Notre Dame Fam: Your Student Briefing (20/04/2020)

STUDENT NOTICES MONDAY 20TH APRIL

We hope you had a peaceful, positive and productive Easter break. As our online Notre Dame community continues to thrive why not let us know what you’ve been doing to keep busy, develop yourself and help others achievementtutors@ ndonline.ac.uk Keep checking the website, social media and your college email to stay in touch. Don’t forget, In times of challenge, we are only an email away.

Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives. Helen Pattison, Head of Students.

This week’s good news story: Most of our international students have now left Leeds to return home to their families overseas but before they left, they were asked to pass on any non-perishable food items that could be donated to those in need. The response was great and some went further by spreading the word and collecting from other students in their halls so in addition to food, we also received clothing, toiletries and books all of which can be passed on to support people in our community.

I wanted to give them a thumbs up and thank them for showing the spirit of Stella Maris and Notre Dame throughout the community!

Rose Lou

Interested in doing an EPQ?

Notices

The opportunity to start an EPQ whilst we are learning from home is open to all. If you would like to start your own project then email Hannah Smith HS@ndonline.ac.uk and she will send you a code for the EPQ group in Microsoft Teams.

Mental Health Support Apps from the College Counsellor ORCHA have published a list of their approved Mental Health Apps! (They test apps for the NHS) You might want to give these a try. Send us a review if you give them a go: WYSA is an emotionally intelligent chatbot which employs research-backed, widely used techniques such as CBT, DBT, Yoga and meditation, to support users with stress, anxiety, sleep, loss and more.

(You need to read terms and conditions with a parent or guardian to use if under 18.)

Fabulous takes a holistic approach to motivate users to be more productive and have higher energy. The app is more than just a habit tracker – it’s a personal coach and happiness trainer. (Age 13+) eQuoo is an evidence-based Emotional Fitness Game, combining the joy of gaming and the expertise of mental health professionals to provide a new form of mobile prevention and therapy for young adults. (Age 12+)

Coping Calendar If you find that you are struggling to cope during these difficult times, please remember that you are not alone in feeling like this way. It is important to know that we are in this together and that you are part of the Notre Dame community.

Action for Happiness have produced a Coping Calendar, which I have found really useful. Writing a letter (no 21) is good for you and will do wonders for the person that you send it to and never underestimate the power of doing some simple breathing exercises (no 8) if you are feeling anxious. Check your emails for one from me to see the full calendar or check out the back page of this document. Take care, Mrs Tiffany

Library Books We are currently setting up a platform for ebooks which will be accessed through Moodle, full details will be sent out when this is ready. Although the physical resources in the library are currently unavailable, please contact Dan Giddy if you need help finding online alternatives of items on our usual “Oliver� database. It is also worth following/checking the these twitter accounts for regular links to useful sites and resources: @ndcollegelib @leedslibraries @Leeds_Learning

Volunteering Could you get involved in Community Care Volunteering with Leeds City Council? If you are healthy and low-risk, you can find out ways to get involved here: https://doinggoodleeds.org.uk/covid-19-care-volunteering.html

Geography Field Work While nothing compares to getting in the field, you can take a virtual trip to surprising number of places online with apps like Google Earth and Google Maps. Make sure you don’t miss: • The Grand Canyon • The Great Barrier Reef

Explore NASA NASA have an amazing mobile app that lets you explore the entire center including inside cockpits with a full virtual tour.

You can download the NASA Space Center app here.

History History is often peiced together from collections of artifacts and the online environment lends itself well to exploring many tangents in an interactive way. We’ve been exploring: • The Anne Frank House • The National History Museum

Arts & Culture In recent years, countless galleries and museums have been slowly digitising their experience. You can view high definition pictures of classic art, view 3D mockups of ancient artefacts and even take a virtual tour inside many of the buildings themselves! Here are a few of our favourites: • The British Museum • The Museum of Modern Art • The Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel

Saatchi Gallery This gallery in London is specifically geared towards introducing a younger audience of art student and enthusiast to connect with contemporary art and art practice. In the Gallery, via the website, and in the Gallery’s Education Room, the Saatchi Gallery endeavours to ensure that teachers receive the best on-site and outreach support possible for their students. You can find it here: https://www.saatchigallery.com/

Notre Dame Fam - keeping busy!

This week, our staff and students are sharing what they are doing to keep active and what they have been eating to stay healthy(ish)!

I couldn’t go without Yoga with Adriene- my favourite online yoga channel. It’s great to be able to do a quick morning practice, then luxuriate in a full hour at the end of the day. It’s also so helpful for your mental wellbeing. https://www. youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene Heather Taylor I have just downloaded the Couch to 5k app – it's a great way to get into running and it is designed for people who can barely run for 30 seconds before getting tired. Give it a go and you never know, maybe by summer you’ll be signed up to run a 5k!

Charlotte Duckitt If you’re looking to improve your upper body and core strength, try out the pyramid push-up challenge. You have to perform one push-up before standing up, then two push-ups before standing up. Continue adding one repetition every time until you get to ten consecutive push-ups. Once you get to ten, work your way back down until you get to one again.

This adds up to 100 push-ups which is obviously very difficult but if you try this every day, you’ll be surprised how quick you improve. Today I faceplanted at 7 on the way back down!

Tom Thorpe If you have younger siblings (or just like kids films/books ha ha) then we have been doing cosmic yoga on youtube. It’s a great way of listening to a story and doing some exercise – my 5 and 11 year old love it (and so do I secretly) so far we’ve done Trolls, Frozen, Moana and Star Wars https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga Lisa Kirk To keep healthy and active why don’t you try “Strong by Zumba” is a great workout. My favourite video on youtube is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZcZgSgSHI There are many more.

Chary Gonzalez-Latham For those who prefer their exercise gentle - 5 min tai chi on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOS2zoyQw4&feature=youtu.be Angela Yates

I am all about the sweet treats at the moment (well all the time really). I have just bought my ingredients for a Mars Bar Cake. Best thing is, there is no cooking involved! You just need to melt the chocolate, butter and mars bars, add the syrup and rice crispies and chill in the fridge. Very naughty but very nice! Link here: https:// somethingsweetsomethingsavoury.com/mars-bar-crispy-cake/ Charlotte Siddons This is one of my favourite recipes from Spain. It only takes 20 minutes to prepare and an hour in total to cook. It’s delicious.

If you don’t like tuna try it with chicken/beef. https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/beef-empanadas.html If you are vegetarian, this my favourite: http://immigrantstable.com/2017/01/16/authentic-argentinian-vegetarianempanadas-three-ways-vvegan/#.XoYQ1YhKjIU Chary Gonzalez-Latham If your brain is as active as mine, you will find it very difficult to sit still during this time! Baking is one of my many joys I have been watching lots of videos to learn new tips and tricks. Baking in La cocina (I’ve been learning Spanish too!) is quite relaxing.

Daneill Whyles

Prayer from Andrew: The risen Jesus says in Luke’s gospel: ‘Peace be with you.’

At this time of great crisis we ask the Lord, who is always present, bidden or not, to be with us.

We pause to connect with Jesus’ all consuming love for us.

Amen.