Spotlight: June 2018

spotlight

Issue 03 June 2018

welcome Welcome to this new edition of the ‘EUTC Spotlight’.

We call it ‘Spotlight’ because it shines a light on all the unseen magic going on here at Elstree UTC and, in this final Summer Term, there’s more going on than ever.

I must give a huge congratulations to our Year 11 and 13 students who have worked tirelessly to prepare and complete some highly stressful public exams during May and June. The exams have now concluded and we look forward to some excellent results for our learners. Whilst a lot of schools begin to wind down for the summer break, we start to ramp up the creative and professional opportunities for our students. This term is stuffed full of project-based learning and EUTC is often at its most magically impressive at this time of year.

My job regularly takes my breath away, but I am inspired almost everywhere I go at the moment; the workshops are busy building sets and constructing props for ‘Lord of the Flies’; our studio is currently rigging lights and sound for our next ‘Apples and Snakes: Black Box’ industry shoot; there’s soundtrack being mixed and mastered in the music studio; professional post production taking place in the edit suite for the ‘Do Not Disturb’ film production and 40 students are at Elstree Studios filming a stunt car crash with MGM and LifeCast, among others. Plus, we have ‘Emissive’ - our upcoming Art Exhibition being curated for installation in July. Students are working round the clock to learn and create at the highest levels. What a phenomenal way to draw the academic year to its conclusion. Most schools start to wind down in the summer term but we seem to have gone into warp speed!

I do hope that you are able to make it to all or some of these incredible up and coming productions.

My thanks extend to our wonderfully supportive PTA group - ‘Friends of EUTC’ who have provided production materials, driven vans around collecting set and props, provided hospitality and interval drinks at all of our special events. I am also constantly impressed by our specialist staff who teach and train our young people. Finally, I am almost lost for words (and those who know me know how rare that is) with how committed, professional and creative our students continue to be. We are certainly living up to our ‘tag line’ and finishing this year loving learning and making magic.

Chris Mitchell Principal

Annie Davies shoots ‘100 years of Vogue’

in this issue

Rocket code Finalist page 11

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Updates

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150 Years’ of Railways

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Grace George-Music Shoot

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Apps For Good Finalist

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Mental Health Awareness Week

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Art Shoot

Grace George shoot page 10

updates LORD OF THE FLIES PRODUCTION Elstree UTC welcomes you, your family and friends to join us for a spectacular ‘Blackbox Theatre’ production of ‘Lord of the flies’. The in-house Production will see EUTC students perform a stage adaption of the literary masterpiece by William Golding and the Production Arts team have been working hard on the set, light, sound, props, makeup and hair design to make this performance one-of-a-kind. You can book your tickets at www.elstreeeutc.co.uk.

LIMELIGHT The forthcoming EUTC musical showcase‘Limelight’ will take place on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th July, featuring musical numbers from a variety of West End Productions. This performance will see over 100 EUTC students working on stage and behind-the-scenes. Don’t forget to grab your tickets at www.elstreeutc. co.uk/limelight.

ST ALBANS FILM FESTIVAL The 5th Annual International St Albans Film Festival returns with a jam-packed schedule from 26th June to 1st July and tickets can be bought at www.stalbansfilmfestival.com.

St Albans’s exciting film festival and fine movie heritage makes it a haven for film lovers and thousands flock from near and far. Because it’s so close to Leavesden, Pinewood and Elstree Studios, St Albans has been used as a filming location countless times (see if you can spot it in Johnny English, First Knight, Birthday Girl and Incendiary, as well as multiple episodes of Lewis and Foyle’s War).

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‘EMISSIVE’-ARTS’, CREATIVE MEDIA AND FILM EXHIBIT EUTC presents ‘Emissive’- An exciting Arts, Creative Media and Film Exhibition, taking place on 12th July. The exhibition explores work curated by EUTC students exploring various themes, from personal identity, social and political views, to fantasy worlds and surrealism.

The show will present work from digital photography, moving image, graphic design, landscape oil painting, abstract portraits, sculpture and beyond.

