Welcome!
Thank you for taking time to read through this term’s 6News. What a fantastic year 2016 has been for the college. Here’s to a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!
New Starters
We would like to wish all of our new starters a very warm welcome to Blackpool Sixth. We hope that you are enjoying your first term with us and are settling in well. Dawn Elliott Additional Support Worker Matthew Langwade Additional Support Administrator Sharon Starkie Cleaner Elliot Eaton Science Technician Apprentice
Charity Work
There has been lots of fund-raising this term, from craft fairs to hit charity singles, we’ve seen it all!
Christmas Craft Fair
The annual Christmas craft fair at Blackpool Sixth welcomed over 80 stallholders to the college. The event raised over £1100 for Macmillan Cancer Support and Sands, the national charity which supports those affected by stillbirth and neonatal death. Stallholders included renowned local craftspeople and artists, students, schools and community groups selling everything from jewellery, beauty products to cards, decorations and books. Visitors, numbering 600 plus, also enjoyed a series of workshops making samples and crafts to take away. Youngsters visited Santa Claus and enjoyed face-painting and visits from Disney’s Anna and Elsa from the film Frozen.
Homeless Hounds
On the night of our Winter Showcase, a wide selection of tasty cakes and treats alike were being sold to raise money for the ‘Homeless Hounds’ charity. The total amount raised was £111.00 which will help rescue and rehome dogs in need.
A Christmas Miracle
See page 4 for more information about the campaign that saw Blackpool Sixth and Friends’ charity single, climb into the top 10 live downloads chart.
In a manger this year Zachary George Brown
Born November 2016, weighing 9lbs
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Congratulations to Sam Brown and her husband Phil.
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Christmas Party 2016
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#BeTheMiracle A Christmas Miracle
Blackpool Sixth worked with local schools to release a Christmas single that highlights the issue of child poverty and raises much needed money for impoverished young people. Famous faces from the soap world and world of comedy including Tina O’Brien, Alan Halsall and Oliver Farnworth, Peter Kay and Reeves and Mortimer have backed the song that was released on Friday 2nd December on iTunes for 79p and on other platforms, with all proceeds being donated to The Children’s Society.
Woof!
The song was an immediate hit with it entering the iTunes chart and climbing quickly to the top twenty ahead of many renowned artists such as Ariana Grande and above the all-time Christmas classic ‘Fairytale of New York’. The Blackpool Tower lit up in the colour of the song’s artwork to demonstrate the support of the whole Fylde Coast behind the song and its message. Both local football league teams also showed their backing for the song. The song was composed by our very own talented trio of Ashley Goodinson, John Stevens and Steve Spencer. Ten schools from across the Fylde coast of Lancashire joined up with our students and a number of community music groups as well as local companies to record the single. Former student Danny Marland acted the producer of the song and another former student, Gio Torralba, took charge of the production of the video. The beautiful song artwork was designed by current student, Ellie Bannister.
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The song makes use of the Christmas story to deliver a hopeful message about how people can act together to ‘turn the world around’. The focus on child poverty has a particular relevance in Blackpool where the percentage of children living in poverty is 30.6% (against a national average of 21.4% and a North West average of 19.2%*). Schools across the UK are also being sent the lyrics and backing track so they can get involved on social media tweeting their versions of the song along with the #BeTheMiracle hashtag to raise awareness nationally. The money raised will support the charity’s work to improve the lives of the most vulnerable 10-18 year olds across the county. The Children’s Society campaigns on many issues that affect vulnerable children and also runs services in Lancashire and across the country for children on the streets affected by sexual exploitation, those missing from home and advocacy services and early family support. The song has received an immense amount of coverage in the media including three articles in the Gazette, three features and a prime-time play on BBC Radio Lancashire and Radio Wave and national level coverage in the Daily Star Sunday and FE Week. The campaign video has been viewed over 175,000 times and the campaign’s own Facebook page has reached nearly 240,000 people. A Christmas Miracle is available on iTunes , GooglePlay, Amazon and other online platforms. Further information is about the project is available here Follow the campaign on social media #BeTheMiracle
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Praise for Blackpool from top scientist
Professor Lord Robert Winston, one of the leading figures in British science praised Blackpool Sixth for its inspiring work in science, technology, engineering and maths provision (STEM) education. Lord Winston was the guest of honour at an evening held onTuesday 15th November at Blackpool Sixth to celebrate the college having received a major award. In July this year, the college was awarded STEM Assured status by the STEM Foundation. Launched in 2010, STEM Assured is the only standard that provides independent, industry-backed validation of the quality of an institution’s work in this important field.
