May 2022
Student Newsletter
Opening Welcome
Hello, It’s been great having you all back after the Easter break, we hope you’re all ready for this summer term and we are eager to get you all to the finish line. In the meantime have a read of this week’s issue for all the latest updates.
Learning Resource Centre
The libraries will be open on exam days for students to use for some quiet study time beforehand. You can find the opening hours below:
Social Media
Social Media Channels at West London College A great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at West London College is to follow us on our social media. Please see the channels we are on below and subscribe and follow as many as you like! Here are the accounts and the handles.
Instagram westlondoncollege Facebook @westlondoncol YouTube West London College LinkedIn West London College Twitter @westlondoncol
Covid Updates
In line with the new government announced guidelines it is no longer a requirement to wear masks around the college. We still strongly advise students to test twice a week. In the meantime please protect yourself and the community, get vaccinated! All students are now eligible to receive their Covid Vaccination, please use the link below to get yours booked in! Remember, some professions such as nursing and care work are moving towards compulsory vaccinations to work in their industry, so getting vaccinated will help stop the virus and keep those job options open to you NHS Covid Vaccination Booking You can also attend the following walk in centres local to your College site:
Hammersmith Campus Ealing Campus Southall Campus Park Royal Campus
Exams Please be aware 29 June 2022 has been set by Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) as the Exam Contingency Day. All GCSE, A Level and BTEC exam students must be available on this date should an exam or exams have to be rescheduled.
Start times All GCSE English and Maths exams are MORNING exams. You must arrive in College by 08:30 latest ready for a prompt 09:30 start. If you are late entry into the exam room is not guaranteed. All late arrivals will be reported to the awarding body and your exam paper may not be marked. Stationary Please be reminded that it is your responsibility to ensure that you bring all equipment required. Failure to do so may disadvantage you in the exam. Exam Rules and Regulations Possession of unauthorised items, such as a mobile phone or any watch is a serious offence and could result in disqualification from your examination and your overall qualification even if you do not intend to use it. You must not have any electronic devices or watches on you they should all be left with your personal belongings in the cloakroom or the area designated for belongings in the exam room. You must not talk to, attempt to communicate with or disturb other candidates once you have entered the examination room and you must follow the instructions of the invigilator at all times. Before your exams so that you know what is expected of you must take the time to read the Information for candidates – Written exams guidance and familiarise yourself with the Unauthorised Items Poster and the Warning to Candidates poster.
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Exam Timetable
West London College
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is of utmost importance to us and we are focused on ensuring we do all we can to protect all of our learners. If you ever have any concerns about yourself, or any other student you can always pop into Student Services. We can offer support with a wide range of problems and if we can’t we will find someone who can. Email safeguarding@wlc.ac.uk or fill in the student services referral form.
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Willy Wonka meets Mary Poppins at WLC Hospitality & Catering Taster Day!
David Bradford (r)+Thomas Danks (l) have provided artisan ice-cream machines on a long term loan to West London College pictured with catering and hospitality students who worked on the event 200 West London school students were treated to a free fun day out at West London College as the latest taster day (27 April 2022) from The Chefs’ Forum Academy highlighted hospitality. Both Willy Wonka and Mary Poppins were gleefully represented by chef Jesse Dunford Wood who created a special dessert to open the new Taylor UK Gelato kitchen at the college and inspire the next generation of chefs! The local schools who attended the magical event were: St Marylebone CE Bridge School, Nower Hill High School, Cambridge School, Guru Nanak Sikh Academy; Westside School, Hammersmith; Brentside High Ealing, Cumberland Community School, Ark Acton Academy and Barnhill Community High. In a new direction, there was a cookery demonstration by TikTok and Instagram sensation Poppy Cooks who created a special potato recipe. Poppy O Toole, a former chef, has reached over 2m followers on social media and made her first appearance on Saturday Kitchen over the weekend. Our Catering and Hospitality students helped to prepare many of the dishes sampled during the event.
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Creative Media Students to Broadcast Quality Kit in New Partnership with VMI
Creative media students Noah, Sinesh, Daniel and Maryam with Matt Fisher (L) and Ian Jackson (R) during the Cinematography workshop
West London College is proud to announce a significant partnership with camera rental company, VMI, who supply camera packages to the TV Industry for dramas, feature films, documentaries, music videos and more. The partnership will ensure students on media courses at Ealing Green College will have access to cutting-edge equipment, with VMI donating a full ARRI digital camera kit, worth £100,000, to the college. The camera kit is still used in industry production and this particular camera was most recently used for shooting season 22 of ITV’s “Midsomer Murders” in summer 2021, which is due to continue airing throughout 2022. Cinematographers Ian Jackson and Matt Fisher led West London College creative media students in using the Arri Alexa digital camera today (25 April). Students were put through their paces from changing lenses and setting apertures, to measuring distances and pulling focus.
