College Refurbishments

From the outside the college still looks much the same as it did when Set 36 left for the summer back in July.

However take a look inside...

The new college reception, complete with very funky light, welcomes visitors to the college.

 

The new common room, that students will use for their lunch and break times complete with student kitchen, provides a relaxing environment students can make their own.

 The Conference Room is now a versatile teaching space that also houses the Learning Resource Centre! 

The new college will be showcased to any students that are thinking about applying to Norland on Saturday 28 September. Simply drop in any time between 10.30am and 2.30pm to see the new building, find out about our new degree and talk to staff and students about what it is like to study at Norland.

More information can be found here on the website.

Summer refurbishments

This summer Norland College is undergoing a transformation. York Villa, the grade 2 listed college building, is having some extensive building work done ready for our new intake and new course starting in September. The transformation of the building will be in keeping with the Georgian architecture to reflect the traditions of Norland whilst reflecting the modern practices and esteemed standards of training offered at the college. 

Updated IT facilities will ensure our students have the IT infrastructure in place to support them in their studies. The College reception area is having a facelift to welcome students, staff and visitors to the college in true Norland style and the students’ independent study area and common room are also being re-fitted.

An extension is also being built to help accommodate our increased intake for September 2013. Set 37 will be the largest Set at Norland since moving to Bath and we look forward to welcoming them to our ‘new-look’ college!

More photos and updates of the grand reveal will be posted in September!

New Head of Students

Its a new term and we have a new Head and Deputy Head of Set

Each year group elects a two representatives within their year to represent the Set at staff meetings and on the social committee. In the first year this changes every term.

 Our new Head of Set 36 is Lauren Tinsley 

 and our new Deputy Head is Alice Curry

 Congratulations to you both! Do us proud.
 

Behind the scenes - BBC filming

On Friday 22 February we had a visit from Jon Kay, BBC correspondent, who was making a short piece about the 21st Century Nanny training we get at Norland College. 

Jon and his camera man Tim (the one with the camera!) came along to a self defence session we were having with our instructor Andy (in the black t-shirt).  
We get two self defence sessions during our training at Norland, one when we start which focuses on our personal safety whilst living away from home and one just before we finish which gets us to think about the safety of the children that we will be caring for as well as our personal safety. 

Over lunch time we mocked up a few shots for the camera. Here we were re-creating some of the classic shots of Norland Nannies pushing prams (we were trying to get every detail an exact replica). 

 

and this one compared to a historic picture of Norland students

 

Then Jon and Tim joined us at a skid pan training session we were doing. In this photo we had just arrived and were hearing about what we would be up to during the session, while Tim set up for our close ups!

 Tim took his life in his own hands trying to get a great shot while we were learning to control a car in icy and slippery conditions. It was great fun but we also learnt so much; invaluable skills when transporting such precious cargo in winter weather.

And here are some pics of the finished piece that went out live on  BBC Breakfast on Wednesday 27 February!

This one shows Claire Burgess one of our lecturers with her pink coat that she was told "is great for TV"! 

 

And a link to the finished piece (in case you missed it) 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21598420

 

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/