Empowered: Raising money for charity and remembrance day

This week at College we have been getting involved in our wider local community, from the Remembrance Day memorial in Chesterfield to raising money for last year’s principal’s chosen charity, Bluebell Wood.

Public Services

On Sunday 10th of November, Chesterfield came together to honour the brave souls who served in the Armed Forces. The procession, led by the Ireland Colliery Band, was a poignant display of unity and respect. The Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Elizabeth Fothergill, alongside the Mayor and Mayoress of Chesterfield, Councillor Jenny Flood and Heather Hopkinson, headed the march.

Chesterfield College’s Public Service students joined the Principal and representatives from college, along with numerous Cadets, participated in a moving Service of Remembrance at the Parish Church of St Mary and All Saints, also known as the Crooked Spire. The parade then made its way through the town and the ceremony ended with representatives laying wreaths and honouring a two minute silence, with students laying a wreath on behalf of the College.

On Monday 11th of November, Public Service students and staff came together in the Heartspace to hold a memorial within the College, this event included various readings and had a huge turnout of staff and students from across the organisation, who came to join us in a moment of silence.

A Level Criminology

A Level Criminology students were lucky enough to take part in a workshop with the Derbyshire Crime Scene Investigation team to discuss the wide variety of pathways into working in the role and what a day in the life entails. Demonstrating techniques such as finger print retrieval and swabbing, the team ran through the key skills required to work in the role including a large emphasis on photography skills to document scenes and evidence effectively.

Explaining the routes into the role they said, “The fact that our routes into the job are so different demonstrates that a wide range of study and career routes can ultimately lead to this role. I actually studied Travel and Tourism at this College and after working in that industry worked in admin roles within the police and criminal justice system which eventually led me to apply for and end up doing this. You need some form of Science qualification to apply but to be honest the soft skills I picked up in customer service are actually surprisingly vital in the role. My colleague however studied Applied Science and Forensic Measurement Degree at university and went straight into the department and over 20+ years has worked in a variety of roles across the team. It’s a fascinating and very rewarding job and certainly one worth considering if criminology and or science is your interest.”

Performing Arts

In an amazing hands on workshop, Rachel Gay from the Red Ladder Theatre Company, held a workshop at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre with our Performing Arts students covering a wide range of techniques.

This incredible workshop was funded by the Arts Council and the workshops covered warm ups, practical techniques to express a story and how to write original ideas for screenplays. Hearing from industry professionals is an extremely important part of the learning process and the intensive workshops really resonated with the students, who took a lot away from the sessions that they will go on to incorporate into their own practice.

Bluebell Wood

We are so pleased to shared that this week, we were able to present an amazing total amount of £2386.85 to last year’s principal’s charity, Bluebell Wood, which is a hospice that supports children and families with life-limiting conditions in the UK. This amazing organisation supports hundreds of children and families from across South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire, North Nottinghamshire and parts of North Lincolnshire.

The total amount was raised from various student and staff activities throughout the previous year, from the amazing Santa Dash, held at Christmas last year to one of our members of staff, Jo Down (Assistant Principal, Student Experience and Wellbeing) running a half marathon earlier this year in aid of the charity. It was incredible to be able to raise money for such an incredibly important charity within our local community.

Coming up

In the next few weeks Taste Restaurant will be launching their new Christmas lunch and dinner menus, this is a great opportunity for teams to come together and celebrate, so make sure you secure yours now! Take a look at the Taste Restaurant Facebook page to take a look at the dates and menus.

That’s not all, in the next few weeks, our new Art and Design printmaking workshops will start, we will have our first Open Evening of the next academic year and so much more, so make sure to keep checking back each week for inspiring news and stories from around the College.