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Student Awards Ceremony to Celebrate Success at WLC
Nineteen students received honours at the West London College Student Awards Ceremony last month (16 March). There were twenty trophies to give in thirteen categories to include students from all four colleges in Hammersmith, Ealing, Southall and Park Royal. Guest speaker, Yonathan Andreas, a former student who is now a successful entrepreneur presented the awards to the ecstatic winners who completed their studies last year 2021-22. The glittering ceremony was held at The Sainsbury Theatre, part of the prestigious London Academy of Music, Dance and Acting (LAMDA). You can see all the winners from the awards ceremony here!
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Progression Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on supporting you with your progression options, this is a very important time in your lives focusing on your next steps and we are here to support you the whole way through! We have arranged for different organisations to come in and talk to you about different progression routes from Higher Education, Apprenticeships, Gap Years and Employment (please click on the links for information on each progression route)
Progression Activity Timetable If you would like to book a Careers Advice appointment with our College Careers Advisor please contact Jemima j.wiredu@wlc.ac.uk Please click the images below for the latest job vacancies, apprenticeship opportunities.
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Work Experience All timesheets must be submitted to your Work Experience Advisor by Friday 27th May without a signed timesheet we cannot sign off your mandatory Work Experience unit. If you are aged 16-18 and enrolled onto a study programme, Work Experience is a mandatory part of your course. All those who have not yet completed Work Experience will be expected to do so. Not completing your Work Experience will have a direct impact on your progression and the completion of your course. Please check your emails for notifications from the Work Experience team, letters will also be sent home to parents. If you need to speak to someone from the team please contact your advisor: Jodie O’Sullivan- j.osullivan@wlc.ac.uk Louise Scully- l.scully@wlc.ac.uk
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Careers Day
Armed Forces Careers Day On Wednesday 4th May Public Services students were joined by the Armed Forces to discuss careers within the Army. Cpl Chhangte delivered a careers talk where students from L2 and L3 Public Services were able to find about the different entry routes and career paths within the army and ask questions about Cpl Chhangte's very interesting career as a frontline soldier. This talk was then followed by a team building task in the Sports Hall where students took part in different activities with 5 members of the Army Outreach team. It was a great opportunity for students to work together and step outside of their comfort zone.
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Enrichment Eid 2nd – 4th May Eid is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide; this 3 day celebration marks the end of Ramadan which is a month-long event where Muslims are required to fast from dawn to sunset. Eid literally means a “festival” or “feast” in Arabic and is a joyous time of celebration and blessings within the Muslim community. People greet each other with “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “Blessed Eid” and with formal embraces; savoury and sweet dishes are prepared at home to share with family and friends and gifts are given to children and to those in need. On behalf of Student Services we would like to say a big Eid Mubarak to all those who celebrated.
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Enrichment Mental Health Awareness Week- 9th-15th May This week we promoted Mental Health Awareness week with our learners. Our fantastic MIND Wellbeing Advisors held Art Workshops to help combat loneliness. The Mental Health Foundation started Mental Health Awareness Week 21 years ago to help raise awareness and help support people affected by Mental Health. It has grown to become one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally and this year's theme is Loneliness. Research shows that 1 in 4 adults feel lonely some or all of the time and this can be for a number of reasons. However studies suggest that the longer we feel lonely, the more at risk we become of developing mental health problems. In recognition of Mental Health Awareness week, Student Union hosted a Tea + Talk Cakes Sale fundraising event, where students had the opportunity to socialise and talk to our MIND practitioners about mental health and wellbeing in a relaxed and informal setting whilst feasting on some sweet treats!!! We would like to thank everyone who joined us at the Tea + Talk Fundraiser or contributed to the cause, all donations from the event will be going to the charity MIND. For more information see video Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 - Loneliness
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Apprenticeships
Apprentices – we want to hear your views!
Many of you will already be familiar with our apprentice focus groups, where on a termly basis we hold forums for small groups of apprentices on specific programmes to gather your views on how your apprenticeship is going. We will once again be starting the round of focus groups from next week, so you can expect your tutor to ask you to spend 20 minutes or so as a group, talking to someone from the apprenticeship team to gather your views. You’ll be asked things such as: • • • •
How is this apprenticeship helping you with your career goals? Are both your employer and your college supporting you well in your apprenticeship? What’s going particularly well with the course? How could we improve the experience for you?
