Glasgow Kelvin Staff Newsletter issue 1

ONNECT 5 Nov 2013

Glasgow Kelvin College - Monthly Newsletter

West End

City

Springburn

East End Easterhouse

Edition

Our guys are raising cash with a Tash!

Social Media NOT a FAD It’s here to stay!

Sharing is Nice...

Award Winning Programme Congratulates More Learners

Passing On Experience, Not The Baton!

Rodger Harkins, Coach Mentor for Sprints and Hurdles by Scottish Athletics

Read about the ‘Learning Works’ programme

A Brand New Innovation Lab High Tech Learning Centre for the Community

China In Her Hand…

Marie Woods is off to China to undertake verification duties with SQA

GET IN-tranet Communication Collaboration Standardisation Community

This document is available in large print and text-only formats.

Contact:

hramsay@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

. . . s e h wa om t s at e fr al’s a t ip w a h t d inc t p a h g u r t o h P T on an the Bl m

Well, the Managed Learning Week has arrived very quickly upon us! I have seen a mixture of staff events and learners in tutorials so it is working as planned. We will ask for views on how this week has gone as part of our self-evaluation process and to learn lessons for the next time.

Three Board Standing Committees have been held already this month. We will have the papers for these Committees up on the website and intranet as quickly as possible so you can follow what has been happening. The agendas and minutes for the SMT will also be published a month in arrears and we are creating a folder on the intranet only for these. There will be a Communications Strategy too which we will consult on, this will set out how we will make papers and other information available.

Interviews for the operational management posts are continuing and I will keep you informed of the outcomes as decisions are made.

Alan and I will meet with Senior Lecturers on 2/13 to talk to them about how that tier of the academic management structure will roll out. Thanks to our EIS colleagues for organising this.

Unison held their AGM on 27th Nov in the Springburn campus and I am sure they will inform their members of the outcome and who the stewards are for the College. Talks on terms and conditions for support staff took place on last Friday with limited progress but we are working away on this.

No prizes for the College this week but two of our colleagues from Springburn campus are going on industrial updating placement. Morph will be in the house band for a panto (oh yes he will!). While Campbell Owens will be touring with Lloyd Cole. I have a vinyl copy of Rattlesnakes and saw the original Lloyd Cole and the Commotions at Barrowland way back............... Younger colleagues should seek out a more mature staff member to find out what vinyl is! Students will benefit from these palcements in a variety of ways including visits to the theatre and concerts to seek how these productions/gigs work in reality.

..........................................................................................

‘Where’s the Mugs?’

For staff who weren’t able to attend the presentations on vesting day, or the official opening by Cabinet Secretary Mike Russell, you can see a short video of edited highlights here.......

Staff who have not yet picked up their GKC welcome packs should contact the HR section. However be wary, if you simply ask “Where’s the mugs?” you might not get the answer you expected.

Page 1

For a college with the geographic spread of Glasgow Kelvin the Intranet is crucial in keeping staff informed about college activities and operations. However the Intranet is much more than just an information store. It is a tool that can help break down the barriers of geography and time to facilitate staff communication and collaboration.

Intranets should always be evolving as users come up with more and more suggestions for how to use them. The development of the GKC Intranet is very much an evolving process. There are already some very useful pages. For example, the Staff Directory puts faces and numbers to names across the campuses and the Staff Noticeboard can be used if you have any messages you want put out.

More pages will be populated over the coming weeks, in the meantime please take some time to explore the Intranet and feed back any comments or suggestions to davidrobertson@galsgowkelvin.ac.uk

If you have anything you need posted at the moment, please forward it to Craig Green: craig@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

Sharing is Nice...

GET IN-touch

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

GET IN-tranet

Did you hear about the teenager who turned down the college with a boring Facebook page?

For students, it’s all about being able to make connections in real time with real people — social media provides customer service as well as marketing opportunities and we need to be ahead of the game!

For staff it provides a communication platform for sending and receiving college related information and events. So join in the conversation and help us to create a friendly and dynamic relationship with our future and current students.

Find us on: Twitter Facebook Flickr YouTube

We will also be introducing a blog in the New Year. If you have any news/stories/events to publish please email Tracey tborland@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

Page 2

A Brand New Innovation Lab High Tech Learning Centre for the Community Margaret Curran MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, last week opened the state-of-the-art Wheatley Digital Innovation Lab at the Glasgow Kelvin College Easterhouse campus.

The brand new learning centre, funded by The Wheatley Group, boasts not only 16 cutting-edge PCs and software but also an amazing 3D printer which is the very latest in product development.

Passing On Experience, Not The Baton!

Passing On Experience, Not The Baton!

Rodger Harkins, Lecturer in Construction at the East End Campus and long-time coach of athlete Lee McConnell, has just been appointed to a new part-time role as Coach Mentor for Sprints and Hurdles

by Scottish Athletics.

