6News March 2016 Edition

Easter Quiz Test your knowledge of sweets and chocolates now and in the recent past with this quiz.

1. Wobbly infants 2 .Where refined people live 3. 9, 10, 11 4. Fallen fruits 5. Carrier for dairy produce 6. Mother’s local 7. All sorts of girls 8. Royal herb 9. Sport of the princes 10. Edible fasteners 11. Aromatic spheres

12. Inhabitants of a Mediterranean island 13. Corks for mouths 14. Punishment for nuts 15. Little Richard’s favourite 16. 10 pin bowling 17. Pirates’ loot 18. Clever folk 19. Type of dog 20. Alfresco dining 21. Definitely not chewy

22. Outer space 23. Small piece of snow 24. Night-time explosion 25. Darling children 26. Lots of parties 27. Sly giggles 28. Noisy insect 29. Musical bard 30. Sweet tooth cleaner

Visual arts babies!

Congratulations to our new mums in Visual Arts.

Gemma, Laura and Lucy were all pregnant together, all gave birth within 6 weeks of each other, and all had beautiful little girls!

Lucy Plumbley, who left us last summer, gave birth to Daisy Dorris Sumner (left) on the 25th January, Daisy weighed 5lb 13oz.

Laura Goodinson gave birth to Elsie Evelyn Goodinson (right) on Thursday 25th February, Elsie weighed 7lb 9oz.

Gemma Lea gave birth to Sienna Francesca Lea (centre) on Thursday 4th March, Sienna weighed 9lb 2oz.

All three new mums and babies are doing well.

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.

BSIT Sam Witter Kathryn Graham MIS & Exams

Alice Tomlinson Amy Shakeshaft

Visual Arts LRC

Gillian Carthy-Cooper Estates Estates Angela Pollard

We would also like to wish our existing staff who have recently moved into new posts, the best of luck within their new roles.

Rob Fisher Jo Brown Carmen Matadigo

Curriculum Leader in Maths Second in Department in Maths Employer Liaison Administrator

Lemon Drizzle taste test The FYi team have been known to bake occasionally and also like to share recipes. Whilst chatting over a cup of tea, (without cake on that occasion!) Helen Crowther, who is vegan, came up with the idea of a taste test to see whether you can actually tell the difference between a vegan and nonvegan cake. The recipe for Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle loaf was chosen and Julie Halliwell agreed to bake the non vegan cake. Ingredients were doubled to make a 2lb loaf. Helen “vegan-ised” the recipe by using Vitalite margarine and Orgran egg replacer.

On the day of the taste test the cakes were sliced, labelled “cake A” and “cake B” and placed in the staff room for the discerning tasters, thankfully not including Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood!!! The results revealed that 21 out of 30 testers guessed correctly that “cake B” was the non-vegan bake.

Interestingly, many commented that they liked both cakes.

To try the recipe for yourself go to http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/495867/mary-berry-slemon-drizzle-cake. If you would like to try a vegan bake there are several yummy recipes on www. veganlass.com

When life gives you lemons ...

Make lemon drizzle cake!!

Staff fitness sessions Every Monday there are staff fitness sessions taking place in the Theatre at 5-5:45pm.

Activities change every half term and include activities such as Boxersize, Circuits and Interval Training. The sessions cater for all abilities and fitness levels and everyone is encouraged to come along and give it a try.

The college gym is also open for staff to use throughout the week both before and after college. The gym opens at 7:30 - 8:30am each morning and then again at 5-6pm for staff use.

Both are free of charge to all staff. An induction is required to use the gym. To book this please contact Adam Hollett.

‘Heart-O-Gram’ BTEC IT students hosted a ‘Heart-O-Gram’ event and raised £162.60 for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) Charity. The concept was to buy a cookie for someone else, enclose a personal message and allow our human-sized ‘Heart-O-Gram’ to deliver the cookie on your behalf. The event proved very popular with the staff and students of Blackpool Sixth, with most stalls selling out! Every week in the UK at least 12 young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions. Since its formation in 1995, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) has been working to reduce the frequency of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD). CRY supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions and offers bereavement support to families affected by YSCD.

