Tuesday 13 December 2016

We won a POSBOs


Last week myself, Mark , Jess (from Changing Futures) and a few of the Student Ambassadors headed to the Baltic in Newcastle for the POSBOs awards ceremony. An event that we held in June known as Game-con won an award for the best youth event in 2016.

The GameCon event first started in 2015 and was created as an event that students would enjoy running. Students Thomas Black, Andrew Smales, Sam Henderson, Rory Williamson and Student Services team leader Mark Lee devised the idea when thinking about ways to engage with students and the wider public:

'We wanted something that would appeal to people of all ages and be very unique. We are all gamers with lots of retro and modern gaming systems, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to run a gaming event.'

Changing Futures was picked as a charity for the event due to their inspirational work with young people; particularly teenagers from the Hartlepool area.

'The team at Changing Futures were fantastic in 2015 and again in 2016. Jess Watson really helped us and promoted the event across the town. Our fundraising also made a big difference to their cause which was great to see.'

This year we managed to gain sponsorship from Hartlepool Domino’s Pizza, the college providing their Aerospace flight simulator and Teesside University Game Design tutors, students and Virtual Reality games in attendance.

We managed to smash last year’s total by raising a massive £208! It was a fabulous event and we couldn’t believe it when we were nominated for a POSBOs and the fact we won it was even better!!


We're already planning GameCon 2017 and this has given us the confidence to make it our biggest, best one yet!'


Monday 19 September 2016

Welcome Back

It’s been a busy past few weeks here at the college with lots of new starters. Here in Student Services we have been meeting lots of new students that have been enrolling here at the college since August – it has been like Piccadilly Circus here but it has been a lot of fun and it was nice to meet you all.

The first week back for students kicked off with a Freshers event, which seen over 35 companies come in and tell the students what services they offer. The FRESH team worked throughout the summer to plan the event to ensure it was fun-filled for the students. Every student was given lots of freebies including a bag of sweets from HCFE Student Services with useful contacts attached (if anyone would like one of these cards feel free to pop down). The event was a massive success and the atrium was buzzing with people from 10.30-2. Students seemed to enjoy the event and even got a glimpse of the new “Student Lounge” which is now open every day.

The lounge will be manned by the Ambassadors and myself 11am-1pm every day with a bunch of activities and events taking place there too. There will be FIFA competitions, Wii competitions and a bunch of films on for students to watch too. Feel free to speak to myself or the Ambassadors about the possibility of you becoming an Ambassador, as we are now taking applications for the New Year. Becoming an Ambassador has many benefits from rewards of high street vouchers and meals in the Flagship to having something extra on your CV or UCAS application. Being an Ambassador gains you a variety of skills from learning how to plan an event to gaining leadership skills and building confidence which are all great skills to help you in the future.

Feel free to come and chat to myself or the Ambassadors at any time…


Make sure to keep an eye out for all the events and activities that will be happening over the next year!!

Wednesday 24 August 2016

GCSE Results Day Survival Guide

It's that time of year already and no doubt you are a little apprehensive as to what your results are going to be and what to do when you open that letter!
We work with hundreds of students yearly, making sure that we get you on the best possible pathway with your results.
Here we outline some of our most popular tips to make sure GCSE Results Day goes smoothly...

Stay in Touch
Top up your mobile – whether you get the results you wanted or not you’ll be spending a long time talking/texting/posting social media to family and friends. Make sure you can contact those that matter on the day. Chances are they'll be thinking of you.

Be Prepared
Discuss with your parents, lecturer, or a careers adviser what your options are now you have your results.
Speaking to someone about things will allow you to respond much quicker and take away much of the worry about your next steps.

Stay Focused
Focus on your own situation and not what others are going to do. There’s an awful lot of emotion attached to results day so make sure that you are thinking about your own future as much as possible and don’t get dragged into other people's drama.

Take your time
Regardless of whether you get the results you want, understand that there is still time for you to consider what you want to do. Speak to family and friends or speak to a careers adviser at your local college/sixth form. We're here to help every day and are unbiased, supportive and informed as to what your options are.

Don't be a Sheep!
Don’t be swayed by the crowd. When lots of people are doing one thing it can take a lot of courage to say you want to do something different. Remember, you have to live YOUR life, not someone else’s!

Don't Panic
If you’re panicking, find somewhere calm to get things together. Even asking for some time alone can make others realise you need some space. Focus on your breathing and clear your mind. Taking five minutes to gather your thoughts can stop you making a rushed decision (or saying something that you may later regret!)

