Alice Davies 13th March 2012 ( Guest Speaker)

Alice Davies is from Widening Access Wales. She came to give a lecture to us about her work and what their role in educatin is. Widening Access is about making sure people from different backgrounds get equal oppurtunites. She works with people withdisabilites, people from ethnic minorities and people from low income families.

‘We want to see a country where every individual is given equal opportunity to fulfil their potential, maximise their earning potential and contribute to society’. (Jane Davidson Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, March 2002).


The programme is supported and funded by the higher education funding council for Wales (HEFEC) And their aim is to increase progression into higher education like colleges and universities, help to enhance achievment and to work with relative social advantage. Children at different stages in their school careers will need different kind of help, some more intense and some just need guidance to help them on their path in schools.
Their programme is as followed;
-Primary School = Art Arts in Action and STEM workshops
- Year 7 = Literacy support
- Year 9 = ACE days, mentoring, saturday clubs and techno camps
- Year 10 = Spring School, STAR days, taste of university or college life, saturday clubs
- Year 11 = GCSE Revision, college taster days, study skills, mentoring.








These schemes really seem to help the children become more confident in themselves to try new things and feel safe knowing there is always help at hand. The change of programmes every year ensures the pupil to feel they are learning new things, and it is also fresh for them, so they dont have to be taught repetivitely.

I found this lecture to be my favourite. My father is a Chief Inspector in South Wales police and is currently unit head of Soith Wales Police Minorites Support unit. I feel that Alice' and my fathers jobs are similar in the way that they are trying to create a safer, better place for people to be in. Both are trying to increase confidence and trust in our world.

Suzie Pugh - ICT Project Part 1

Knowing that the project assigned to us was called ' My sense of place'
a bunch of mad, cool ideas came to me ,  i was going to do about 100 things in my sketchbook that would portray my sense of place. However as i started thinking about what 'My sense of place' really meant to me, i started to come down from my cloud. To be honest there was not one place that really stood out for me, i have lived in four different houses, therefore having 4 different bedroooms ( so my bedroom was out of the picture) i have played and grown up in several of my families homes and to be quite honest i was comfortable whereever i was. Then it hit me! My sense of place could be anywhere, as long as the things i loved and the people i cherished where around me! Perfect!
So know my sketchbook portrays the things in my life that make me happy and sad, people who make me who i am, and the things that i need in my life to put a smile on my face. It may be cliche but what way to give a personal peep hole into my life! here are a few pictures of my ideas.

Suzie Pugh -- Poster design

Before easter, our last session with Suzie was about advertising. She first showed us half pictures of logos of popular brands to see how many we could guess. The images popped into our mind with only seeing half a picture. We then discussed why this happened, was it colour? was it size? or was it because the brands were familiar to us, used in our every day lives, and constantly put infront of us. The task she then set us over easter, was to design a poster that advertised a food product in a memorable way. Lucy, Ffion and I were in a group, we decided to use fresh fruit and vegetables, as we decided these items were used daily and important to peoples diets. We started to brainstorm about the product and the poster, and what it should say to the public. We decided on the background colour green as it represents nature and the fresh outdoors.We decided on the name 'FRESH' for our brand, it is short, and memorable and gives a sense of good healthy food. Our slogans also represent healthy food like 'Eat smart' and we also used 'Best of British' as we thought this would appeal to people as the food is grown near by and its british like we are. We then went over Ffions to use her photoshop software on her laptop. Ffion works in a restaurant and was able to take good pictures of fruit and veg which we then edidted onto the poster and backed up on gold card. We added a website and address to the poster to make it more realisitc, and then we were finished with out design a brand poster.

Nick Bennet Guest Speaker for Andy 06/03/12

On the 6th of March, Nick Bennet came into out lecture hall to speak to us as a guest Lecturer. An overview of further education in Wales.

Nick Bennet spoke to us in our lecture about further eduation. He explained to us the basics like who runs it? Local education council and board of governors

How is it funded? Welsh Government (DOFS)

What is it for? To support industry, economy, second chances, financial support and WBL.

