Focus On The Crocus
In October The Rotary Club of Great Britain & Ireland is supporting a big bulb plant. Across the country thousands of Rotarians and their supporters in the community are planting Giant Ruby crocus bulbs which will fills schools, parks, verges and gardens with beautiful purple flowers in time for Thanks for Life Day in February. This day celebrates Rotary’s campaign to eliminate polio across the world, the purple represents the purple pinkies of the children who have been inoculated.
Lauren, Anthony, Ellie-Mae, Bradley and Pippa (ably assisted by Mrs Cramer and Mr Davenport) joined Martin Day, Park Ranger at Stanley Park and Rotarians from Blackpool for our plant.
Bob Alger, President of Marton Rotary says
On behalf of myself and all the members of Blackpool Marton Rotary Club I would like to thank the teachers & children of Unity College for the Focus The Crocus dig at Stanley Park yesterday, not to mention the Stanley Park ground staff. You all worked so hard to make sure we have a wonderful show of crocus for years to come. Everyone will be able to go back to that special corner and reflect on what they have achieved for Polio Eradication. Once again a big thank you!!!!! Bob & Margaret.
Crocus will also be planted in the school garden, in the Arboretum, (thanks to Councillor Mineur) and across Blackpool in the gardens and verges of parents of Year 6 students who came to visit us on Open Evening.
Paul Maynard MP Visits Beacon Hill
June 18th, just over 6 weeks after being elected MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, Paul Maynard MP met with two of Beacon Hill’s most vocal student groups. First was a business meeting with Fairtrade Fairytale (see the Student Experiences page for the girls’ thoughts on this meeting) where Paul shared his personal vision for Fairtrade as well as Blackpool’s bid to gain Fairtrade Town status. FTFT now has a plan of action for supporting our community in this important step. It may well involve cheese!
Over a working lunch, we were joined by members of Diversity 365, Paul and the students discussed how we can work together to make Blackpool a more cohesive community. Watch this space for the next developments.
High Tea For Haiti
High Tea for Haiti is Beacon Hill’s latest success as teachers and students all volunteered to help raise money. There are many natural disasters that occur around the world and many people get involved when the media coverage is high. The problem then occurs when the media coverage ends and most people forget, however the suffering continues and can increase. This is why our team of volunteers waited until a few weeks after the quake had left the headlines. Then combining our fine performers and our best culinary efforts we held the High Tea for Haiti event on Friday the 26th March and raised a staggering £270. The event not only raised money for a very valuable cause it also brought our community together along with our sister school Bispham’s representatives and honorary guest Simon Weston.
Visitors from the Civic Trust, Rotary Club, local council, parents and friends joined to help other people and have time to reflect on what we have and what we can achieve.
Rachel Leech – Year 10
Our Most Epic Trip To Liverpool
Our Most Epic Trip to Liverpool – Year 11 Full Course GCSE
The trip began with expensive cans of coke and sandwiches at the train shop. We then shuffled to a train and stole the last table, which we then proceeded to cover in laptops, artwork and newspapers. We spent over an hour laughing the time away and arrived at the busy station. We took a taxi first to the Church of England; we travelled over old tombs and burials and arrived outside the church front, a flat faced monster of a doorway. Our initial idea of a modern-ish building was shattered by the weathered dark red stone. The term cathedral does not prepare you for the towering side of the church, with windows bigger than all our houses combined we marched up to the 20 metre high with high expectations, but were ushered though a small door to the left. We liked the first church more than the second; we felt it looked more like a church, the convoluted brickwork and immense stained glass window left us understandably awestruck for a couple of minutes. The size was numinous and the sense of God’s power against our insignificance was bountiful. The light work and the modern installation were a nice accent to the gothic masonry. As a group we lit prayer candles and spent our time in the shop pawing over mortgage worthy animal statues. One of us noticed a feature we missed and we collectively slunk over to a burial casket, to find the small mouse that was carved into it.