Give yourself a Break
Appreciate your achievements. Whatever your results you’ve just completed nearly two decades of non-stop education! You’ve grown, learnt and developed so much that you may be an entirely different person. That learning process continues throughout your life so enjoy what you’ve achieved at this point but never stop trying to develop.



Whatever your results, remember we are here to support you to make an educated and informed choice about your next steps. We are here at Hartlepool College to have a friendly chat with you to discuss your options - wherever and whatever they might be! Visit us, contact us via the main college website or call our GCSE HOTLINE on 01429 857102

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Student Blog - Gamecon

Over the last few week and months, we have been planning our second annual Games convention. During the last holiday we held our 3-day games convention at the college.

For this games convention, we used a variety of games from a wide range of different consoles. We a managed to get different 2 table tennis tables, a 2 vs 2 Counter Strike game and the college flight simulator. Also a special guest from Teesside University came who brought their Oculus Rift DK1 (Dev Kit 1) and gave us all some information on the different courses that they offer in this field.

For £1, you were entered into a raffle to win a Sega Mega drive and it let you come and play the different games that we had to offer J Students had a racing experience with a wheel and pedals that Mark allowed us to use ( THIS WAS HARD… LET ME TELL YOU NOW)

Also Dominos sponsored us and gave us 10 free pizzas A DAY…. Yes, that’s right 10 free pizzas A DAY. This turned out to be  one of the most popular things about the event J.

Over the 3 days we ran different competitions such as ;
·         Time Trial Sonic Levels
·         Mario Maker levels
And many many more

After the 3 days, we managed to make an overall total of £208 which was a massive increase on how much we made from the first year!!


Thomas Black

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Game-con 2016

Hartlepool College of Further Education students gave up their half-term to raise money for Changing Futures North East to support young people across the town. Inviting students from college and local schools, as well as families into the college, college student ambassadors and staff dug out their games consoles and put on a great games event for all ages!
And it wasn’t all just retro systems as Hartlepool College showcased their cutting edge flight simulator, used to train Aerospace Engineering students at college. Teesside University, who work in partnership with Hartlepool College also supported on the day, bringing along games design students and their Virtual Reality system. 

The fun didn't stop there with competitions, raffles and FREE PIZZA from Domino's - everyone seemed to enjoy their 3 days of gaming. Winners of the competition were announced on Friday just before the final total of £208 was announced. Changing Futures NE came along on Friday ready for us to announce the final total and to have a look around at the range of games the students had organised. 

The event was a huge success and everyone seemed to leave pleased whether they'd reminisced their childhood (including me, who enjoyed playing Crash Bandicoot again) or learning how to play a new game. 

We would like to say a massive thanks to everyone who came along to the event and to everyone who supported and sponsored us! We couldn't have done it without you and we hope to see you all next year :) 


Wednesday 11 May 2016

NCS Takeover Day

On the 19th May, the National Citizens Service will be joining us here in college and they will be taking over from competitions to activities to even giving away freebies in order to let you know what the NCS is...

 The NCS programme helps you build your skills for work and life, while you take on new challenges and meet new friends. It brings together young people from different backgrounds and helps them develop greater confidence, self-awareness and responsibility. Also it encourages personal and social development by working on skills like leadership, teamwork and communication. Participants develop a social action project to deal with a local issue they’re passionate about, and spend 30 hours putting the project into action in their community. Want more info on NCS visit http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/

If you are interested in coming along to find out what it is all about sign up to one of their sessions on 19th May.

Come along and find out how the NCS can help your future by improving your CV & UCAS and giving you many other life skills and the chance to meet and make new friends on fun filled residentials. 


Friday 29 April 2016

What's Been Happening...

Workers’ Memorial Day
Yesterday we remembered all of those who have died due to unsafe working conditions. Worker’s Memorial Day is celebrated on April 28th annually, to mark the Occupational Health and Safety Act which came into force on that day.
The theme for this year’s Worker’s Memorial Day was “Strong Laws – Strong Enforcement – Strong Union” which highlighted the needs for better laws in order to ensure that no more lives are cost just to save money. The college held a service in Conference Centre 1, which all students and staff were invited to attend. It was packed! Various guest speakers spoke about their experiences and how poor working conditions can affect someone’s life. A hard hitting video was shown which was created by Gary Kester. The video portrayed the harsh realities of what can happen at work.  The video can be found on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFYuY-gJFTA&feature=youtu.be (please be warned it is very graphic.
Dressed By The Kids Day
Today is Oxfam’s “Dressed By The Kids Day” to help raise money for their charity, which helps people who are affected by poverty across the globe. From food and water difficulties, to women’s and citizen’s rights. Oxfam helps everyone from the young to the old. 3.9 million people reached by health promotion activities last year, 1.4 million people benefited from improved sanitation facilities.