BTEC IT students created the promotional material for the event as part of their unit 30 work. They created posters for the event using Photoshop. In this unit we worked along side Blackpool Pleasure Beach and their lead graphic designer came in and judged the posters. He was amazed at the standard of work produced by all the students but had to choose the top three. In third place was Josh Connolly who won a £15 iTunes voucher, in second was Liam Sharp who also won a £15 iTunes voucher and in first place was Georgia Wharrier who won a £25 iTunes voucher and her poster was used on the college’s social media to promote the event.

Students thoroughly enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of Valentine’s Day with Upper Sixth student, Sam Ormerod, from Thornton commenting, “Despite how I looked in the ‘heart’ costume, I think it suited the theme well, in addition the event was really successful, there were quite a lot of cookies that needed to be delivered and people were made aware of what the charity, CRY was.”

Lower Sixth student, Greg Lass, from Bispham said, “It was nice to see the smiles on people’s faces.” Lower Sixth student, Jordan Spencer, from Marton said, “If I’m going to dress up as a ‘heart’ in front of the college it may as well be for a good charity.”

A massive thank you from all the BTEC IT students to Fiona Ricchiuti (for baking 200 cookies!) and to Gary Warner for creating the advertising banners.

Cycle Scheme With Cycle Scheme you can get a tax-free bike, which for most people means they save a minimum of 25% of the cost. Some save up to a massive 42%.Cycling to work helps you stay fit and healthy, burn a lot of calories and reduce your carbon footprint. The college is committed to reducing its carbon footprint year on year so you will also be helping towards our goals. Joining this salary sacrifice scheme is easy and comes with lots of added benefits.

Sam Bentley said, “The scheme is very easy. I went to a shop that I know does the cycle to work scheme, or you can just ask if they do it. Then I found a bike that I liked at a good price and went to see Neil. He steered me towards the Cycle Scheme website, where I input the cost of the bike, and also the cost of the accessories that I fancied, and it gave me a breakdown of what I would be paying each month. I simply followed the instructions on the site. After that, I printed and signed the letter, took this to the shop and cycled home! It was very easy and I am making very low payments for a nice bike, and saving a fortune in fuel! At the end of the cycle to work period, I will get an option to pay a small fee and not technically own the bike for a few months, or pay off the rest of the bike. I personally will be doing the small fee as this works out a lot cheaper.”

Laura McGuirk commented, “I found the cycle to work scheme extremely easy to set up! The college has links with a lot of common cycle shops, including Halfords where I got my bike from.

All you need to do is go to a cycle shop, price up what you would like and go and see Neil. The cycle scheme is brilliant, its a nice way to wind down after a stressful day - enjoy a nice cycle home through the park/along the sea front. The scheme allows you to buy accessories too, so you'll be well equipped for all weathers!”

Joe Mathews said, “I had a look at bikes in Halfords on the Saturday and online, saw Neil on Monday regarding ordering one, filled in the form on Tuesday and by Saturday I had my new bike! Really easy service and you can take Did you know? advantage of sale prices. I had mudguards fitted and some lights and they were included in the deal. With the sale, I got a £500 Sales at Easter time bike (it was reduced to £340) for less than £30 a month coming make up 10 per cent out of my wages. I'm very happy with it, it's considerably faster of UK chocolate than my mountain bike was.” spending for the whole year For more information, or to sign up to the Cycle Scheme, see Neil Webster in W117 ext. 708.

Keeping your heart healthy - Wellbeing A healthy diet can help reduce your risk of developing heart problems, stop you gaining weight and reduce your risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure. It can also help lower your cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of some cancers.

Everyone should aim for a well balanced diet. The best way to understand it is to think of foods in food groups.

Try to eat Plenty of fruit and vegetables Plenty of starchy foods such as bread, rice, potatoes and pasta. Choose wholegrain varieties wherever possible Some milk and dairy products Some meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein Only a small amount of foods and drinks high in fats and/or sugar.

Choose options that are lower in fat, salt and sugar whenever you can.

