End of our first term

So it is the end of our first term at Norland College!

It has gone so quickly but we really feel we have settled in well and have made loads of new friends, which is amazing.

A few of the challenges we have faced have included some of the coursework, it is really fascinating but as you would expect can take time to complete. 

 It’s a bit daunting feeling that we have the Norland reputation to uphold but we are so proud to be here and have learnt so much already! While out and about the uniform attracts quite a bit of attention, which takes some getting used to but, people seem genuinely interested to hear about our training.   

One of the things we have really enjoyed this term has been working with the virtual babies which have given us an idea of what it would be like working with a real baby.

We all have our favourite lectures, which range from Child Development to Food and Nutrition and Sewing but everyone agrees that it is the time we get in placements, getting to put what we learn in lectures into practice with children which is what we enjoy most at Norland. It is so rewarding to be having such great practical training; we’re all loving it and looking forward to a new term in a new placement.  

So, its nearly Christmas and we are all looking forward to heading home to get a fix of the things we have missed. This includes, The Chinese Cottage in Didcot, The Boundary House in Abingdon and although Bath is beautiful some of us are missing the ‘greenness of home’.  

Some of us are also looking forward to hearing the familiar accents from home, as well as spending time with friends, siblings, pets and of course mum cooking (particularly spag bol) and the dishwasher!!

We finish this term thinking about and planning who we will live with next year... it feels like it will come along so quickly. 

Norland College Choir - Our busy term

This term the Norland College choir have been really busy!

We performed at the Bath Christmas Lights switch on, which went out live on BBC The One Show. We arrived and performed to the crowd of thousands before comedian John Bishop turned on the lights with the presenters of The One Show, Matt Baker and Alex Jones.

One of the stars of the show we got to meet was Pudsey who was there raising awareness of Children In Need and the fundraising The One Show had been doing. Being a cheeky bear, he nabbed a couple of our hats for a photo!

Our next performance took place at the Bath Christmas Market on Friday 7 December. Bath market is quickly becoming known as the 'Christmas Capital of the West' with tourists travelling far and wide to visit the market. It is a market tradition that choirs sing for the passing shoppers ensuring Christmas cheer is felt by all. With our hats donned with tinsel we sang for passers by:

Our final performance will mark the end of term at the annual Norland Christmas Carol concert! Our carols are well practised and we will be showing off our sign language skills by signing some of them as well. All of our families have been invited along and it will be a great way to end the term ready for the festive season.

Britains Got Talent Audition

A group of us decided to try our luck singing at this year’s Britain's Got Talent auditions in Cardiff! 

We all met when we started at Norland in September and share our student house in Bath. We decided we would sing would be Sing – the song Gary Barlow wrote to celebrate the Queens diamond Jubilee. We know it quite well as this is one we have been rehearsing with Grenville Jones in the Norland College Choir.

On Saturday we travelled to Cardiff and had such a good day, it was so exciting and great meeting so many people who were interested in our uniforms, asking us questions. 

We also made friends with the Llantarnam Deaf Choir (see the photo below) – our sign language skills came in really handy here.

We think it went pretty well and now have to wait until January to find out if we got through so fingers crossed everyone!

http://instagram.com/p/R2Hq7kxWVI/ 

Home Economics

Our latest creations in Home Economics:

Now you can see why this is one of our favourite lectures!

Apple Cake by Rosie

Pizza by Rosie

Rock (or rocket) cakes by Keziah

For more about the other elements of the Norland Diploma have a look here

Japanese Students Visit

Thursday 4 October 

Today students studying childcare at Seitoku University in Japan visited the college for a day of cultural exchange and to find out a little bit about childcare training at Norland.  

Before they arrived we were all a little nervous about what to expect - although the second year students had re-assured us it was a fun day.

We set up activities throughout the college that groups of the Japanese students would rotate around. Each activity is something we would do with children – mainly messy activities including shaving foam play, corn flour (or gloop), marble paintings and sand play. The students seemed to really enjoy getting stuck in and hadn’t really done any of the activities before.

All of the students were really enthusiastic and translated our names into Japanese for us and told us what the sounds of our names mean in Japanese.

Part of the visit included a cultural exchange where we performed We’re going on a bear hunt for the Japanese Students – with actions and everything! It was a lot of fun and they really enjoyed it. Here is a video of our performance. 

In return they performed the Japanese version of It’s a Small World; sang a song that they sing when they graduate - which was really good and performed a dance.

The day was really good fun, all the Japanese students were lovely and so enthusiastic about everything we were showing them. They took hundreds of photos and were really sad to leave.