Once we’d left the Cathedral, we attempted to direct ourselves towards the Catholic Cathedral. After much debating Ms Lambie intervened and we hopped off up the road. In passing we stopped by the Liverpool war memorial and the Superlambanana, after posing to take many photos we arrived at the cathedral and raced up the couple of hundred stairs to the summit. We had an immediate feeling that it looked like a circus tent and when we entered the cathedral, we didn’t really like it. The art was too modern and confusing and it felt unfinished, (which we later found out was true). We liked the crypt of the church, but we felt the brickwork wasn’t as good as the CoE. All the staff of the cathedral were really friendly and told us about the crypt and its history.
We bought rosaries and badges in the store and splurged on coffee and tea.
We debated how to get to China Town, ate our meals (the crispy duck was excellent) in a family owned basic restaurant and then went shopping in a Chinese supermarket. The variety of unfamiliar food and drink was confusing but Jacob used his superior knowledge to select what he needed for his next culinary creation.
Beth, Jacob and Sam.
Ms Lambie says: the students were a credit to the school. Their intellectual curiosity and willingness to explore the unfamiliar was very impressive.
Blackpool VIPs
As part of the Year 7 Hub curriculum unit Our Community we were lucky enough to be visited by Mr Vas Vasudev, Consultant Histopathologist at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Vas spoke to our young people about his career, his life experiences and his involvement in the Blackpool community.
Vas says about his visit:
It did not take too long for the class to determine what my profession was…very searching and pertinent questions were asked. After I had explained what my job entailed once again I was asked several questions in relation to my profession. I also spoke to the children about Rotary and what it stands for and does. I was very impressed by the attention the children gave to what I had to say throughout.
The students were very inspired by Vas’ commitment to his goals in life and how he is committed to the Rotary pledge Service before Self. Year 7 are planning to support the Rotary campaign to eradicate polio from the world. |
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Diversity 365
Diversity 365 – school council steering group for community cohesion.
On December 5th Diversity 365 had its first meeting. This group is committed to working towards a a school in which there is a real sense of belonging and the diversity of people's backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and valued. We will be working to develop ways where strong and positive relationships are developed both in school and out in our wider community.
In keeping with this vision and our mission statement -
Working as a team we can bring our diverse communities together 365 (6)
our first meeting was at the Reggae Hut, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant on Topping Street. The group sampled spicy chicken wings, goat curry and oxtail, cooling ourselves down with a range of unfamiliar but delicious drinks. The Caribbean Cola was a particular hit. We also adopted a motto Donde se el burro misterioso?
It wasn’t all socialising as we have set out our agenda for this year and formulated a policy for dealing with offensive graffiti which members of the group will take to school council, the site supervisor and the governors.
Keep an eye on the website for our plans for 2010
Noonkodin School
Unity College is proud to strengthen its links with Nookodin school in Tanzania. We have begun by sponsoring a student from the school using the money raised at our community events last year.
We have great pleasure in introducing Leparakwo. Our sponsorship provides Leparakwo with a scholarship that will help him to gain the education he needs to fulfil his potential in life.
What can your form do to link with Noonkodin?
Remember this is a partnership, not simply a charity project. (Although if you should ever want to send anything to Leparakwo or his class mates please make sure it is small (pens/socks etc, are always good) and use the school as your address. Communication can be a challenge and sometimes letters etc. can take a while by snail mail or go astray if they contain things that are too valuable).
The students at Noonkodin have very little spare time. They work in their homes and often have jobs as well. So even if we don't hear from them very often we do know that Leparakwo is extremely happy and appreciative that he is being sponsored.
We also sent across our spare Beacon Break T shirts. As you can see they found a good home.
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The science department is looking forward to taking the lead in raising the funds for next year. We are planning a Stand Up for Leprakwo event in May. Do have a talent or skill you want to showcase to our community. Start practising!
We can learn as much from our new friends in Tanzania as they can from us. Let’s get linking. Ideas (which you are ready to work on) to Ms Lambie.