Fruit and vegetables A well-balanced diet should include at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.

Try to vary the types of fruit and veg you eat.

They can be fresh, frozen, dried or tinned. Pure unsweetened fruit juice, pulses and beans count as a portion, but they only make up a maximum of one of your five a day, however much you eat in one day.

A portion is about a handful (80g or 3oz), for example: 4 broccoli florets 1 pear 3 heaped tablespoons of carrots 7-8 strawberries Fats So to help keep your heart healthy: Replace saturated fats with small amounts of mono and polyunsaturated fats Cut down on foods containing trans fats.

It's also important to remember that all fats and oils are high in calories, so even the unsaturated fats should only be used in small amounts.

Salt Eating too much salt can increase the risk of developing high blood pressure.

Having high blood pressure increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Alcohol If you drink alcohol, it's important to keep within the recommended guidelines. Men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week. Spread your drinking over three days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week.

9 ways to get more active 1. Start small If 150 minutes of physical activity a week seems like a lot, don't worry. You can break it down into ten minute sessions throughout the day and build up from there.

2. Be realistic about your goals Set yourself realistic goals that are specific and achievable. For example, set a goal to walk 30 minutes every day or learn how to swim.

3. Make exercise part of your day Plan a time to do some physical activity that fits in with the rest of your day and try keeping an activity diary to help monitor your progress and success. If you miss a day, don't worry - just make sure you start again the next day.

4. Keep moving Remember, everyday activities count, so look out for opportunities to be active during the day. For example, use the stairs instead of the escalators, walk to the local shop rather than taking the car and do some stretches when watching TV. Every ten minutes counts!

5. You don't have to go it alone Involve friends and family to make activities more fun, sociable and enjoyable. Go jogging with a friend and support and motivate each other, take the children swimming or join an exercise class.

6. Make sure you get plenty of variety Make a list of enjoyable activities, such as dancing and yoga, and place them in a jar. Pick a different activity to do each week. By varying your activities, you are less likely to get bored and lose interest.

7. Set reminders where you can see them Prompt yourself to be more physically active by keeping reminders around the house. Put Post-it notes on the fridge door or by the kettle, place your cycling helmet on your dressing table or put your walking shoes near the door.

8. Keep an eye on your progress You can use a pedometer to count the number of steps you walk each day. It's easy to use. All you need is a good pair of shoes and you are ready to take a step in the right direction, so you can push yourself to go that bit further next time you exercise. Walking is an ideal activity as it's free and easy to do anywhere. You could walk your children to school and back every day, take the dog for a walk or find a local park and go walking with a friend.

9. Reward yourself Recognise when you achieve your goals. Think of things that you could reward yourself with, like a copy of your favourite magazine, a new pair of trainers or a massage.

Easy Easter recipe No bake Scotch Creme Eggs Ingredients 20g dessicated coconut 100g Madeira cake 1 dessert spoon seedless raspberry jam 4 Cadbury Creme Eggs, foil removed You could try this with other chocolate eggs including Mini Eggs or caramel filled ones.

Method 1. Toast the coconut under the grill until golden brown.

2. Break the cake into crumbs and heat the jam in a small pan until melted. Mix half of the jam into the cake crumbs and mix well together to make the cake pink in colour and smooth.

3. Divide into four then form around the Cadbury Creme Eggs in a thin layer.

4. Brush lightly with the remaining jam and roll in the toasted coconut to resemble a scotch egg.

Cut in half and enjoy with a friend!

Congratulations Congratulations to Susan Riley and her partner, Jol and Abby Jones and her partner, Mike, who recently got engaged. We look forward to news of upcoming weddings!

Special birthdays These members of staff recently celebrated, or are due to celebrate a special birthday soon: Rick Crowther

Alexander Burgess Alex Gardner Sam Brown

Did you know?

The tallest chocolate Easter egg was made in Italy in 2011. Standing 10.39 metres tall and weighing 7,200 kg, it was taller than a giraffe and heavier than an elephant.