Once we’ve gathered your feedback, we will put together a list of actions and, whatever we can do, we will do to improve the programme for you. It’s also a good opportunity for you to raise any questions for us to answer, such as: • • •
What is an apprenticeship gateway and how do I get there? What’s my end point assessment going to be like? How can both my tutor and my employer support me to achieve a distinction in my programme?
There are no questions that we won’t answer – we may have to go away and get the answers if we don’t have them right away, but we will get them for you. This is your opportunity to tell us what we can do for you.
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Apprenticeships
End of course feedback Once you have completed your on-programme learning, we will also ask for your feedback on a range of issues such as how the course went for you; did it help you to achieve the next steps in your career; what are you planning on doing next as a result of the course? Please do share with us your thoughts so we can gain an overall picture of what’s going right and what needs tweaking.
And if you want to make a bigger contribution to apprenticeships nationally, how about considering a country-wide forum? Read on …
IFATE apprentice panel recruitment Recruitment to join the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education apprentice panel has now opened. The main purpose of the apprentice panel is to ensure the views of apprentices are represented across the work and governance of the Institute. The panel decides which issues to focus on, and panel representatives attend Institute board meetings to advise and challenge on those issues. They also meet regularly with ministers and other government officials to ensure the apprentice experience is front and centre of new policy thinking. https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/about/how-we-do-it/apprenticepanel-membership-open-recruitment-competition-april-2022/ To apply, apprentices need to complete the expression of interest form and upload a copy of their CV. Closing date for applications is midnight on 16 May 2022.
Pastoral & Wellbeing
In May 2022, we will be raising awareness of the impact of loneliness on our mental wellbeing.
Here are some practical steps on tackling loneliness. You can also access these services: Student Space – one-to-one support Text STUDENT to 85258. The Mix - Young people can get support from the trained team, either by phone, webchat, or email Shout 85258 - a free, confidential, 24/7 text-messaging support service. Samaritans - Call free on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.
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Sports
Basketball Academy trials Students aged 16-18 are welcome to come and try out for our Basketball Academy. Next dates are all at our Hammersmith & Fulham College Sports Hall: Friday 13 May, 14:30 - 16:00 Friday 24 June, 14:30 - 16:00 Wednesday, 24 August, 15:00 - 17:00 Students can book here
Boxing Academy trials Students aged 16-18 are welcome to come and try out for our Boxing Academy. Next dates are all at our Hammersmith & Fulham College Sports Hall: Thursday 19 May 15:00 – 18:00 Thursday 16 June 15:00 – 18:00 Thursday 23 June 15:00 – 18:00
Students can book here
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Bursary
It’s still not too late to apply!! Please checkout the finance page on the student portal for further information on the bursary available, eligibility criteria and guidance on how to apply. Click here The next deadline date to get applications approved in order to receive Summer Term Bursary Award is Wednesday 18th May 2022. For further information regarding support available, please speak to a member of the Student Services team at your campus. If you wish to check all your Bursary payments so far please 1- Log on to your PayMStudent account 2- Click on Bursary, then Payments to see your payment schedule for this academic year.
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Bursary
Frequently asked questions 1) I have checked my Bursary payment schedule and I can see numerous £30 ‘PURSE’ payments. What does this mean? These £30 payments are your fortnightly Free College Meals subsidy which are broken down into £3 payments which are automatically placed onto your College I.D card on a daily basis ready for you to use in the College canteen. Please bear in mind that these payments cannot be built up so must be spent each day you are in College when you have timetabled lessons. 2) I don’t know my student number, or I cannot remember my password? Your student number is on your student ID card or can be found on your joining form. If you have forgotten your password, click on Forgot my password and follow the instructions . Once you have re-set your password, you can then apply. 3) How do I upload my documents? The entire application form is mobile compatible and uploading evidence can be much quicker using a mobile device’s camera or gallery (if you already have images of your evidence), so you may wish to apply using a mobile/tablet.
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Bursary
Letter Request For those of you who require a letter to confirm you are studying at the college these can be requested via the Student Services centre. You may need a letter for all types of things including; opening a bank account, Council Tax Exemption or just general proof of study. Please visit the Student Services Centre or alternatively click on this link to complete the online request form for 2021/22. It can take up to five working days so please be patient while we get this prepared for you. Once completed the letter will be ready for you to collect from the Student Services Centre. Unfortunately, we do put these in the post but can be emailed to you upon request. For this and all other enquiries relating to Student Services you can email us on studentservices@wlc.ac.uk.
Student Newsletter May 2022