The celebration evening, entitled ‘Building Futures in STEM’ was attended by over 200 guests from the educational, science and business community as well as school, college and university students. The keynote speech was delivered by Lord Winston who is well known as a leading figure within the field of reproductive and developmental biology and also from his enormously popular TV programmes on a wide range of scientific topics. He speaks regularly in the House of Lords on education, science, medicine and the arts and is currently Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Lord Winston gave a fascinating talk about the development of science and technology through history. He drew the audience’s attention to the astonishing pace of progress in modern science and the huge benefits but also dangers this brings. He argued that a key priority for all of society was to vastly increase our level of ‘scientific literacy’ so that everyone can be aware of how best to make use of the opportunities presented by modern science. He praised Blackpool Sixth’s work in STEM education and the way the college encouraged students to combine science subjects with subjects from the arts and humanities. He said this approach was ‘absolutely right’ and added that there was ‘a fantastic buzz’ about the college. In addition to Lord Winston’s talk there were also contributions from members of the Blackpool Sixth science team, Mhairi Mitchison, who is also Fylde Coast co-ordinator for the Ogden Trust which promotes physics education, and Charlotte Still, the regional education co-ordinator for the Royal Society of Chemistry who is based at the college for part of each week. Dr David Whan from the STEM Foundation explained the background to the STEM Assured programme and in particular emphasised how the award demonstrates highly effective partnership working with employers, universities and others involved in STEM. Another highlight of the evening was a return visit from former Blackpool Sixth students, James Delaney and Grace Carpenter. James is now in his third year studying natural sciences at the University of Cambridge and Grace is in her first year studying physics at the University of Edinburgh. Both have won awards for excellence in science and both spoke very highly of the teaching and support they had received at Blackpool Sixth.
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Farewell to Tracy Lowe
Tracy arrived at Blackpool Sixth to teach law alongside Jean Pickles. But did you know that she also taught GCSE Travel and Tourism and GCSE Business Studies, with Lorraine? Being an ex-solicitor, it turned out, had honed some rather useful skills when it came to working with our students! Teaching business GCSE with Lorraine was the start of a beautiful relationship. It wasn’t long before law became part of the business department and the relationship was cemented: Tracy and Lorraine! The then Head of Department, Andrew Boden (aka Bod), made valiant efforts to keep team meetings focused whilst Tracy made valiant efforts to lead him a merry dance. Andrew became Director of Teaching and Learning, Lorraine became head of department and Tracy second in department. Tracy and Lorraine became the Hinge and Bracket, the Cagney and Lacey, the French and Saunders, the Ant and Dec of the college. IT was brought into the department; Lorraine ran IT and Tracy ran the rest! Then Tracy was whisked away to become Head of Humanities (following an educational visit where she shared a sleeping carriage with the Director of Learning!) and she took law with her. Tracy has always had a unique sense of humour, which she used wickedly to wind Lorraine up. Tracy and “Bod, son of God” used to walk down the corridor behind Lorraine who saw them laughing and thought the worst … of course, they didn’t explain otherwise! Tracy has a natural warmth and sense of fun with our students, which has developed such positive relationships over the last 16 years. She thinks nothing of dragging staff in off the corridors to illustrate a point of law: “So, you stole a pen, Lorraine! Class - what’s the mens rea in this case?” This technique, though perhaps unconventional, must work as she has delivered outstanding teaching and fantastic results year on year for our law students. Many have gone on to read law at university, demonstrating the extent to which she has inspired them. We can’t really say farewell to Tracy without mentioning Penguin-gate. In a staff training session, for the full staff team, Tracy and Lorraine showed a video of Happy Feet to illustrate how one can overcome negative thoughts. The training session had been meticulously and creatively developed and the staff were hanging on their every word. Tracy was describing in graphic detail how being negative can influence thought patterns, liberally giving many examples as to how negative one could be and how bleak things could look and it was at this point that her line manager popped in to see how things were going. Tracy, blissfully unaware, carried on taking the staff down the dark road of negativity exemplifying her point with such realism before, eventually, explaining how we can all turn this around and emerge into positivity; unfortunately her line manager did not stay sufficiently long to hear the last part! Like many college staff, Tracy is a Blackpool FC season ticket holder and she regularly attends matches with her dad. One year, Tracy dragged Lorraine along to watch the playoffs match in the Derby Arms at Treales. Tracy was captivated, spurring her team on whilst Lorraine kept her company. During the match breaking news scrolled and flashed across the bottom of the tv screen to say that Blair had resigned and Brown was taking over; Tracy was so engrossed in the match she had no idea what Lorraine was talking about afterwards and hadn’t noticed the breaking news ticker tape. In fairness, as a true Seasider, this is understandable as Blackpool won the match and were promoted to the Premier League. In college, Tracy is passionate about the student experience and has organised and taken part in many visits and events such as the law courts, mock bar trials, the United Nations in Birmingham, two mock elections across the whole college, BBC Radio Lancashire in the old dining hall and an unforgettable visit to China. She was the driver behind the 2014-15 “Target £10K” for charity and galvanised the whole college (staff and students) behind this important project. She did this not just to raise money for charities, but also to develop Tracy gettting stuck in, on her visi t to China! students’ self-esteem. This is a legacy that will never leave Blackpool Sixth.
