Happy New Year to you all! Have you got a new year â s resolution? Is it maybe related to college, your education, or your career? If so, then the VESPA interview on pages 6 - 8 may be helpful in making your goals achievable. Thereâs a lot more to look forward to this edition of the Student Services Newsletter. LGBTQ+ History Month is nearly here, and staff and students have come together to write a small âzine for anyone interested. A massive thank you and well done to everyone who contributed. Also coming up this issue:
LGBTQ+ History Month
Wellbeing Fair �� Clothes Swap ��
VESPA Interview ��
Careers Events
International Womenâs Day Info Much more!
LGBTQ+ History Month
The month of February marks LGBTQ+ History Month in the UK. This is a day in which we celebrate the contributions and achievements by LGBTQ+ people, observe important historic events, and combat prejudice against the community. First celebrated in the UK in 2005, this historic event takes place in February to coincide with the abolition of Section 28 in 2003 which banned local authorities from being able to âintentionally promote homosexualityâ.
Long Road has a long and proud history of supporting and celebrating the queer community. Pride Club has been running since 2013, but even prior to that we had the âGay-Straight Allianceâ, estimated to have started sometime around 2008/ 2009. In 2020, Pride Club took a tour of British Parliament during Pride at Parliament, and previously the college ran an annual event called Rainbow Day, where students donned rainbow-coloured clothing with numerous activities and stands to raise money for LGBT charities.
This year, both staff and students have come together to write a small âzine about the LGBTQ+ topics important to them.
Click here to read LGBTQ+ History Month by Long Road.
Wellbeing Fair
We are delighted to announce that our wonderful wellbeing team have organised a Wellbeing Fair which will take place on Tuesday 4th February from 12:20pm to 2:30pm. It promises to be a fun-filled day with something on offer that will interest everyone. In addition to various engaging activities, there will also be multiple organisations coming in who are experts in the fields of mental health, wellness, sexual health, and more. Itâs the perfect chance to take a break and recharge. Free snacks will be available!
Therapy Dogs ��
Therapy dogs are back for this years Wellbeing Fair. Barnaby (right) will be there and we hope to also be joined by Fernando (left), who is less than a year old and in training to become a therapy dog. So wave your worries goodbye, follow the paw prints, and come say hello to these very good boys!
Win an Amazon Voucher
Students who attend the Wellbeing Fair will have the opportunity to win an Amazon voucher. All you need to do is fill out a form and you will be put into a draw and a random winner will be selected. Speak to a member of staff on the day to find out how to enter!
Pop-Ups
Many organisations will be coming in that you can come and chat to. Many of them have experience in a wide variety of topics, but below is briefly explained some of the things they do:
Centre 33 (mental health & carers)
Kite Trust (LGBTQ+ support)
Terrance Higgins (sexual health)
Youth Social Action
Table Tennis
Fitness is an important part of wellbeing. Our sports department have very kindly provided table tennis for you to enjoy. Bring friends, grab a paddle, and come along for a game.
Smoothie Bike
Smoothie bikes do exactly what they say on the tin. You will have a blender attached to a stationary bike and itâs up to you to select your ingredients, get on your bike, and find out if it blends! Not only does this activity promote exercise and health eating, it will also allows for some healthy competition between you and friends.
Art as Therapy
Art is a topic that brings everyone together. When you think about it, you consume some form of art almost every day of your life. Roughly estimated, about 20% of our students study art in some capacity as part of their curriculum. Come along and learn how art can help you with your wellbeing.
Everything Else
Free snacks
Arts and crafts
MYO self-soothe box
LRC stands
VR activities
Much more!
Clothes Swap
Zoe Thorn has organised a Clothes Swap for a third year running. This is a great opportunity to donate clothes that are taking up room in your wardrobe, get some fresh new threads for free, and contribute positively to the environment. This event is entirely reliant on donations, so bring any items to the staff room, reception, or the helpdesk in the Student Centre. Please ensure any donations are in good condition and clean. See the poster below for further details.
VESPA Interview
You should all have heard of VESPA by now and you will have done the questionnaires in Tutorial. But why is it important and how is it relevant to you? Why does Long Road use VESPA? Business teacher Koray Akyazi and progress coach Elle Jackson sat down with Tony Dennis of VESPA Academy to discuss itâs uses and how VESPA could help with your new year â s resolution!
Hi Tony, thanks for sitting down to talk to us. My first question is where did the idea for VESPA start?