Reflecting on ShOW The new ShOW process, introduced at the beginning of the year, has been very well received across college. Staff commented in a recent SCA meeting that ShOW has provided valuable feedback and CPD that encourages the department to work together when preparing for observations, in comparison to the previous model when a member of staff had to prepare individually. Comments following every ShOW support this view with teachers saying it was far better experience than they had expected and that it had brought the team together.

Most importantly ShOW has enabled departments to celebrate and share their best practice. Every department to date has achieved an average of a grade 2 in observations and a wide variety of excellent practice has been identified.

There has also been an increase in the number of grade 1 lessons being observed; last year 27% of lessons were graded 1 whilst currently 31% of lessons have achieved this outstanding status.

The most important aspect of ShOW was always to ensure we continue to improve teaching, learning and assessment through the greater sharing of good practice and this has been evident throughout. HoDs have been able to share ideas they have seen in other departments, departments have been collaborating on college development days and generally the process has encouraged more conversation and sharing.

Another benefit that has been seen is the impact on CPD. Staff have said they really appreciate the improvements made to CPD provision this year and how ShOW has been used to improve the types of sessions on offer, specifically targeting what teachers really need and want. Where teachers have been seen to shine in a particular skill or strategy we have invited them to run CPD sessions to share their expertise and contribute to their own professional development.

With just 2 more departments to undergo ShOW it is time to start reflecting on the process and refine and improve what we do even further. A small number of improvements are being considered but with the successes seen and considering how well everyone has received ShOW it is clear that the general principle and practice should remain the same and will support us in going from strength to strength.

That said, if anyone has any suggestions for further improvement that they would like us to consider these would be most welcome; please share with your HoD who will let us know.

Finally we would like to say that we recognise how new strategies such as these can be a little daunting but we have been absolutely delighted with the positive approach and attitude of everyone involved and are very proud of the way all departments have engaged and worked together to support each other. A fabulous team, well done and thank you.

Article by Tina Cooper

A day in the life of... ALM If there ever was to be a blockbuster movie made based on the adventures of the Admissions, Liaison and Marketing team – which we grudgingly have to admit is fairly unlikely – then you can be sure of one thing: it would not be ‘Groundhog Day’. The cliché of no two days ever truly being the same is an inescapable truth down in Reception and the Student Liaison office. Each day brings an entirely different set of challenges and conundrums for us. Take for instance a recent Wednesday…

The day begins with Debbie opening up reception at 8 am ready for a day packed with phone-calls, visitors, student and staff queries, deliveries, post franking, lost property, motorcycle helmets and stray grasshoppers (not enough space here to tell that story unfortunately). We are all enjoying the excellent new reception area (many thanks to Estates!) and still getting used to the cosiness and visual impact which it provides.

Marketing Officer, Gary is also in at 8 am. He checks our social media feeds, scheduling posts and is getting stuck into the day’s design and web tasks along with Graphic Designer, Emma (Curphey). There are also news stories to gather and posts to write for the blog. It’s the morning after the brilliant college musical so there is plenty of great feedback on Twitter to re-tweet and photos to display on-line. Our social media supremo and Event Co-ordinator, Nicola (Kelly) never seems to stray far from our Twitter and Facebook channels (including on days when she’s not at work) and has easily one of the fastest re-tweet trigger fingers in the North West.

As it’s Wednesday, it’s Emma (Lund) who is looking after event co-ordination. Emma has recently re-vamped our contact database and just part of her day will be making sure that correspondence through our marketing and events email account is dealt with promptly. She’ll also be combing through the events section of EMRIS, dealing with any matters arising, communicating with our lettings clients, sending out mailshots and gearing up for forthcoming college events. Our minds are already on the big end of year events, including the student awards night, and during the morning Jon and Emma talk through the process for gathering in this year’s nominations and sponsorship.

Our admissions team, JT and Rebecca, are straight into the vital business of keeping up with our applications – now climbing past 1500. This is a huge logistical operation, as with the applications

come interviews to schedule (and sometimes re-schedule), lots of questions to answer from applicants and parents, and ‘keeping warm’ messages to fire out.

For the school liaison team – Helen, Nic (Coleman) and Amy – this is a typically hectic day.