Take a look at how some of our staff and students got involved:

Thursday 24 March 2016

Opening of the Common Room


Bit of a wee break since the last post, as I have been very busy focusing on assignment work and enjoying some of the different things that the college has had to offer J.
It’s been a busy week all around for everyone at the college. First of all the college official opened Social Space for students to come, eat food, mess about, game and generally relax. This new social space is open every Tuesday and Thursday 12 till 2 and I have really enjoyed seeing the students come in and enjoy themselves.
Opening Tuesday  saw Street Fighter being taken to the big screen (well the biggest we could find) with myself and others finding just how badly we could beat each other up by spamming buttons, have to admit , I got beat up pretty badly L  I got my own back when WII Tennis got brought out :D
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdlooTBWwAAghkO.jpg:large
Thursday saw a much quieter and relaxed day with students starting the FIFA tournament (which is open to all students in college) while other decided to sit back and draw. I had to leave early on that day but rumours have it that students even ended up playing Just Dance by the end of the day.
Our fun filled week ended on Friday when the college came out in force to raise money for Sports Relief as we all ran, walked or crawled for charity. Many of the staff and students decided dress up for the event.  There is still a bit of debate amongst the staff and students about who crossed the line first ;)
Check back after Easter to see what fantastic events we have planned & for more Social Space fun(the Students' Common Room)
From Thomas Black
Level 3 IT Student

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Trip to Teeside Uni

It has been an interesting week, as me and students from Health and Social and Public Services were invited to Teesside University for the day. An amazing opportunity that we gladly took with both hands.

No waiting about, as soon as we got there we were ushered into one of the large lecture theatres where we listened to different presentations from different staff that work at Teesside. The first presentation was mostly information we had all heard before but with little quirky things about uni life that were mixed into the presentation still made this interesting. Next was a presentation on finance and the different types of support that we can receive once at uni. I personally have heard a lot of different rumours about the cost of going to university and this really helped put my mind at rest. Lastly, we had a graduate from the university speak to us about what uni is like from a student’s point of view. This was very informative for me personally and gave me a good idea of what to expect when/if I do go to university. Most importantly we learn to be careful with bananas :D


After a quick lunch it was time to split up and have our taster sessions. Myself and the rest of the IT students went for a crash course in Game Design. I’m going to be honest, Game Design wasn’t my first choice of subjects, personally I’m a very logical and unimaginative person so I was very surprised when I ended the day and loved the session I had taken part in.

It was a very relaxed session where we learned about some of the different aspects of Game Design and how different types of people can fit into the industry. The session ended with us creating an “Escape the Room” game with random objects that we had selected. Some of these objects were;
A cryptex… (if you don’t know what this is get watching the Da Vinci Ccde)
A pirate ship
An axe
This was all based in Ancient Egypt and did I mention the 15 minute time limit we had to make this all make sense?

We just managed to finish this before we had to meet up with everyone else again and head home.
Overall a very enjoyable day and not at all what I was expecting from a trip to a university.
I can’t wait to go back.


Thomas Black 

Monday 29 February 2016

What's Happening?

Guess who? It’s me again. A week of me blogging whilst the students are busy working on their college work. The past few weeks have been quite busy within college from “Safer Internet Day”, Valentine’s Day and now we are looking forward to Sport Relief in March.

Safer Internet Day was held on 9th February nationally and saw people up and down the country learning and trying to gain a wider understanding of how the internet can be dangerous. Students gathered in Conference 5 to watch the harrowing tale of Breck Bednar. Breck Bednar was a 14 year old boy who was murdered after he was groomed online by a gamer he had met online. The documentary showed the harsh true facts of what can happen on the internet. Also within college there was a set of boards displaying posters, which highlight the dangers and give advice of how to remain safe whilst on the internet. E-Safety is an ongoing issue which can affect anyone regardless of age, gender or race.


Also during that week the Ambassadors were hard at work selling chocolate gifts for Valentine’s Day, which I then delivered around college (I felt like a real life Cupid haha). I was so impressed with the amount of people who joined in with the fun and bought their special someone a special treat. I would like to say a massive thank you to the Ambassadors who helped sell and distribute the Valentine’s gifts and to Tina Preston who worked alongside me creating the little bags of love.