The Welsh Government has two major functions;
1. Underpinning Social Justice
- Widening access
- Second chances
- Cultural awareness
- Financial support
2. Supporting the Economy
- Qualifications
- Entrepreneurship
- Work based learning
- Business generation
- Employer engagement

66% of post 16 learners are in Further Education Colleges, and there are twice as many 16-19 year olds in college than school. He also spoke to us about the aim of the Welsh Governments Programme. Improving financial standards for lower incomhe households was one of the main points. Offering work based learning and apprenticshipos for young paeople and evaluating current post 16 basic skills activitys was another. The government is also trying to improve FE by giving children EMA who need it. Students can get up to £30 a week every two weeks, it helps students afetr leaving schools, who want to further their education in colleges. This however will soon be affected as university tution fees are set to go up, and could cost up to £9000 a year for students depending on your university and course. Mr Bennett also said that in 1979 there were 40 colleges and today in 2012 there are only 17 colleges, this is because they have merged together creating bigger and better places for HE. Considering all this, there are statistics that show that college's are performing at a higher level than they years ago and more people are attending colleges to get a higher qualification and achieve better opportunities to get a job or move onto universities.
I really enjoyed Mr Bennets speech, in college i recieved EMA and it really helped me in my college years, it was nice to find out more about colleges and schools to have a better insight.

Graham Allan guest speaker for Andy 21/02/12

Our guest speaker on the 21st of feb was Graham Allan, Environmental Manager of SMU.

He spoke to us about 'Education for Sustainable Development'

He explained that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present.The most commonly quote is from Gro Harlem Bruntland. Bruntland is the Director General of the World Health Organisation. In 1987, he said:

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

Mr Allen told us that as part of a university, we should be striving to help the environment and help make a difference in the world by commiting to achievable goal.

“Action is our only hope.” (Allen)
brought up in our lecture was also the rising amount of population in the world. This is not always a bad thing, however, many people believe that a rise in population also means a rise in pollution for our world.

He is very passionate about his job as it came off in the lecture, he believes in bettering our enviornment by just doing a little bit more each week to achieve pur goal,like recycling properly.The creativity ideals and courage of the youth of the world shold be mobilized to forge a global patnership in order to achieve sustainable development. I enjoyed listening to Graham speak and feel as though i took something away from his lecture

Steve Gullick (guest speaker) 6/2/12

Steve Gullick was our guest speaker covering for Andy this week. Steve spoke to us on the topic of school governors this day and as he was a governor in the past, he had a lot of wise words and experience on the topic. He explained in detail the important role a school govenor must play
   There are four types of Governing bodies:

·         The abdicators – these tend to believe that you should leave the work to the professionals such as the Head.

·         The adversaries – these visit the school often and keep a very close eye on all aspects of the school.

·         The supporters club – these offer advice and support the head.

·         The partners – these are the best Governors, they share everything good and bad by working in partnership with the head and staff.

.Governors are the only people who are allowed to punish staff, therefore they are the people appointed to hire and also fire staff when needed. The have sole control on what the schools budget should be spent on like new equipment, school trips and so on. The also discuss and choose when a pupil should be expelled. Governors only meet 3 times a year when they discuss and plan the school year.Governors dont regulary visits schools, however head teachers have no control when governors or inspectors come to the school (and are not allowed to stop them)
The only occasions in which they will come into contact with the teachers are,

1)When there are job interviews being held where there will be 2-5 governors attending

2)Informal visits to the schools

3)Celebrations such as school concerts or productions

4)Staff disciplinary meetings, if a member of staff has done something wrong a meeting is held to decide the punishment. 2-5 governors will be present.

Governors are not paid because they are volunteers who have a great importance in the success of a school.

Some staff will see Governors at governing body meetings and staff disciplinary meetings. This means Governors have seen evidence of poor teaching, therefore will arrange training courses to progress.

It is interesting to have more knowledge about governors, as they are only ever talked about and never really seen by pupils. At my time in my own schools, i never saw governors, only at school concerts or when there would be a large meeting in the school. I find it better to have an insight into what really goes into the making of a school.

Suzie Pugh Monday 13th Feb

Our first lesson with Suzie was intresting to say the least! She asked each one of us to bring in 3 or more objects that held significance for us. We all then got into groups and presented our objects to each member of our group. Suzie then asked us to make a shape on the floor from masking paper,to put our objects in the middle of it. We did the shape of a Jews star as there were three of us we put our significant objects at eachpoint. We then showcased our objects to the class explaining why they held such importance to us. My favourite object that i brought in was a real silver compact mirror engraved by my parents and given to me on my 18th birthday. I love the mirror and its something i will cherish all my life. This is session was soo good because we has an insight into everyone elses lives and got to know each other that little bit more.

SUZIE PUGH

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