There are interviews in South Shore Academy all morning and into the early afternoon. Most of our admissions interviews take place in schools and are crucial to the college in terms of working through course choices for our next intake. We expect to interview around 1700 students in the period between December and June with each of these applicants needing detailed advice and guidance.

Once back at base, the school liaison team and other team members are immediately into ‘operation March taster’. Over 300 prospective students have signed up for the first of four weeks of sample lessons after school. There’s lots to finalise as new bookings are coming in all the time. For these events, the school liaison staff are supported by some of the brilliant student ambassador team, which Nic co-ordinates.

It’s great to see the first of the Year 11 students begin to arrive for the tasters and they are greeted by the team and our super-friendly ambassadors. We know that attending events like this can be nerve-racking at first for school students and we make an extra effort to set them at their ease as they walk through the door. There is a flurry of rapid activity as students are led off from Relish in different directions to the classrooms where the sessions take place. We really appreciate the time taken by curriculum staff to deliver these sessions and give our future students a real insight into their course choices.

By now Julie is in charge on reception and as the tasters end at 5pm she deals with an enquiry about buses home to Garstang from a couple of the attendees in between phoning to chase up attendance issues. We are pleased to see lots of smiles and excited groups of Year 11 students sharing notes on the tasters they have attended.

But the day is far from over for ALM. Amy is off to St. Bede’s in Lytham for a Year 9 options evening, laden with the customary boxes of materials and pop-up stands. We sometimes wish for the equivalent of the ‘batmobile’ in our thousands of journeys around the Fylde Coast during the year.

It’s Emma L’s and Jon’s turn to do front-of-house duties at tonight’s performance, along with two student ambassadors. Apart from a couple of off-stage mini-dramas – the appearance of a fire engine to check out reports of smoke in one of the toilets and a late-running mayoral visit – everything goes well once again and the audience is hugely appreciative of the show. With the student ambassadors’ help we now have the interval tea and coffee serving polished to a fine art.

And that, as they say in the films, is ‘the end’. Except of course as film buffs and others will recognise, ‘Tomorrow is another day…’

Article by Jon McLeod Did you know?

In 2007, an Easter egg covered in diamonds sold for almost £9 million. Every hour, a cockerel made of jewels pops up from the top of the Faberge egg, flaps its wings four times, nods its head three times and makes a crowing noise. The gold-and-pink enamel egg was made by the Russian royal family as an engagement gift for French aristocrat Baron Edouard de Rothschild.

Google top tips - by Matt Jones 1. Keyboard shortcuts.

2. Undoing shift Z

Who doesn’t love a shortcut? Did you know the little paths worn away across grass which represent the quickest way from A to B are called desire paths?

You do now. Keyboard shortcuts are the equivalent of IT desire paths. Here is the best kept secret of Google Drive. Holding down SHIFT + Z when you have highlighted a file or folder allows you to put the same file in multiple places (not a copy, literally the same file). If you make any changes to that file/ folder from any of the locations, it updates in all the places it is.

Shift - Z maybe a revolution in file management but it’s got one big drawback. When you delete the file in one place (using the bin), it also disappears from everywhere else!

(If you simply copied it, you’d have two separate copies which wouldn’t update) It might sound a little like explaining metaphysics but it really does work.

To open a full list of keyboard shortcuts in Google Docs, press Ctrl + / (Windows, Chrome OS) or ‘Apple’ + / (Mac)

If you then click on the details tab, you will see a list of locations for the file and you can remove the file from one or more places by clicking the ‘x’ next to the folder you want to purge the file from.

But worry not. Here is the solution.

On any document or folder that you’ve ‘Shift Z’d’ into multiple locations bring up the information for that file. You can do this via right click or by clicking the little ‘i’ icon top right.

3. Tab management.

4. Manage your emails better...

Tabs are great. I consider a personal challenge to see how many consecutive tabs I can open without my machine melting as the processor gets overloaded. But closing tabs is boring. I can change your life....

IT Maestro Fiona Ricchiuti gets credit for this one. Boomerang is a brilliant add on for Gmail.

