St Mary’s College
NEWS
Issue 5 February 2014
Gordon Taylor OBE visits college
Left to right: Gordon Taylor, student Mo Sheikh, Head of Sport Howard Best and student Roxanne Oliver.
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St Mary’s was honoured to have welcomed Gordon Taylor OBE, head of the PFA, to the College to deliver a talk to our A Level Sports students, as part of our Be Inspired Programme. Gordon Taylor was born in Ashton Under Lyne. He played over 250 games for Bolton Wanderers and scored more than 50 goals before being transferred to Birmingham City in 1970. He joined Blackburn Rovers in 1976, subsequently playing for Bury before retiring in 1980 to work full-time for the Professional Footballers’ Association. He is also a member of FIFA’s football committee. In 2008 Mr Taylor was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List. He spoke to the students about his career as a footballer, his experiences in football since his retirement as a player and his appointment as Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association in 1981. St Mary’s College actually stands on the location of Blackburn Olympics’ Football pitch, who in 1883 became the first working class football team to win the FA Cup. It is now widely acknowledged that Olympics’ players were being paid to play football, which was against the rules of the FA Cup at the time. Gordon Taylor is the Chief Executive of the PFA - the professional Footballer’s trade union. His visit to the College is symbolic; it is where the first Northern ‘professionals’ started to dominate football in this country.
A ‘Splendid’ visit St Mary’s College welcomed Splendid Productions Theatre Company through their doors to perform for Theatre Studies students. Splendid, who are also an education company, showcased their adaptation of Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ in front of eager drama students hoping to benefit from seeing close up the dynamic retelling of the epic tale. Second year students were then privileged to work with the Artistic Director of the company, Kerry Frampton, in a workshop aimed to develop their physical skills.
Drama student, Joanne Oldfield
Emma Naylor, Head of Performing Arts at St Mary’s, said, “The workshop really challenged the students and their physical acting ability. The skills they have gained today will be put into excellent use in their final examination pieces.” Drama student Athalia Willis (right) said, “It was an amazing thrill to work with such an acclaimed theatre company. I am looking forward to taking these skills, along with my whole experience of studying drama at St Mary’s, to university”.
Atlantic Ocean Rowing 24 year old Royal Marine Commando and former St Mary’s College student, Matthew Mason (far left) is taking on the Atlantic Ocean this February, rowing 2,598 miles from Gran Canaria to Barbados. He is also attempting to break the ‘World Atlantic Ocean Rowing Speed Record’ of 32 days to complete it in less than 30 days. Matthew is hoping to raise £20,000 for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund. The Fund supports injured/wounded Royal Marines and their families, especially those making the hard transition from military to civilian life. They also provide on-going support to Royal Marines who face or have faced successive tours in high threat environments (such as Iraq and Afghanistan), providing adventure training, funding for homecoming events, financing memorials etc. As well as all this, the charity provides support and a grant to the families and loved ones of Royal Marines that have died or been killed in service. In order to reach his target, Matt has been taking part in various fundraising activities prior to the trip including boot camps, which members of the St Mary’s College Old Boys Football Club and Accrington Panthers Rugby League Squad took part in and a full day row at ASDA in Accrington. Our very own Sports Technician Mark Hope took part in the gruelling day. Support Matthew in his quest: http://www.justgiving.com/mattmason12
Business Cafe Level 2 Business students demonstrated their Customer Service skills recently, as part of their Customer Service unit. After considerable brainstorming they decided to set up ‘The Business Café’ where they brought in homemade cake, cookies, samosas, sweets and a whole range of other treats to sell to other students and staff at the College. The cafe gave the students the chance to demonstrate skills in marketing, retail pricing and display sales and customer service which could be applied to many careers.
HEART Conference Health and Social Care staff and students attended the HEART (Help End Abusive Relationships Today) conference at King George’s Hall, on Wed 5th February. The conference was hosted by BDDWA( Blackburn Darwen and District Womens Aid) and the Blackburn with Darwen Voice group at King George’s Hall. The event was co-hosted by Sammy Partington one of our Level 2 students who is part of the VOICE. It was an informative day with activities to get local young people thinking about Domestic Abuse, including a performance from special guests BEAT ABUSE from Liverpool. The main aim of the day was for BDDWA and local authority representatives to hear the views and ideas of local young people, in relation to Domestic Abuse and local services. People aged 16-24 are at highest risk of Domestic Abuse, therefore BDDWA really value the input of young people in making our services accessible, user friendly and effective.