No problem at all. Yeah, that is an interesting one. It was through the books of Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin and they were working at a school in North Manchester called Blue Coat, quite an academic sixth form Martin was promoted to an assistant head teacher, Steve was head of sixth form. Itâs a perennial question really of sixth form staff, this notion that students will often attribute success or failure to intelligence or natural ability. But the evidence that they were reading was that student behaviours are the key determinant. So it became about how can they impact and change the behaviours of young people. Everything is focused around the academic side of sixth form and the learning of subject knowledge, and these skills are kind of just assumed. I think part of it is they wanted to democratise that knowledge, because if you â ve got a family where you â ve got generations that have gone to university, you â ve got a lot of that built in and so you have this sort of cultural capital. So that is something you need to teach, and they managed to do this - they were very successful with doing this with their sixth form and thatâs where the original ideas came from Martin always says that he doesnât think itâs a perfect model and nothing like this ever is. Thereâs not much room for creativity, for example But itâs a good basis and generally you can find activities and research that fit the model really well. I think the next element was to make sure students understood it wasnât just plucking ideas from out of a hat, itâs research based. They launched the book A Level Mindset in 2016 and it was very well received, so they went out to tell the world about it. Thatâs where I became involved. Martin came to our school to give a talk and thatâs how I met him It was a vocational sixth form from an area where students didnât have traditions of going to university, so it was interesting to put some ideas into that sixth form.
gallen@longroad.ac.uk
csmith@longroad.ac.uk
That ties in to my next question; Is VESPA just for A Level students?
No, but it did start there But you â ve touched on a point that we â re now looking at because in terms of vocational students, the language is very much tied in with academic studies over vocational. So next year we â re going to develop a vocational package based on the activities we already have and some other activities and that will be a separate entity on the platform.
So how can students tell which activity to choose from on the website?
Itâs interesting because it was never designed for students to select activities, it was a tutor-led programme. So that was the next step; students would do the questionnaire and then, depending on the score, the activities would be suggested to them So thatâs kind of where we are. Weâve been talking about giving students a little more flexibility of choosing activities, the only issue is that they need to have an understanding of what their needs are or what they want. Weâre puzzling on how that might work because we would like to give students more ownership over it.
And how often should students be doing these activities?
I feel like Iâve got to give a politicianâs answer now, sort of! What we â ve found is that the students that are already successful engage more, whereas the students that you really want to be doing the activities with with engage less which is usually down to something internal like motivation. The students who score very low on all measures should look to do maybe one activity a week, but equally you donât want to burden students. Itâs a little bit tricky because thereâs not really a set number. What works really well is when staff deliver the activities and have discussions around them and for students to be honest, for example saying âSir, thatâs really not going to work for me personallyâ And we would say âOkay thatâs great, so what can we do to resolve this problem? What works best for you?â And itâs those discussions that are really crucial and allowing students to say no, I want something thatâs going to help me. Does that answer the question? Maybe one a week, but itâs targeted and thatâs important because not every activity is suitable. The idea is for it to be as bespoke as possible.
How many activities are there altogether, Tony?
Thereâs actually 120 now. Thereâs some really good activities in the GCSE mindset, for example the Motivation Diamond which is the study by a professor called Stephen Rees that looked into underlying motivation of human behaviour. Weâve done it with students and they love doing it because we go through all the different motivations and then we say right, what are your top three out of this list of 16? And then they will have debates about why theyâve chosen this, and then it can naturally lead to them telling us and talking about what they want to do in the future.
gallen@longroad.ac.uk
The A Level Mindset 2016
csmith@longroad.ac.uk
âAnd itâs those discussions that are really crucial and allowing students to say no, I want something thatâs going to help me.â
This might be a difficult question to answer, but based on your experiences, how long will it take for students to see an impact on their grades?
I think if students engage with it and take on board the advice and change their behaviours, you can see an improvement really quickly. Within 6 to 8 weeks, theyâll start to see that improvement. For others it might take longer, it depends on how willing they are to take on ideas. What we want to do is to try and get students to answer their own problems A lot of the time in education, what we do is we tell students a list of what you need to do - you need to do this, you need to make more effort - and we have a 1 to 1 where they donât talk and we tell them all these things they need to do and write them a list Itâs kind of disempowering
So for transformative change, they need to think, reflect on their attitudes, and engage?
Yes absolutely, and so the questions are open and we usually say have a conversation 80/20. Youâre only doing 20% of the time trying to get the student speaking and that will generate discussion and get the students to suggest ways they are going to improve.
Thank you very much for your time, Tony. I really like VESPA and my vision is to have a strong program based more on it. No problem at all Thank you for having me
A massive thank you to Tony Dennis of VESPA Academy for taking the time to speak to Long Road, and to Koray and Elle for organising it all! If you would like to learn more about VESPA, Koray and Elle will have a stand in the Student Centre during lunchtimes on the below dates.
On the evening of 12th February parents and carers will be invited to the college to explore a range of apprenticeship opportunities available in the local area. There will be over 20 different employers from a range of industries to speak to. Our amazing careers team organised a similar event last year and it was extremely popular. If youâd like to get an idea of what to expect, click here to view the article written about last year â s event. Tickets are free but you must book in order to attend. Click here to register.