Left to right: Cllr Maureen Burke, Board Member, Glasgow Kelvin College; Gordon Sloan, Chair, GHA; Student, Robert Johnston; John Grant, Board Member, GHA; Alan Sherry, Principal, Glasgow Kelvin College; Margaret Curran, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Irving Hodgson, Chair of Board of Management, Glasgow Kelvin College

The Wheatley Digital Innovation Lab is available to young people on the College’s Youth Access programme, community learners and college students are welcome to come in and see the equipment in action and learn how to make best use of it. Learning is delivered from introductory level right up to advanced level.

The Wheatley Group are keen to ensure that communities have access to IT resources and skills to open up opportunities. This will help learners progress into skilled technology-based jobs and by expanding their partnership with Glasgow Kelvin College they are assured that their investment will hit the target.

Click here to read more...

Page 3

The post will take him up to and beyond next year’s Commonwealth Games and the work will take up a huge chunk of his weekends and evenings. He’s delighted to think that he will be mentoring the coaches of Scotland’s future track stars.

His work also involves him in the Relay Programme which will promote and develop Scottish sprinting all over Scotland AND he’s busy working with the Scottish Women’s 4x400 Relay Team.

Rodger’s 30yrs experience in sport has seen him as a Scottish International Triple Jump and 400m Hurdles athlete and he has only just given up his role as President of the world famous Shettleston Harriers to take on his new role.

Rodger’s looking forward to the challenges this will bring, especially in the build up to 2014. We wish him every success!

‘Peter Jones Enterprise Academy’

Student Shortlisted for International Award Glasgow Kelvin College is delighted to announce that one of its Peter Jones Enterprise Academy students has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for his achievements.

Serign B Sanneh has been nominated for a ‘Young Achiever Award’ at the African Achievement Awards to be held at the Hilton Hotel on 22nd December.

From Hamilton, Serign completed the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy course at Glasgow Kelvin College’s City Campus this year and has established his own online business, Palm Africa, sourcing, trading and selling African goods such as beauty products - www.palmafrica.com. The exciting website also provides a unique insight into African life and culture, and is creating an online community through its ‘Village Square’ facility. GOOD LUCK Serign, we’re all behind you!

Introducing our monthly photo competition...

Send your entries to Tracey: tborland@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk This month’s theme is: COLD Every month we will feature the best photo voted by YOU! Photos will be uploaded to our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasgowkelvincollege/sets/

To vote: email the name of your favourite photo from the December Photo Competition Set to Tracey: tborland@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk The winner will be announced in next month’s newsletter and on Facebook/Twitter.

Page 4

Marie Woods, Senior Lecturer based at the Easterhouse Campus, is off to China in the middle of January to undertake International External Verification duties with SQA. With extensive experience as a HN External Verifier with SQA, Marie has a proven track record in the new Quality Assurance model. She will be involved in externally verifying Higher National Units e.g. Personal Developing Planning, Developing Skills for Personal Effectiveness, Working within a Project Team, Employment Experience.

Hitting the high spots of Beijing and Nanjing, Marie will spend a week visiting centres (including some Universities) and reporting on the new quality assurance model. She’s really looking forward to the trip and to experiencing that part of the world.

And we’re all a wee bit envious.

China In Her Hand…

SPORT

The success of the Glasgow Kelvin College teams, in the Scottish Student Sport West of Scotland Leagues, continued this week. The previous strong displays by the football

team were followed by a superb performance by the men’s basketball team at the Lagoon Centre Arena on Wednesday. The team worked hard to stifle a spirited Glasgow Clyde College (Cardonald) team and eventually ran out 38-33 winners, a score which did not truly reflect the GKC dominance during long spells of the game.

Lessons learnt, in terms of disciplined defence and some tactical changes to the attack, then saw the team ‘drub’ City of Glasgow 44-17, a spread which could have been higher had GKC decided not to rotate the bench. The last day of the league sees games against Ayrshire and Glasgow Clyde (Langside) colleges, expectations are high that two wins are achievable having observed the two teams playing each other on Wednesday in a drab encounter which only flared into life once, regrettably not due to spectacular play, but due to a player being sent from court after a ‘strop’ with the official.’

YOUR Chance to make sure your colleagues are kept in the picture....

Keeping a finger on the pulse of a large organisation like Kelvin is no mean feat, especially across the five campuses. To make sure news from YOUR area is fed into the staff newsletter, we're looking for KELVIN KOMMUNICATORS to keep the newsletter as up to date as possible. It would be fantastic to get a couple of people from each campus to feed stories and news back to the editorial team so that every part of Kelvin is represented in the newsletter. So, if you hold the washhoose key for your area, have aspirations as a Stringer for a city-wide publication, or if you're just keen to make sure everyone feels included, email hramsay@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

Page 5

Visit to Scotland Street School Museum ESOL for Work GKC On Tuesday 19th November a group of ESOL for Work learners accompanied by Lecturer George Gillen paid a visit to Scotland Street School as part of a cultural exercise.

They were particularly impressed by the architectural work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

They also welcomed the opportunity to experience the classrooms through the ages (see photo).

Finally, they visited two current exhibitions Bathing Belles and Dementia Through the Eyes of a Child.