From each of us here at Blackpool Sixth, we wish you farewell and good luck in your new adventures, Tracy Lowe!
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Good-bye Mr. Steve…
“Brookfield will never forget his lovableness,” said Cartwright, in a speech to the School. Which was absurd, because all things are forgotten in the end. James Hilton, Good-Bye, Mr. Chips Well Blackpool Sixth will never forget Mr. Steve!!!! Whether he is remembered through his many legacies of magazines, debating societies or best-selling, number 1??? Christmas charity singles…Steve’s memory will live on…forgetting him will be an absurd impossibility!!!! Just as the world remembers Mr. Chips, Blackpool Sixth will remember Mr. Steve. Steve joined the college in 2003, following a brief stint at night school. When a member of the day staff left, he had loved it so much that he joined as an A level English language and GCSE teacher. In a previous life Steve had been a primary school head teacher and had also worked in a behavioural referrals unit, but it was at Blackpool Sixth that he found his spiritual home- working with engaged A level students where he was able to enrich their learning through a range of trips including the infamous “Bard and Breakfast tour!” From day one, Steve particularly enjoyed the creative aspects of AS and was always keen to pursue the idea of a magazine. In the early days, we did liaise with Cardinal Newman in a writing competition and he was involved in that. The creation of the nationally award winning Sixth Sense, is attributable to Steve’s vision and passion that we could produce the best magazine in the country. Which in 2012 - we did!!! Shortly after- he was made a gifted and talented tutor and quickly launched the Debating Society which has enjoyed success at a local and regional level.
Steve at Warren Manor working with adults with learning disabilities.
In more recent years, he became involved with the Carol Service, selecting readings and rehearsing the readers, as well as participating in the choir. His contribution to the commemorative 2014 concert will never be forgotten by anyone who was privileged to be there and his Christmas Miracle song has become the stuff of legend! Outside of college, Steve is a talented musician and has collaborated on two musicals, one written and performed when Steve was still in the primary sector, and the other, Brian and the Argonauts (using Beach Boys songs to which Steve at the Shine Awards for the college magazine. Steve had written ingenious new lyrics!) was performed at Blackpool Sixth. He has also taken on roles in college performances toonotably as Herr Schultz in “Cabaret” On a more personal level, he is a real family man and is looking forward to the arrival of his second grandchild and more time in the garden (although neither of these are connected in any way!). He will also continue to contribute to the community of Poulton-leFylde via his membership of various choirs. Many of you will also remember Steve’s fond farewells to staff gone by, via the vehicle of song. Well now it is his turn……..we hope you enjoy!
Best wishes Steve on a long and happy retirement.
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BBC TV historian gives ancient history talk
Celebrated TV historian Professor Michael Wood brought ancient history to life for Blackpool Sixth students when he gave a talk at the college about the campaigns and lasting legacy of Alexander the Great. His visit in November was a real coup for the college as the historian and broadcaster has a stellar reputation for engaging and ground-breaking documentaries for television including ‘In Search of the Trojan War’, ‘In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great’ and most recently ‘The Story of China’ to name but a few. Michael is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and together with his wife he runs the television production company, Maya Vision International. Professor Wood took his audience of A Level Classical Civilisation students through an enthralling hour-long exploration of the Macedonian leader’s epic thirteen-year military campaign in the late fourth century BC. Drawing on his own personal experiences of making his TV series on Alexander, Professor Wood used photographs of amazing landscapes from the shores of Mediterranean to the Ganges in India which lay on Alexander’s extraordinary path to domination of much of the known world.
AllStar Awards celebrate youth sport
On Wednesday 6th December, Blackpool Sixth hosted the sixth running of the highly popular, AllStars Awards, in partnership with the Gazette. The awards celebrate the achievements of the Fylde Coast’s top young sports stars and teams as well as the endeavours of coaches and others involved in youth sport. This year’s judging panel included local paralympian, Isaac Towers, Blackpool FC manager, Gary Bowyer, boxer Scott Cardle and our very own Tim Craven. The overall, AllStar award was won by The Baines School Golf Team. For up-to-date college news please see our blog.
Toxic Childhood 20th October 2016
In October, The Social Science team welcomed leading educational writer Sue Palmer to the college. Sue delivered three sessions based on her work ‘Toxic Childhood’. Over the course of the sessions, over 350 students from Social Science and English and Modern Foreign Languages enjoyed specialist insight into the development of childhood in today’s society, the dangers of early years’ assessment and formalised education. Sue also proposed solutions to the factors we are facing concerning the resilience of the next generation. Students engaged in a question and answer session at the end of each talk with a wide variety of insights and analytical criticisms presented and debated with the guest speaker. Numerous students commented on the valued application to their studies and the usefulness of the sessions to their course progression. We are very proud to have had the privilege of Sue Palmer visiting the college and inspiring our students. Alex Burgess
Thank you for reading, Merry Christmas!
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