The evening will open to a short welcome drinks reception in the Atrium, followed by the opening of the exhibition, giving you ample time to view work at leisure and mingle.

EUTC CANTEEN GOES CASHLESS Tis’ the digital age. Since 4th June, the School canteen has switched to cashless transactions and payments for food and drink can only be made through topping up ParentPay. All students are activated to make casheless transactions and we promise you its dead easy to set up. All students, parents and guardians must ensure that their ParentPay account is topped up when using the canteen.

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE SEND TEAM The School is delighted to welcome its two new Roborovski hamsters, Thelma and Louise. The two hamsters are based in the SEND office and will champion stress relief at the school. If you haven’t already, pop in and say hello to them.

Kirsty, Graphic design student product marketing her brand ‘Ouro’

Alex as ‘Roger’ in ‘Lord of the Flies’

Apple as ‘Simon’ in ‘Lord of the Flies’

J

Jasmine plays Lady Macbeth

Alumni ‘Grace George’ shoots music video

Asher Agard on a mentoring call with Apps for Good

Exhibition artwork by Kirsty

Exhibition artwork by Amber

Exhibition artwork by Rebecca

continued...

NEW STAFF-SUMMER 2018

KEY DATES: SUMMER 2018

1st March Samantha Bailey - Science Teacher

21st June Year 13 Graduation Ball

6th March Corinne Ward - Executive Assistant to SLT and HR Officer

12th july Year 12 Careers’ day

9th April Manisha Pattni- Marketing Coordinator 9th April Emilie Pointu - SEMH Coordinator 9th April Emine Kyriacou - SEMH Learning Mentor

20th July End of Academic year 16th August GCE Results Day 23rd August GCSE Results Day

16th April - Kyle Warusevitane - First Line IT Technician

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Lights, Camera, Action!

Choo, Choo! To celebrate a century-and-ahalf of the coming of railways to Elstree and Borehamwood, Elstree and Borehamwood Museum is staging a 6-month exhibition about the impact of the railways, drawing on its collection from local residents and volunteers.

Last November Media Production Assistant, Mashana Malowa and students’ Taylor, Josh and Tyler scooped an incredible opportunity to step into Direction, Sound and Lighting and create a documentary. Following on from this, on 4th May 2018, EUTC bagged another chance to record a stream of interviews with local residents and capture words of wisdom on their experiences.

With the museum literally transformed into a railway station, complete with old-fashioned suitcases, students’ prepared, shot and edited the interviews in a mock railway waiting room and ticket office from the 1940s. Mashana Malawa, Media Production Assistant shared ‘’working on the railways exhibition was an educating experience that supports the achievements of the local railway heritage.

It was a great opportunity for our students’ to take part in a project of this magnitude’’.

On the day, students used their professional skills and planning acumen to shoot four interviews, using state-of-the-art technology, in a real-life shoot.‘’Taylor said, ‘’we spent a whole day on this shoot. It really put me out there and I was able to learn about the challenges of working on a

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live-shoot. The experience I have have gained from this shoot is invaluable and will help me go a long way into the real world of work’’.

On the other hand, Interviewees came from all walks of life, sharing a common purposememories, relics and artifacts from the days of steam engines and hand-operated signals to mementos of being a guard on the railways.

THE EXHIBITION The Heritage Lottery Fund and ‘First Impressions’, which includes members of Borehamwood Town Council, Hertsmere Borough Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Thameslink and Elstree Screen Heritage, have funded the exhibition, working closely with Projects and Partnerships to make sure students get a handson project.

The free exhibition is open four days a week, Tuesday to Thursday between midday and 6pm, and on Saturday from 10am to 3pm. It will run until the 21 July 2018. To find out more visit their website: www.elstree-museum.org.uk or watch our Youtube film: https://youtu.be/yhEfDkAOMNg.

