Brilliant Brinsbury
Brinsbury Show & Country Fayre 2011 saw as many as 5,000 people flock to the annual event on Sunday 8th May — despite a questionable weather forecast and the closure of Bury Hill.
Equine held a variety of demonstrations by students and the showground was packed full of canine activities including the very popular Terrier racing. 
There were fantastic displays of students’ work, including Soft Furnishings and Upholstery, Blacksmithing, and Furniture to name but a few. There were demonstrations in Hair & Beauty, Dog Grooming, leadwork, Floristry, tree climbing and Motor Vehicle gave people 
the opportunity to have a go on the manoeuvrability circuit.
There was a Farmers Market and animals at every turn: cows, sheep, horses, dogs, chickens, frogs, rabbits, the list was endless. The tractor and trailer ride around the farm were non-stop with vehicles going all day, heavy horses carriage rides and the water wheel was a real crowd puller.
Eurosport
The Olympics arrived early at Chichester College during the Easter break with students competing in a 5-day ‘Eurosport’ challenge against students from its European twinned cities in France, Germany and Italy – Portugal were unable to attend.
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The students competed in sports which give a taste of the countries competing; these included football, rugby, volleyball, Swedish longball, hockey and tug-of-war. A ladies football match decided the winners: Italians took the honours with a good team effort, supported by an outstanding forward who seemed able to score at will off both feet.
Volleyball Champions
Chichester College Ladies Volleyball team won the national championship at the British Colleges Sport cup final, held at the Sports Village, Bath University. Congratulations!
Olympic Meal
The hospitality department have been invited to design a meal that can be served to an athlete at the Olympics. The brief requires a meal that is well-balanced, sustainable, healthy, nutritious, interesting, delicious and full of energy. It also needs to be adaptable for different client groups (ie vegetarian, Halal, Kosher, gluten-/wheat-free).
The proposal is a meal of pan-fried mackerel in lemon oatmeal with warm potato and beetroot salad, samphire, and watercress foam, which will be submitted with a document to explain the nutritional properties and health benefits of the dish.
World Class Skills
The two best young furniture makers in the country are fighting it out for the Furniture place on the UK team for WorldSkills and one of them is 21 year-old Chris Wallis, an apprentice at the Edward Barnsley Workshop, studying at Chichester College. Vice principal Sarah Stannard outlines, “Contrary to the recent Wolf Report headlines about vocational education, our youngsters are not only achieving their grades but winning prestigious apprenticeships with local businesses”.
Worldskills trainer, Peter Legg MBE, who has been involved with WorldSkills since 1987 recently spent a week in Chichester with the two squad members for Cabinet Making, describing it as being “like the Olympics, but for skills”. Of the intensive training with Peter, Chris said, “We’re working at a constant, controlled pace. We don’t stop for anything — as soon as we finish one thing, we move on to the next. There’s so much to do, you just have to go for it. You can’t stop and think about it too much. I don’t watch my competitors; I focus on what I’m doing and block out everything else”.
Chris, who has always enjoyed making things, competed in 2009 WorldSkills UK Cabinet Making (SkillBuild), winning gold after taking bronze in 2008. He is now in with a good chance of competing internationally and has just received sponsorship from Trend - Routing Technology.
Regional Rewards
Chichester smashed the Skillbuild regional final on the 26th April at Highbury College, taking all 3 medals for Cabinet Making! George Callow, 3rd year student, won gold, 2nd year Edward Harringman took silver and 1st year Alex Morley took bronze.
In Carpentry, Ben Shotter was awarded a bronze medal and Level 1 Diploma Painting and Decorating student, Richard Freshville, won gold in the Junior Painting competition. Congratulations to all medal winners.
Beautiful Finish
Keelie Adams, Amy Thair and Jade Humphrey competed in the Advanced Beauty category at the Wakefield regional finals for UK SKills, with Jade winning gold. A senior judge said the Jade had the X-factor, had been spotted as a real talent and may be trained for 2013 WorldSkills in Germany. Georgie 
Anselm, Amy Oram and Rose Pilich battled for Intermediate Level 2 and Rose won the silver medal.
Six Chichester students entered the 1st heat for UK Skills in Floristry at Guildford College, and Debbie Pooch from Level 2 came 2nd in the intermediate category against 15 other students. The brief was to make an arrangement for the after dinner show at The X Factor.
PLUS: All 3 of our showcase applications for the WorldSkills event in October have been accepted:
- Success in Fine Furniture Making in the ‘Heritage Feature Stage’ category
- Sustainability Moderne (Horticulture’s award winning garden) in the ‘Display’ category
- CSI Chichester - Crime Scene Skills in the ‘Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM)’
Ready to Rock
Students from the Chichester College who have formed a band with a Chi Uni student have just reached the regional finals of the Live and Unsigned band competition.
The group describe themselves as one of the most exciting unsigned projects in the UK! Drawing influence from everything from 30s blues to 70s rock to modern soul; artists such as Deep Purple, Chickenfoot, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Country Communion, the instrumental side of Silcstone is a bold, well oiled, rhythm machine.
See them at the next heat on 21st May at Portsmouth Guildhall.
Construction Completion
Chichester College Construction students studying a BTEC First Level 2 at the Arena Centre in Bognor Regis successfully completed a high profile refurbishment contract at Bognor Regis Cricket Club as part of the NatWest Cricket Force initiative.
Students were involved in the project from the early stages of planning and consultation; working not only with me but also liaising with the club project team. The work included: planning, risk assessing, working as per plan, material specifications, demolition, blockwork partitions, blocking up window openings, rendering and general making good — all elements required for the qualification they are working towards. The transformation from derelict building to new facility is amazing.