You can set boomerang to do all sorts of clever things like: Resend you an email you’ve received at a pre set time. Repeatedly send an email to someone (probably a student who owes coursework) till they reply (obviously, use this with discretion to avoid lawsuits for harassment!)

Click on a tab, then hold down shift whilst you select as many tabs as you like... Then press cmd-w and all those different tabs will close. At once.

Which if you’ve got 35 unwanted tabs open, that’s 35 clicks saved. Life changed.

5. Create an index page Creating an index page of key resources for classes or a department can be a really great way to make Google Drive more user friendly. You can write descriptions of what is what and link to the documents. You can use Google Slides to make it even more visual if you want. You can then put this document at the top level of your drive area.

Great for revision or for a team who have to regularly trawl through drive for certain documents.

For a more advanced/engaging way of presenting info see the brilliant Google Sites made by Curtis Jackson and Ross Allan. More training on Google sites will be available but I will be happy to help anytime.

6. Web and tablet apps There are lots of web and tablet apps which are optimised for using with Google logins or Google Classroom. This means the learners (or you) only need to know their college ID and some of the apps make it really easy to import info from your drive or send it to Google Classroom.

They include: QUIZLET, PADLET, SOCRATIVE, PEAR DECK, KHAN ACADEMY and many others…

7. Google Forms got pretty.

You may or may not know that Google Forms recently had a makeover and you can now make customised or branded forms. You can save your designs as templates to use time and again. Any images can be used to rework the headers and backgrounds of the existing Google templates.

8. Did you know you can make templates on Google Docs?

It’s a pain sometimes finding blank versions of things. You actually have your own template gallery where you can store the files you use repeatedly (like observation reports, risk assessments etc) Find it (and the ‘Blackpool Sixth Template Gallery’) here. https://drive.google.com/a/blackpoolsixth.ac.uk/templates?view=domain

9. Google Classroom tips

10. Tracking Changes

Did you know the PMs will all be using Google Classroom next year with their groups?

Therefore ALL students will get an induction in the use of classroom - All the more reason to embrace it in your subject areas. Did you know that you can use the ‘about’ tab at the top to link to key resources? Maybe you could put a link to the different topic folders in Google Drive or your course handbooks? Perhaps you could link to support resources, like vocab lists or exemplar work?

Finally - if you’ve asked students to complete work on a Google Doc, the ‘track changes’ function can be really helpful in discussing with students their work habits. It allows you to see exactly how long they’ve spent on the document and what times they accessed it. For example, if a learner has failed to meet a deadline, you might be able to discuss with them the reasons they didn’t start the work till the morning it was due and identify organisational support. You might also discover they struggle to concentrate for more than 20 minutes at a time and perhaps discuss whether they are switching off other distractions or finding a suitable environment to work in.

You can even sometimes discover a learner has done work and then deleted it, perhaps indicating a self-confidence issue. It all sound a bit ‘big brother’ but it can be very enlightening and help get the right support in place for individuals.

One of the problems with classroom is that it is a stream, so information flows ‘downstream’ out of sight of students. The about tab can be used for anything you want students to be able to easily access all year.

Easter Quiz - Answers

1. Jelly Babies 2. Quality Street 3. After Eights 4. Pear Drops 5. Milk Tray 6. Mars Bar 7. Dolly Mixtures 8. Mint Imperial 9. Polos 10. Buttons

11. Aniseed Balls 12. Maltesers 13. Gobstoppers 14. Walnut Whip 15. Tutti Fruiti 16. Skittles 17. Bounty 18. Smarties 19. Yorkie 20. Picnic

21. Crunchie 22. Galaxy/Milkyway 23. Flake 24. Starburst 25. Midget Gems 26. Celebrations 27. Snickers 28. Humbug 29. Minstrel 30. Candyfloss

?

Trinity Hospice Blackpool Sixth recently sponsored Trinity Hospice. As a thank you, Trinity sent us their recipe book celebrating 30 years of care within the community. Here is one of those recipes.

