy-making process.

Kurvil's membership of this Panel is something that the College is extremely proud of and we wish him all the best over the coming year.

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.