The Great Egg Challenge

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business Studies teacher

Here in the Business department we like to make learning as interesting as we can. Often we like to get students to work in groups- it’s fun and developing team working skills is useful too.

This week, our second year Business Studies students took on the Great Egg Challenge! They were placed into small teams and given the challenge of making a parachute for a egg to drop from a 10 foot wall without breaking.

The exercise was aimed at developing the students’ strategic thinking, which is what their final A2 paper is based around, so it had a useful purpose as well as being a laugh.

There was plenty of hilarity as the students set to work and it certainly kick started Business strategy for the students. It was also a good fresh start after their recent examinations.

Chemistry Taster at Nottingham Uni

Posting by Hilary Woodward, Curriculum leader for Chemistry

The Sixth Form College, Solihull has an excellent relationship with the University of Nottingham and for several years, our A level Chemistry students have been benefitting from that association.

Last week, this year’s Chemistry students got a taste of undergraduate Chemistry at this prestigious university, as they enjoyed an afternoon of talks and demonstrations.

The School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham hosted series of informative talks and chemical demonstrations. This included a session entitled “The Periodic Table of Videos” presented by Professor Martyn Poliakoff, a talk on how to become a chemist by Professor Chris Hayes, a presentation on nanoscience by Professor Neil Champness and a talk entitled “Exciting Chemistry!” by Dr. Jon McMaster and Dr. Darren Wal.

This was just a taster of what studying Chemistry at degree level is all about. Our A level Chemistry students are also being offered the chance to complete a project in association with the University of Nottingham. A full-day master class will take place on 4^th April 2012. This will involve practical exercises involving redox chemistry and quantifying the vitamin C content of food sources. Students will be introduced to advanced techniques such as infra red spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.

The students who elect to complete this project will be required to follow up the work covered at Nottingham through further research on the investigation and the techniques used. Their findings will be recorded in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, which will be presented to an audience of academics at Nottingham University followed by visit to the University Open Day on 29^th June 2012.

This trip to Nottingham was an excellent opportunity for our A level Chemistry students to get a taste of what continuing their Chemistry studies after College would be like. They learnt that Chemistry at degree level is complex, but also a lot of fun.

We thank the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry for their time in hosting us. It was informative and enjoyable and many of the students are now looking at following it up by completing the project they have set.

BT Calls in on College

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Manager

It’s been another busy week for the Business Career Academy students. Following the second year students trip to London, the new first year students have welcomed a visitor into College in the shape of BT Project Manager Tracie Padro.

The visit from BT was for a rather grandly titled “guru lecture”, which is a part of the Career Academy programme, a national initiative that raises the employability of young people. Lectures such as this one, form an important part of the programme, with mentoring, external visits and paid internships also forming part of the experience for students.

Tracie began the afternoon lecture by explaining how her first job at BT (updating the phonebook) has lead to a life-long career with BT. She has not actually worked for any other firm, although she has done secondments and placements in the Customer Relations and Finance departments, amongst others.

Tracie explained to the students the benefits of working with a large business like BT, which spends a lot of time investing in its staff. Tracie is lucky enough to work from home so went through the different ways in which she conducts meetings as her ‘team’ is often scattered around the UK and meeting up can be quite difficult.

Tracie explained the skills that she has developed over the years and the students were amazed to learn that she has in the past worked with teams of up to 20-30 people and never met some members of the team because they lived so far away. She explained that having the right skills to communicate with people is essential to any professional person.

This kind of first-hand knowledge is invaluable to the students who will have to put such skills to the test in the summer when they complete 6-week internships at a variety of businesses.

We are so grateful to Tracie for taking time out to deliver this guru lecture. She works very closely with the College and is part of the mentoring programme and sits on the Local Advisory Board too. She was a part of the programme last year when we first launched our Business Career Academy and has continued to be a stalwart supporter this year.

Career Academy Visit to Westminster

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Career Academy Manager and Business teacher

Perseverance was the name of the game with the Business Career Academy last week. We had organised a trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, but the fates seemed to be conspiring against us!

First, we had to contend with not one, but two broken down trains. The third train did get us to London, but not without some problems with the brakes! You might think it would have been better to turn round and go home, but not the Business Career Academy.

This was a trip for the Year 13 students and, now into their second year of the Career Academy, they are veterans of these sorts of trips.

The Career Academy is a national programme that raises the employability of young people. Visits such as this one, form an important part of the programme, with mentoring, guru lectures and paid internships also making up the experience for students.

This visit saw the students take in the sights of Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral and the London Eye, but primarily we were there for a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

During this tour, the students were told about how an Act of Parliament goes through the House of Lords and the House of Commons before it is passed as law. The guide also explained how the MPs address each other when they are sitting in Parliament and gave the students an insight into the aspect of theatre involved, such as when MPs shout ‘order’ when Parliament is sitting.

The tour included information about how the Queen officially opens Parliament each year and the different customs that have been set many years ago and which are still followed today. The students were also given a short history lesson about how past kings and queens have tried to change the way Parliament is run.

It was an eventful day, but enjoyable too. Getting to London proved to be quite an ordeal, but we managed it and it was worth it, because the visit gave the students a really valuable insight into the workings of government. This is important because legislation affects every aspect of business and seeing Britain’s seat of power for themselves will have helped them to understand that.