Both of which produced a great deal of discussion.

It’s

It’s a charity affair...

Our guys are raising cash with a tash!

Prostate cancer is the number one cause of cancer related death for men in the UK and 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

Join the team and help to raise money for Prostrate cancer research. Donations can be made at the Glasgow Kelvin Just Giving page:

justgiving.com/Glasgowkelvincollegemovember Help the guys to make a difference - DONATE NOW!

Page 6

Award Winning Programme Congratulates More Learners The Thenue Housing Association ‘Learning Works’ programme which won the national Scottish Learning Partnership Group Award 2013 earlier this year has just completed its fourth programme, supported by Glasgow Kelvin College!!

The programme, which is part-funded by Clyde Gateway and the Scottish Government’s ‘People and Communities’ fund, was organised and resourced by Thenue Housing Association to deliver employability and personal development skills to local residents in the East End. Previously, John Wheatley College supported them in this provision and the eight learners who were recognised last week have been awarded their Glasgow Kelvin College certificates.

Click here to read more...

Who is sitting next to you in class?

Glasgow Kelvin College offer a wide range of evening classes and attract a varied group of students to take part – always interesting, but just think how you feel when you discover one of your fellow photography students is Craig Armstrong OBE. Craig is one of the most popular and in-demand composers in the music and film industry. One of his recent projects was the orchestral score for The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Campbell Owens, Senior Lecturer for Music said, ‘what really stood out for me was that Craig emphasised to the students that even though they may have the talent they have to work hard to succeed’.

Simon Murphy, photography lecturer, recognised Craig soon after he joined the class and asked him if he would mind sharing some of his experiences with the music, sound and photography students. Craig happily obliged and gave a presentation lasting over an hour.

Staff alert: -

He was happy to talk about the music he has written and produced and how he is inspired.

Page 7

Craig has enjoyed his experience at the photography evening class and will put his new skills to good use to help him produce a future album cover. If you would like some more information on Craig go to www.craigarmstrongonline.com

New Evening Classes starting in January 2014. Staff are welcome to join a viable Evening Class. Go to www.glasgowkelvin.ac.uk to find out what is on offer. Please complete a staff development form.

New York – Glasgow Exchange Alastair Strachan a lecturer in Art at Glasgow Kelvin College, Springburn Campus, has just returned from a trip to Marist College in Poughkeepsie. During this trip Alistair delivered two formal lectures to a packed lecture theatre of deans and students, he also attended 3 days of classes.

The trip came about as a result of a visit to Springburn Campus

by Professor Ed Smith from Marist College to Glasgow School of Art in 2011 and through Alistair’s association with Stuart MacKenzie an External Examiner

Professor Smith has delivered inspiring, informative and entertaining presentations to our

Graduate place at the New York Studio School. Ed was supportive of the college’s application to the Vermont Studio Residency in the summer of 2014. He has been a regular visitor to Scotland over the last two years and we are in discussions about a number of projects involving staff and students from both institutions.

staff and students creating a strong bond. He has also been supportive of our graduates’ application to a number of courses including Ainsley Wilkie’s successful Post

Kelvin recruitment at SECC

Skills Scotland Glasgow is a two day event which took place at the SECC Glasgow on Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 November. Learning is through experience, so visitors got to touch, taste, feel, smell, hear and most importantly try new activities and meet Glasgow Kelvin College staff face to face, things a website, leaflet or prospectus can never do.

The event was open to anyone aged 14-19, whatever their ambitions or abilities. At the event we showcased a wide range of opportunities available to young people with hands-on activities including Facial Massage, Nail Painting, Jewellery Making, Singing, Fashion, Ventilation and Engineering.

AND what a great success for Glasgow Kelvin recruitment!

We have gathered over 430 programme enquiry forms from the SECC event.

Page 8

What’s On at G Dates for your Diary

Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 December 2013,

C?

Friday 13 December 2013, 7pm – 11.30pm

School Disco Christmas Craft Event 70s/80s

10am – 7pm

• Location Springburn Campus Winter Garden • Students, staff and community – everyone welcome • Craft stalls open to all staff to either take a stall • Staff and students from all campuses can attend the event to purchase from the stalls • There is a great variety of items on sale – ideal for some late Christmas shopping • Shuttle bus from City and East End Campus Contact Rose Fairley to arrange transport rfairley@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

• Location West End Campus • Staff only • £5 per ticket • BYOB • Raise money for Phillipines Charity • Request favourite tunes to be played on the night.

• Tickets will be available from reception desks in each campus from Tuesday 3 December 2013.

20 December 2013

January 2014

Christmas Break Carol Singing

Burns Supper with Ceilidh Dance

12.00pm

• Location West End Campus • Students, staff welcome (classes permitting) • Shuttle bus available Contact Hilary Ramsay to arrange transport hramsay@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk

• Location East End Campus – to be confirmed • £12 - £15 per ticket • BYOB • Staff only • Tickets will be available from reception desks in each campus from Wednesday 8 January 2014.