Exhibition at Elstree and Borehamwood Museum celebrating 150 years’ of the railways

Taylor, Josh and Tyler settinng up for the shoot

Railway profiles of veterans and railway workers

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Grace George during make up touch up

Hard work pays off: Behind-the-scenes and on air In May, Elstree UTC students went on air with the exuberant and talented EUTC alumni and singer ‘Grace George’, working behind-the-scenes to help her prepare a music video for Cez Darke (Music Manager for Jessie J, Rita Ora and One Direction.)

Grace delivered an incredible stellar performance and brought so much positive energy to the students and staff.

Having graduated from EUTC in 2016, Grace has been gigging in the entertainment industry for 7 years, working as a full-time musician and 10

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performing across a range of venues and EUTC was delighted to have Grace at the School.

Ultimately, behind every great performance comes an army of behind-the-scene professionals and the shoot of this music video wouldn’t have been possible without our students, who made up the crew unit. Students Ziggi, Harvey, George, Ruth, George H, Tyler H, Alex, Alex C, Marci, Tali, Lilly, Georgia, Naomi, Anil, Gilead and Josh used their professional skills, from lighting, direction, makeup,sound and beyond to make this shoot an end product. Bravo to all involved!

Rocket Code Finalist, Asher Agard bags entry to Virgin Red Prize Award 2018 Every year, Apps for Good holds a national educational competition and handpicks talented students and adults, empowering them to seize opportunities of the digital age and solve problems they are passionate about.

Former Apps for Good finalist, Asher Agard (top left), yet again gained entry as a finalist to take part in the app development competition and pitch his ideas to a panel of Dragon’s for the Virgin Red Prize, in the Legacy Award category.

Asher has been working hard for the competition and will be supported up until the Awards in June via mentoring calls and remote hangouts. David Zafera, Asher’s Computer Science Teacher shared, ‘’I am extremely proud of Asher for making it into the Virgin Red Competition. It’s a pleasure to support him with his studies and ongoing progress with Apps for Good His dedication and enthusiasm for Rocket Code is really inspiring, and there’s no one who has worked as hard as Asher this academic year. It’s fantastic to see his efforts paying off. Congratulations on your achievement Asher!

ROCKET CODE- THE APP

coding languages from a easy-to-use app combining simplicity and robustness’’. He added ‘’this time I have gone back to the base idea and looked at how the app can be an interactive, easy and engaging experience for the user. From music and aesthetics to the prototype, I have kept the kept coding language easier to learn’’.

ABOUT APPS FOR GOOD Apps for Good is an education technology charity with a mission to unlock the confidence and talent of young people to help them thrive in a tech-driven future. They provide free course materials and CPD to upskill computing teachers to ensure they feel confident delivering their programmes to their students. Students are then challenged to come up with any problem or issue they are passionate about within their communities and learn how to solve it by building a digital product.Through the Apps for Good programme students learn not just vital technical skills but also the enterprise and employability skills to design, market, launch and pitch their products solving real-world problems.

The courses cover app development and Internet of Things, as well as Machine Learning.

Programming languages are not the easiest to learn but what if there was an app that makes the learning process fun? According to Asher, the Rocket Code App will help people do just that! Asher said, ‘’In my opinion, Rocket Code is a unique app that will drive users to learn different

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Mental Health Awareness Week14th-20th May May 14th marked the start of Mental Health Awareness Week- a national campaign run by the Mental Health Foundation to help raise awareness of mental health issues.

Although EUTC has celebrated outstanding achievements by past and present students and understands that this is the culmination of hard work and determination from students, EUTC knows that the journey getting there isn’t always easy. To recognise this and celebrate MHAW18, EUTC had a jam-packed week of events for students and staff alike.

NEW COUNSELLING SERVICE EUTC is pleased to see the launch of its new service, providing a therapeutic, supportive and safe place for students to talk to a qualified counsellor about any issues concerning them. The Counsellor sees students with a wide range of issues such as stress, anxiety, low mood, depression, eating disorders and many others. Students can self-refer or ask a teacher/subject tutor to refer them.

informative presentations to students, focussed on mental health statistics, highlighting the repercussions of stress, breaking the stigma on mental health and coping with stress using simple meditation techniques. During the assemblies, students were also given information about the new counselling referral form.