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing!

Posting by Ruth Sharp, Business Career Academy Co-ordinator

The latest intake of students into the Business Career Academy are still finding their feet, but there’s nothing like throwing them into the deep end, including a recent visit to an accountancy firm.

First they went through a nerve-wracking selection process with representatives from Lloyds TSB, then they met their ‘Partners in Business’ or mentors (from local businesses), and then it was a trip to London for Career Academies ‘Capital Experience’. The latest business experience has been a visit to Birmingham-based accountancy form Grant Thornton.

Maria O’Donnell, who is also a mentor to one of the students, hosted the students at their Edmund Street offices last week. She gave the students a talk and a tour of the business.

The presentation centred around the different aspects of accounting that Grant Thornton deal with, from large corporations to individuals such as footballers and from tax management and audits to buying and selling businesses.

The different routes for getting a job at Grant Thornton were explained, which was useful to the students – many of whom harbour ambitions to pursue careers in accountancy. The school leaver route was explained to the students, as well as the post-graduate route into employment. This included a lot of detail on the study required for accountancy, but also the rewards of working at Grant Thornton.

Maria also spoke to the students about possible career progression within Grant Thornton and this was quite motivational for our Business Career Academy students, particularly given their career plans.

Grant Thornton have been a great supporter of the College Career Academy programme since it was launched in 2010 and this visit was just one more example of that support.

As well as more visits like this, this new group of students can look forward to guru lectures from key business representatives, mentoring meetings and eventually 6-week paid internships. The first cohort of Business Career Academy students did all this last year and have been a help and inspiration to this new group of students.

German Exchange Trip

Posting by Deborah Smail-Ross, Modern Language teacher at the College

The Modern Language department at The Sixth Form College, Solihull offers five languages and great links with schools and other organisations for those subjects. This includes German, for which we have a partnership with a school in Main-Taunus-Kreis near Frankfurt, called Albert-Einstein-Schule.

Our A level German students took part in an exchange partnership with this school last week and they really enjoyed the week-long trip. The students stayed with German pupils of a similar age from Albert-Einstein-Schule and enjoyed a range of activities, all aimed towards helping the students improve their spoken German and to embrace German culture.

Activities included joining in the lessons of their partners at school, as well as a variety of visits and outings. They enjoyed a line dancing lesson, a ten-pin bowling outing and met with the Mayoress of Schwalbach am Taunus, while also enjoying an afternoon in Frankfurt visiting the Frankfurt Christmas Market.

The students also enjoyed a visit to Wetzlar, which involved a tour of the town ‘in the footsteps of Goethe’, who wrote his famous ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ after living in the town shortly as a newly qualified lawyer.

In addition, the students also visited the multi-national Continental Teves factory, with which the College has links. The students watched brake components being made by robots and heard presentations from the apprentices and from a former student of the College, Jack Wilson, who is currently spending his university year abroad at the company.

The trip was a huge success. The students learnt a lot and really developed their spoken German, as you do when you immerse yourself in the language. They also took part in some really fun activities and made some new friends, many of whom I am sure will keep in touch. We thank the Albert-Einstein-Schule and Continental Teves for accommodating us on our trip.

A return exchange visit is planned in the New Year. The German students will be visiting the College in February and apprentices from the Continental Teves factory will participate in a 3-week training programme at the College later in the summer term.

More photos are available on the College Facebook page.

High Court Judge meets Law students

Posting by Bev Bishop, Marketing Co-ordinator

As Marketing Co-ordinator at the College, I don’t often get to go on fieldtrips with the students, but this term I have had the opportunity to visit Birmingham Crown Court with A level Law students on two occasions.

This week saw one such trip as I joined a group of 27 students in the city centre law courts. The visit included a talk from one of the court ushers, who explained how the crown court works. This included information about judges, jurors, barristers and other court officials, not to mention court procedures.

The usher who gave our talk let students sit in the judge’s seat and in the dock, which gave us all a giggle! He also mentioned our visit to the High Court judge in the court he was working in that day and in turn, the judge invited us into court for a private question and answers session.

We were very privileged to be granted 10 minutes with such a high profile judge – in this case a Lord – as it is highly unusual. The judge was very friendly and came down to the floor of the court, rather than sitting in his normal seat. He sat on the defence and prosecution tables in a much more informal manner, which helped to put the students at ease. Nonetheless, we were all a little in awe of such a high-powered Lord. He was very friendly and answered our questions very candidly. He told us about past cases he has presided over, including some very grisly murders. He also explained how he had become a High Court judge and talked about safety issues for judges, such as protection offered to them when presiding over terrorism cases.

As well as these talks, the students got to sit in on cases being heard that morning. Among the cases scheduled were trials for fraud, theft and drugs. There were, rather shockingly, three separate child abuse cases being heard that morning and even a murder trial taking place.

The students got to see juries working, to see witness questioning and cross examinations and even learnt about how vulnerable witness, such as in child abuse cases, get to give their evidence via a video link, rather than being subjected to the trauma of being in court.

I found the trip fascinating and I feel sure it will have benefitted the students too. When they come to sit their Law exams, not only will they be able to call upon things they learnt in class, but also to visualise what really happens in a courtroom, which is a big aid to memory.