Flourless Chocolate Cake Ingredients Ingredients 150g melted dark chocolate 35g cocoa powder 80ml water 100g ground almonds 100g soft brown sugar 4 medium eggs (separated) Icing sugar for decoration Method 1. Line an 8 inch round cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Whisk the water and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl until smooth.

3. Add the melted chocolate, ground almonds, sugar and egg yolks and whisk until combined.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to form soft peaks then fold in the chocolate mixture.

5. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35-50 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean).

6. Leave to cool and dust with icing sugar.

Therapy taster sessions Due to the great feedback we have received regarding the complementary therapy taster session day, we are delighted to be able to offer more sessions during the Summer term. Details of this will be distributed next term.

One of the sessions on offer will include massage. Massage works on the muscles to help break down scar tissue, stretch shortened muscles and improve skin and muscle tone. It also helps remove physical tension, pain and stress, increases circulation, flexibility and joint mobility. It can increase lymphatic drainage and immune system functioning, increase blood and nutrients to muscles and removes waste products. It can reduce anxiety and depression, calm or stimulate the nervous system, and facilitates deeper breathing and relaxation.

“ “ “

I find the sessions really useful and she gives me advice with my exercise outside of college.

I am arranging a follow up, outside of college time to have further treatment.

It was nice and relaxing, a welcome break in the day. At first I was concerned it might be awkward, but she was so professional that it was very relaxing. I would sign up for it again!

My neck and shoulder massage was pretty intensive for such a short session but wow what a difference it made.

“ “ “

Below is some feedback we received from staff who have recently attended a taster session.

Update on growth mindset To clarify… Growth mindset is the belief that you can consistently develop your talents and abilities.

This is in direct contrast to a fixed mindset, which posits that your talents and abilities are carved in stone and cannot be further cultivated. So, for anyone interested in a nature-nurture debate, read on…

Research has repeatedly shown that a growth mindset fosters greater motivations and achievement in students. However, growth mindset does not promise that your ability will develop, let alone develop to a high level, regardless of what you do. Nor is there evidence saying, “you can do anything”.

Some examples to consider; 1. A student taking maths comes across difficult problems.

Without the skills and knowledge to solve it, the teacher tells them, “You can do anything”. Clearly this is frustrating for the student and arguably of little use.

2. A student wishes to follow a career in X, but does not currently have any of the prerequisites. Telling them, “You can do anything” would be less than useful, particularly without further guidance on how to develop some of the skills required to be considered for their chosen career.

So, as teachers, where do we fit in?

Simple, we tell them the truth!! As teachers, what we can do to help our students is to support them to find out exactly what it is they need to do in order to ‘up-skill’ themselves to reach their goals. For example; help students to research what is required, be that the qualifications, skills, experience or even attitudes related to their next steps – give them the tools to make a realistic appraisal of what is required.

Talk to students about what they can do right now to start them on that journey – set SMART targets that are both realistic and time related. Base these targets upon evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, to allow students to visualize their own success.

Support students to develop cognitive mindsets (and the behavioural practices that follow) to allow them to be successful. This is where growth mindset comes in. The knowledge that you CAN develop your abilities, along with the knowledge of HOW to do it is an important part of achieving it.

For more information and/or resources, please refer to the growth mindset folder on Google Drive.

Article by Stephanie Benson

Forthcoming events

‘Musicians of the Fylde’ is a showcase of wonderfully talented young classical musicians from all over the Fylde Coast.

Students will perform pieces from a wide range of composers and the programme will include both instrumental and vocal performances.

‘Letters Entertain You’ is a musical journey through the alphabet, with numbers from hit shows such as Grease, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Oklahoma and many more. Performed by both Lower and Upper Sixth Musical Theatre students, this showcase is certain to have something to entertain everyone!

Please come and support our staff and students at this year’s Spring event.

Contact our friendly Event Co-ordinators, Nicola Kelly or Emma Lund for information and tickets on events@blackpoolsixth.ac.uk.

blackpoolsixth.ac.uk

enquiries@blackpoolsixth.ac.uk

Blackpool Sixth, Blackpool Old Road, Blackpool, FY3 7LR.

01253 394911