Waltham Tritons & Forest Swim School

Lessons and coached sessions:

Non-swimmers to competitive standard.

• 3 year olds to adult with specific sessions available for 11+ years.

Fees from £52 for a 13 week term.

Waltham Forest College pool and Ilford County High School. Monday, Wednesday and Sunday evenings.

Contact Karen 020 8521 7192 or Jackie 07930 752 223 or info@forestswimschool.co.uk

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Belfast under the microscope

The BTEC National Certificate Public Services (uniformed) year 1 students took an investigative journey to Belfast recently.

Whilst there we went on an open top bus tour of the city.

We travelled along the Shankill Road in West Belfast. Throughout the city there are murals depicting local para-military groups such as the UVF, UDA and UFF. Our guide explained some of the intricacies of this delicate situation.

We passed the Belfast Peace Line or Peace Wall, and drove through the Peace Gates in Townsend Street, a physical barrier for vehicles separating the Shankill Road and Falls Road. Staying in West Belfast, we drove along the predominantly Irish Republican or Catholic Falls Road. Here we saw murals showing allegiance with other groups from around the world. We also passed the Sinn Fein Headquarters and the famous Bobby Sands mural at Sevastapol Street.

On the second day we were picked up by police minibuses and driven to the PSNI training centre (Police Service of Northern Ireland) Lisnasharragh complex where we were met by Chief Inspector Kevin Smith (Head of combined operational training). Scones, tea and coffee were laid on and we started our day at police training college.

Chief Inspector Arthur Davidson facilitated an informative session on operational emergency planning which included topics such as the roles of the police, ambulance, fire services and local authorities in major incident emergency planning.

Arthur explained the bronze operational, silver tactical and gold strategic chain of command. Arthur also focused on the importance of teamwork in emergency planning and interagency cooperation.

He gave practical examples of joint emergency planning, training and exercising within the Northern Ireland public services. Arthur also focused on the challenges of emergency planning and focused on the Whiterock 2005 public disorder and the Omagh bombing as real life examples.

We had a delicious lunch buffet courtesy of the PSNI and in the afternoon Constable Michael Hutchinson (Firearms and tactical trainer) facilitated a theoretical and practical session in which he prepared a tabletop scenario of a major incident where a lorry had Just driven into a Fridge Plant room and caused structural damage as well as breaking some pipe work to a Liquid Ammonia Storage System releasing Ammonia gas into the surrounding area.

The students were split into groups representing different uniformed and non-uniformed public services e.g. fire, police, local authorities and NHS. The students role played a major incident table top scenario where they had to cooperate, coordinate and communicate with each other as how to best contain and deal with the emergency. The exercise was well planned and delievered by Michael and Kevin and the students thoroughly enjoyed participating in it as well as covering assessment criteria for their planning for and management of major incidents unit.

We also were introduced to Tom Johnson Sergeant Press officer at the Lisnasharragh police headquarters and he explained how in an emergency incident his department works with the world's press to cover relevant stories.

We were taken back to George Best International Airport in the police minibuses after a very informative, educational and enlightening day.

The staff and students on the Public Services (uniformed) course thank all the staff at PSNI for their hospitality on a very educational and enjoyable day.

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.

A Common place

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A load of students spend their 'down time' trying to find places to hang. The Cafeteria's an answer. The majestic front steps of the college are an answer. Even corridors and the reception area will do.

But, the real place to hang is the Student Common Room. It's part of the Lowery Building, next to engineering on the ground floor. And, guess what? Yep, those folk in the Creative Media Resources department have made a video about it. This walks you round what's in the common room so's you can then just turn up and hang there looking like you've been to the place hundreds of times!

Another brick in the wall

In the first of this term's trips, it was the turn of the BTEC National Certificate Public Services Uniformed Year 2 to go to the wall. The Berlin Wall.

Not only was the wall a focal point, but we were able look around the whole of Berlin itself.

We checked out Checkpoint Charlie, which, although now purely a tourist attraction, used to be the famous crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

The Public Services teaching team joined us 11 students as we researched more into the history of World War Two and looked at how a modern unified Germany was building its tourist and leisure industry.

Fashion, turn to the left, Fashion, turn to the right

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A highlight of the college year is the Annual Fashion Show. Some say 2007 was the best yet. The college's Creative Media Resources department were there with three professional cameras capturing the event, relaying it onto the big screen, and recording everything. They hope to bring a full video out soon.

Meanwhile, here's a quickfire collection of shots from the days on the catwalk for you to enjoy.

Introducing Student Services

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If you're not sure what's what and who's who, the college's Creative Media Resources department have been putting together videos where different departments introduce themselves.

Here's a very useful one for starters, from the Student Services department, the first point of contact for all student information and guidance.

A warm welcome

The Blog polled a number of potential new students a few days ago during the first Enrolment week.

Remember - Enrolment continues this week, even though it's also Induction Week and a few courses have already started. (So, it's not too late to sign-up and join us!)

Anyway, we spoke to Akli who will be joining us as part of the ESOL New Start course. We wanted to know how he rated the Enrolment experience.

"Very good, Very quick," he told your Blog.

You can see him working with Adrian from Student Services in the Mallinson to prepare his ID card.

The Mallinson restaurant is only used during Enrolment week to help ease congestion for the large number of potential students coming into the college. From this week, everything will revert to being managed from within Student Services (right next to Reception).

Back in the main Student Services office we found Sopia signing up for an International Business course. She commented that her experience had been "Very Good." She also told us, "I've found everybody so helpful and the students handbook very informative."

Let's hope they have the best of success on their courses and enjoy their time here at the college.

How was Enrolment for you? We'd love to read your comments. Just click on the 'comments' link below and let us know...