Age UKs Bobble Day St Mary’s College supported this year’s Age UKs Bobble Day on Friday 7th February. Age UK asks everyone to help ‘Warm Up Britain’ on Bobble Day by wearing something warm to help make winter a better season for older people, from wearing woolly jumpers to work, to tea mornings or winter walks. It can all make a difference for older people! All proceeds from Frankie’s Coffee shop, within the College, was donated towards the cause. Staff and students joined in by wearing their woollies and made donations to the cause. In addition Health and Social Care Level 1 and Level 2 students sold mini pom poms at £1. Our Health & Social Care students (right) decided to get involved after learning how many older people are effected each year due to the effects of the cold weather. We raised £154.07.
Photo courtesy of Lancashire Telegraph
St Mary’s College Becomes Heart Safe St Mary’s College has become Heart Safe thanks to a generous donation from Fulwood Hall Hospital, part of the Ramsay Health Group. The Hospital selected ‘Hand on Heart’ as their chosen charity for 2013 because of its simple goal: to prevent the deaths of the 12 young people who die each week due to a sudden cardiac arrest. The hospital initially pledged to provide a defibrillator and training to three local schools including St Mary’s College, Blackburn. The Preston-based hospital has funded a Gold Defibrillator Package for us which means the College has received not only a life-saving defibrillator, but also training for 8 members of staff in the use of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) and basic life support training for 30 students which will be a skill that will benefit them throughout their lives. On Tuesday 11th February, staff and students from our Health and Social Care department met with General Manager Debbie Craven at Fulwood Hall Hospital and were officially presented with our defibrillator. Debbie stated, how proud she was to donate this valuable piece of life saving equipment to each school and acknowledged the hard work and dedication shown by the staff during the year which enabled them to achieve this. Adele Aspinwall, teacher at St Mary’s says, “Getting a defibrillator was high on our priority for this year and we were about to start fundraising, but then we were amazed and very grateful that Fulwood chose us out of all the local schools and colleges, to donate one to us.” The Hand on Heart charity is committed to reducing the number of deaths of young people due to sudden cardiac arrest. Since January 2011 Hand on Heart has placed over 200 fully and partially funded defibrillator packages, (an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), CPR training for staff and pupils and training accessories) to schools across the UK.
H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N at ST MARY’S COLLEGE Full-time EVENING DEGREES in the following subject areas: Education and Special Educational Needs Education and Early Childhood plus our BRAND NEW COURSE BA (Hons) in Business Management
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Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care (Rehabilitation pathway) Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care (Social Care pathway) Tuition fees LY£6,000 p.a. N O DON’T MISS OUT APPLY NOW! For further information please contact The Degree Office on 01254 580464 or text SMCHE to 88020 www.stmarysblackburn.ac.uk
Student Guidance Year 13 Students Replying to Offers Students do not have to reply to their offers until they have received a decision from every choice. They will be given an individual reply date - the earliest of which will be May 2014 and this will be displayed on UCAS Track. Any student who wants to discuss their offers or who does not currently have any offers should speak to Student Guidance. Student Finance Student finance assemblies have been delivered by a finance expert from Manchester Metropolitan University and information guides have been given to students. A useful website to refer to is www.gov.uk/student-finance In March, Student Guidance will deliver a talk for students applying for NHS funded courses. Students should keep an eye on Moodle for the date, time and location of this talk. Job Seekers Student Guidance will be organising an employment fair in March for job seekers. Any year 13 students who wish to apply for employment opportunities after College should prepare an up to date CV and keep a watchful eye on updates that we will provide through tutorial bulletins. Year 12 Students Thursday March 20 is the Higher Education evening for all Year 12 students on AS levels or level 3 Btec Certificates. Letters have been sent out to parents/guardians and we would ask for replies as soon as possible.
BE CONNECTED Important dates for your diary
College re-opens for students Mock Exam Week Year 12 and 13 (not vocational) Admissions Interviews (evening) Parents’ Evening by invitation College closes for Easter College closed for Bank Holiday College closed for Bank Holiday Study Day for all students College re-opens for all students
Monday 24 February 2014 Monday 24 to Friday 28 February 2014 Thursday 27 February 2014 Wednesday 26 March 2014 Friday 4 April 2014 Friday 18 April 2014 Monday 21 April 2014 Tuesday 22 April 2014 Wednesday 23 April 2014
Full term dates for 2013-2014 are available on the College website: www.stmarysblackburn.ac.uk www.facebook.com/stmarysblackburn
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