TEA AND TALK FUNDRAISING EVENT Staff came together in a charity ‘Tea and Talk’ event held in the staff room to mark MHWA18 and raise money for the Mental Health Foundation.

The event was well attended by staff who popped in during breaks and lunch to relax, talk and share their life experience with stress. A big thank you to the SEND team and Ms Le-Roux for leading on the organisation of the event.

So far, the response has been positive and there has been increase in the number of students who have come forward to talk about stress and situations they are struggling with.

ASSEMBLY PRESENTATIONS WITH A THEME ON STRESS Throughout the week, Mr Rice and Ms Pointu gave

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Staff gather at wellbeing event

NEW ADDITIONS TO SEND TEAM The School welcomed its two new Roborovski hamsters, Thelma and Louise. Both staff and students have been going in during break and lunch to interact with them. Increasingly, studies show that interactions with therapy animals can decrease stress in humans. Playing with or petting an animal can increase levels of the stress-reducing hormone oxytocin and decrease production of the stress hormone cortisol.

ABOUT STRESS Most people will experience stress at some point in their life, but constant or extreme stress is bad for both the mind and body. If left unchecked, stress can be fatal — in fact, stress is often referred to as the “silent killer” because although its effects are not immediately apparent, it can lead to a number of serious health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease. This is why Stress Awareness Week is so important — it informs people about stress and provides them with the tools and resources to manage it.

Staff Emine and Emily welcome our two new Hamsters

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EUTC Art Shoot to be showcased at V&A May 10th saw EUTC students’ working on a new video of ‘’The Seeker’’ art installation, for noted Artist Nye Thompson; Nye’s work has been shortlisted to exhibit at the famous V&A Museum.

‘THE SEEKER PROJECT’- AN EXPLORATION OF THE MACHINE GAZE Aimed at young people, ‘The Seeker Project’ is a machine entity that travels the world virtually, and describes for us what it sees. Named for Ptah-Seker, the artist/technologist god of the Ancient Egyptians, who created the world by speaking the words to describe it, this project looks at how the act of describing the world might establish a whole new worldview for machines and humans alike.

channels as a means of presenting and recording these explorations.

With accelerating advances in image recognition and object identification software, an entirely new way of seeing the world is evolving. One where the relationship between viewer and viewed will be transformed, and everything seen is objectified (the sadistic machine gaze?). This evolving machinic visual landscape will become codified within the DNA of future intelligent systems.

During the shoot, students had an outstanding opportunity to work on direction, lighting, setup, acting and beyond to showcase their professional skills. EUTC is delighted to have Nye on board and is incredibly proud of all students.

NYE THOMPSON Nye’s work involves the creation of artist-software-systems in order to explore the impact of new technology paradigms. Her interests lie in the relationship between the embodied and the virtual; the evolving sense of what it is to be human and the social/psychological impact of living in a world of connected objects.

Nye uses sculptural installation and online

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The first shot!

Students working on the Nye Thompson ‘Seeker Project’ shoot

Lights, Camera Action!

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about this issue ‘Spotlight’ is an Elstree University Technical College publication and all content within remains property of the school. The content within is not to be republished under any other author’s name. However, sharing and distribution of the complete issue is encouraged.

The Communications, PR and Marketing Department at EUTC endeavours to champion the showcasing of student artwork, design, copy writing and photography. If you have any concerns regarding the content in this issue please contact Manisha Pattni (Marketing Coordinator) at manisha.pattni@ elstreeutc.co.uk or alternatively please contact the school office at admin@elstreeutc.co.uk Issue 03: Wednesday 27th June 2018 Spotlight content is created by Manisha Pattni.

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Read further updates and check out what’s happening behindthe-scenes at www.elstreeutc.co.uk If you are interested in becoming an EUTC student please view our prospectus at www.elstreeutc.co.uk/prospectus Do you want to help nuture future industry talent? Join our teaching staff at www.elstreeutc.co.uk/careers Love Learning. Make Magic.

Spotlight by Elstree University Technical College Š 2018