Now onto events that are coming soon….

Sport Relief is taking place on Friday 18th March, which helps charities around the UK and other countries make people’s lives a little bit better. From mental health, homelessness to funding health services in deprived countries. This year here at the college we are hosting a 1 mile fun run along Seaton Carew front. Everyone is invited to participate in this fun run/walk/skip/jump whatever you want just pay a £1 to sign up either at Student Services or your Form Tutor. Fancy dress is optional but there will be a prize for the best fancy dress and the fastest time for male and female.


ALSO COMING SOON… THE SOCIAL SPACE IS GOING TO BE REVEALED…


Watch this Space...

Friday 5 February 2016

First Student Blog


This week there are few new things happening around your college…

It is the run up to Valentine’s Day and love is in the air around us! The ambassadors will be selling chocolate hearts for you to give to the one who holds your heart! They will be sold next week at the cafeteria during dinner by our ambassadors at £1 a bag and they are also available at Erin’s desk in Student Services. They are also being delivered around the college on Friday 12th February.

There is also an Instagram competition running for Safer Internet Day. This promotes our use of the internet and helps people stay safe while surfing the internet. Ambassadors will be taking teddies and hearts to classes for everyone to take pictures with! Make sure you put your photos on twitter or Instagram and #ShareaHeart and #FELife.

In March there will be a fancy dress walk-a-thon, skip-a-thon, jump-a-thon don’t wear a thong fun run to raise money for Sport Relief. Sport and Public Services students will be marshalling the fun run and hopefully lots of people get involved! Start signing up now J  It starts at Navigation Point and there will be a layout that lasts a mile! Hope to see people involved!

Games Club! The Games Club is being set up and will be sorted out soon! We are open to offers on game but so far it will include a range of consoles from the Xbox 360 to the Nintendo Wii! There may even be retro gaming involved – the Gamecube and the original Xbox may make an appearance! Any games that people may be interested in can be requested to Erin or any of the ambassadors and we will try our best!

I think I’ve covered everything from our latest meeting so now onto basic college life…

Okay so I’m a 17 year old girl, and my genre of music is based around pop-punk and rock music. I’m mentioning this because last night I went to a Bowling for Soup gig in Leeds, believe me it was amazing! They closed with 1985 and then everyone was shouting for an encore so they officially ended on Girl All the Bad Guys Want. During the set they ‘rocked too hard’ and blew two amp leads so they had to stop twice during the set. Today is Thursday and let me tell you my throat hurts from singing so much! Being in Hartlepool FE gives me the opportunity to see bands like this because I can balance my social life and things I enjoy doing with my college life easily. I also have a weekend job in a takeaway and my college life doesn’t affect my ability to do these things and be able to provide for myself.

I am in college three days a week and I have made some good friends here who I feel will be with me later in life as we are all really close. Overall I love being in Hartlepool College of Further Education and I wouldn’t change it or my time here for anything.

Thursday 14 January 2016

Happy New Year


It’s been a few weeks since I have blogged – sorry about this I had serious writer’s block.

The past few weeks have been full of new beginnings from New Year to a new term here at the FE. Since being back here I have been trying to organise and come up with some new interesting ideas for events or activities that the students would like to see.

On Tuesday I met with my Ambassadors for the first meeting of 2016, which left me very excited! In the meeting we discussed several upcoming events that are going to be happening in the next few months including a student taking over my blog for the next few weeks!! During the meeting the Ambassadors were split into two groups and asked to come up with some ideas of what we can do in the next few months – well done to all of the Ambassadors who gave ideas as they were fab and can’t wait to unveil them to you… WATCH THIS SPACE…

Also this week I have been working to try and develop a “What’s On” guide for students, which will have several events advertised for inside and outside of college. These will hopefully be available from end of Feb so make sure you grab one when they’re unveiled!

From next week the blog will be taken over by students for a few weeks so I am excited to see the Ambassador’s version of this blog so make sure you keep reading J I wish the Ambassadors the best of luck with it and I will be popping up every now and again with a few posts but the students are taking over till March!!

In the coming few weeks I will be running a Instagram competition so make sure you look at the Twitter page @FELife15 or the Facebook page HCFE Events for more details and how to enter…

Check back next week for a list of upcoming events within the college…

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths” Walt Disney