We’re fast approaching the end of the academic year, it’s been a busy but exciting year and students have taken part in a tremendous number of hours of enrichment activity. This is a fantastic achievement, well done to all who got involved! This will be the last blog post before the summer holidays so without further ado let’s check out some of the activities that have been taking place over the last few weeks.
Sightseeing in London
A group of students from Business and Public Services visited London for a couple of days sightseeing in the capital. The group saw iconic landmarks including Tower Bridge, the Shard and the Houses of Parliament. Students also visited the Bank of England Museum and City of London Policing Museum; which takes visitors on a journey exploring London’s policing history, including infamous cases such as Jack the Ripper. This visit was partially funded by the Essential Life Skills project and was a fantastic opportunity for our students to explore the Big Smoke!
Asian Bridal Make-up
We held an Asian bridal themed make-up masterclass as a trial enrichment activity. Students were given the opportunity to learn from a professional make-up artist how to recreate an Asian bridal look. Students were able to learn and practice their creative make-up skills and also experiment with lots of types of products, from primer to false eyelashes.
The two hour workshop was a great success with some budding make-up artists in the making we think! We hope to run a variety of different make-up masterclasses in the new academic year with the help of HE media make-up students.
Mural Masterpiece!
Well done to a group of Access to FE students who have worked extremely hard over the past couple of months to clean up a section of the Leeds Liverpool canal tow path and create a bright and cheery mural. The work carried out was in association with the Canal and River Trust who are a charity that look after 2000 miles of waterways. If you are out and about along the canal in Shipley then check out the community regeneration handy work that our students have been involved in.
Bradford College Cricket Club
Bradford College Cricket Club had their first match on 22 May 2019 against New College Pontefract at Castleford’s Saville Park cricket ground. The students were not alone as a number of Bradford College student spectators also went along to cheer on the team including Habiba who has written a special cricket post below.
Bradford College now has its very own cricket club which began earlier this year, at first there were only a small number of people that came along, but, slowly more people began to join. Practice would take place in the sports hall at Trinity Green twice a week; I remember first going in and feeling nervous because there were a lot of boys, but after seeing the other girls play I felt more confident.
One thing that really helped me with my confidence was that the sports hall was divided into two; one side with higher ability players and the other side with players that had less knowledge about cricket and had less confidence. I stayed on the new players side with my friends and we really enjoyed it. I felt like the Bradford College Cricket Club needed more girls on the team. I think there were not a lot in the beginning because they might have felt scared, some girls just need a little confidence to try something new.
After a number of weeks practicing at Trinity Green players were improving to the point where they started practicing in the nets with hard balls which would help prepare them for play outdoors. Following lots of indoor practice about 14 players were chosen to practice in the nets at Bradford Park Avenue cricket ground.
On the 22 of May 2019, Bradford College’s cricket team had their first match, the game went really well and the team never gave up, however, we didn’t win this time. It was a chance for the team to play their first match together and it was a real learning curve. Sehar who went along to watch the match said “I was really enjoying the game, we didn’t win our first match, but I’m really proud of the team and I know that they will soon be winning all of their matches!” It was a better outcome on 28 May at Bradford Park Avenue where the team won against Wakefield but lost a bowl off against Sheffield.
After the match I caught up with Said, a first year Bradford College student and team member who has been coming to cricket since the beginning to find out more about his passion for cricket. “I’ve been interested in cricket ever since I was a child, I’ve been coming to cricket for about 7 months now and really enjoy it. I want to be a good cricket player and one day play for either England, or, Afghanistan.”
I feel that exciting times lie ahead for Bradford College Cricket Club, I’d like to see more girls join the team, some may feel nervous to join like me, but there is nothing to be nervous about. I hope that more girls will step outside of their comfort zone and feel more confident to get involved in cricket and other sports here at Bradford College. Finally, I would like to add a special mention to Chris Taylor from the Enrichment team who has helped build this cricket club and thanks to breaking boundaries from the cricketers who now have the equipment that they need.
Games, Games, Games!
On Saturday 8 June 2019 a group of students from the games development group visited the Arcade Club in Manchester which is Europe’s largest video and pinball arcade. With two floors jam packed with games from Mario Bros. to Mortal Kombat, it really is a gamer’s paradise! It was a brilliant day and students got the opportunity to try out the latest in VR gaming, but it was Taiko Drum Master that seemed to be a firm favourite!
What’s Next?
Regular student enrichment activities will take a short break, but we’ll be back and ready to roll from September with a new timetable of enrichment activities to get involved in! We’ll be reflecting on what went well and what we can improve on and we’re all excited to see what 2019/20 will bring!
Bradford College Plus 