Best of BRIT
The epic awareness-raising BRIT 2012 Challenge began on 24th January at Chichester College. Phil Packer MBE, founder of the British Inspiration Trust who suffered severe spinal cord damage in 2008 and was told it was highly unlikely he would walk again, completed the first 12 of his 2012-mile walk in less than pleasant weather on Chichester College’s front field.
Sport and Public Services students managed the walk registration and marshalled the route, as well as trekking a combined total of 456 miles! Bacon rolls, fresh pastries and refreshments were provided in the ‘green room’ (Student Union) by Hospitality students, and Events Management students helped with welcoming and chaperoning guests to the ‘green room’ aka BRIT HQ.
Phil was joined at the start line by young people from local schools; Bourne, Westergate, Fordwater, The Regis and Chichester High for Boys and many Chichester College staff and students.
BRIT mentors who joined the walk were everyman adventurer Oliver Dudley, model and fundraiser Nell McAndrew, Brian Turner celebrity chef and restaurateur, athlete and British record holder Iwan Thomas, and Michael McGrath, Pole explorer and co-founder of The Muscle Help Foundation.
“The launch of the BRIT Challenge has gone extremely well today thanks to all the support received from Chichester College. If all the events are as well supported as the one, it’s going to be a great year”, anticipated Phil.
Principal Shelagh Legrave said, “It’s been a huge privilege to support Phil today and to get the BRIT challenge off to a flying start. We finished at 5.40pm and the college had clocked a massive 1,140 miles towards its own 2,012 target”.
Emily Wright (second year Childhood Studies) wrote for her class enrichment scrapbook, “I’m glad I took part in this event as it is for such a good cause and I think it’s really inspirational what Phil is doing. Totally worth the wet feet!”
Phil Packer's Walk Around the AMEX Stadium
Filmed by Brighton Film School Students
Brighton Film School students were chosen to produce a 2 minute news report/promotional film for the BRIT website, the Albion in the Community site and Chichester College site (official supporter of BRIT 2012).
BBC Stargazing Live!
On Tuesday, 17th January Maths and Science students from Chichester Colllege provided educational entertainment at Fontwell Park Racecourse for BBC Stargazing Live.
Mark Nason, section leader in Maths; Science and Social Science, who was responsible for our participation said, “Ours was clearly the largest and most impressive contribution to the event. The students involved had a fantastic time and we now have some really high quality resources that we can use again in the future”.
The live science demos included rocket launches, alien slime and impressive LEGO® robots. These took place while enthusiastic stargazers used their guides to identify constellations and details of the moon through brief gaps in the cloud.
For more information visit: www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/stargazing/.
Slippery Sausages
Mr Bill O’Hagan, winner of ‘Britain’s Best Sausage Maker Award’ gave a master class in sausage making to the first year Diploma in Professional Cookery students.
The day started with a talk on the importance of using only the finest fresh ingredients and absolutely no mechanically recovered meat, genetically modified ingredients, colourings, preservatives or any other artificial additives.
The students were keen to get some hands-on experience; trying their hands at forming and linking. After a full day, the students cooked some of the sausages along with mashed potato and onion gravy, and sat down to lunch with Bill.
Calculated Counsel
Professor James Hirschfeld, senior tutor in Mathematics at the University of Sussex, visited Chichester College to speak to first year Mathematics students to give them an idea of the importance of maths in the real world and what jobs Mathematics graduates may go on to do.
He began by explaining the structure of degrees at Sussex, before going on to list some of the jobs that recent graduates have taken, from accountants and teachers to interpreters and prison officers.
Professor Hirschfeld then demonstrated some of the maths behind data security, such as a mathematical lie-detector in the form of an error-correcting code, after which he answered students’ questions about applying for university.
Students were advised to ‘throw away your calculator’ as our visitor gave his opinion that students rely too much on their calculators and too little on their brains!
AQA Baccalaureate
The AQA Baccalaureate is an extra qualification that can be taken by students who fall into our ‘Gifted and Talented’ A-level programme. To achieve the Baccalaureate students need to complete a minimum of three A-levels, extra accredited voluntary activity and an Extended Project.
The Extended Project is a research-based project (rather like a university dissertation) which requires students to demonstrate both research, analytical and written skills. The standard expected is exceptionally high and students on the programme attend extra support sessions to help them prepare for this assessment.
Chichester College is delighted to report continuing excellent results which are well above the national average, particularly for similar centres.
Pass rate Grades A*-C National Average
2011 100% 53% (similar centres), 81% (all centres)
2010 100% 81%