University Pop-Ups
The final degree apprenticeship workshop will be taking place this month. All students are welcome to come along, so come to A203 on Wednesday 22nd January at 2:40pm if you â re interested.
We have two universities coming in this month to see students. If you are thinking about going to university and would like to ask some questions, please come by and see them! See dates below.
University of Lincoln - 21st January in the LRC Anglia Ruskin - 23rd January in the LRC
csmith@longroad.ac.uk
Upcoming Events
International Womenâs Day 2025
International Womenâs Day is back! This year â s theme is âAccelerate Actionâ, and weâd like to know what this means to you? How would you accelerate gender equality and what would you like to see at our annual celebration this year? For the last 2 years, Long Road has had a celebration for this iconic event and this year promises to be bigger and better than before. Taking place on Saturday 8th March, we will have events and stands running throughout that week in the Student Centre. We would love for some students to get involved, so if you â re interested in planning the event, helping on the day, or would like to share some ideas, email us at help@longroad.ac.uk.
Game Anglia Festival ��
On Thursday 6th February Game Anglia Festival will be taking place. This event is organised by the University of Suffolk and is aimed at students, professionals, and people with a casual interest in the video game industry. For more info, search Game Anglia Festival.
LGBT Events at ARU
Anglia Ruskin University are hosting some free events in February for LGBT History Month. Two events announced so far include a book launch for LGBTQ+ Research and a lecture on inclusive healthcare for the queer community. Click here for more information.
Trumpington Seedy Sunday ��
All budding gardeners, come along to Seedy Sunday. There will be stalls, local vendors, and community groups. All proceeds go to Memory CafĂŠ, part of Alzheimerâs Society.
Enrichment Updates
New Clubs
Starting Thursday 23rd January, Womenâs Social Indoor Football will be running weekly These are primarily social sessions. No specific kit is required apart from appropriate footwear. These sessions are tailored for beginners and female students looking to learn football.
Strength and Conditioning is a new club run by our Sports Tech Lauren and certified level 3 personal trainer Jordi. It will take place on Fridays from 1:45 - 2:30 in the Sports Centre.
Clubs No Longer Running
Due to a lack of interest, Film Club and Board Game Club will no longer be running. Remember, if youâd like to set up your own club you can email help@longroad.ac.uk and weâll help you get the ball rolling!
Extras
Connect Club
Zoe and the Connect Club would like to say thank you to everyone for their donations. Students this year have done a number of different crafts, including creating their own book marks, braceletmaking, creating Christmas decorations and more. If youâd like to get involved, come to C14 on Wednesdays 12:20 - 13:05.
Christian Union Christmas Quiz âŞ
A massive well done to the Christian Union for putting together the Christmas quiz back in December. Everything went splendidly and a great time was had by everyone involved. Christian Union takes place on Wednesdays 14:40 - 16:10 in G11 and everyone is welcome regardless of their religious beliefs.
accessible the workspace is. We would like to keep it this way, so just a reminder that no food is allowed in the Library and only bottled drinks or cups with lids are permitted. Staff are using CCTV to monitor this.
We are also happy to announce that the laptop locker in the Student Centre is now up and running. Thank you to our IT team for getting this sorted. Students may borrow a laptop in the Student Centre so long as they remember to bring their lanyard (which they should be doing anyway!).
The Long Lens
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Just before the break, we all got an early Christmas present in the form of Issue 11 of The Long Lens. This edition focuses on Gaming and Cinema, with articles Fallout, Jumanji, Arcane: League of Legends, How Horror Movies Influence Games, and more. It makes for an amazing read. To get involved, email thelonglens@longroad.ac.uk.
Motivation Workshop
Looking to get motivated and set some academic goals for 2025? You are invited to attend our motivational study skills workshop on Tuesday 21st January from 2:40 - 3:40 in room D4. Sweet treats will be provided, as will lots of tips for getting motivated in the year ahead. We look forward to seeing you there!
Extras
Thank You From Jimmyâs
We would like to share with you the letter sent to us from Jimmyâs Cambridge:
Dear Long Road,
I am writing to express our gratitude for once again thinking of Jimmyâs with the wonderful donations just before Christmas We very much appreciate your continuing kindness and support towards the work of Jimmyâs
This is our 30th year and we â re filled with hope and determination to do even more. With your help, we aim to expand our trauma-informed services, increase capacity, and provide the empathy and expertise needed to help even more people on their journeys to independence.
Because of our communityâs support, Jimmyâs has been able to provide nearly half a million bed spaces and serve one million meals over the past 29 years, but more than that, it has changed lives, helped people find stability, reconnect with family, secure employment, and regain their sense of self-worth
Your support means the world to us - and to every individual who finds safety, dignity, and hope within our walls
Thank you again Best wishes from all at Jimmyâs
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International Womenâs Day World Book Day Study Space Information Much more!
