Newcastle College Students enjoy an enrichment-filled week of activity

Newcastle College students studying Sport, Fitness, and Public Services courses have enjoyed a week-long calendar jam packed with enrichment activities to further develop key skills as part of their course.

Providing students with a diverse array of activities aimed at enriching their learning experience, the students benefited from hearing from industry experts, guest speakers and got to take part in a range of hands-on activities.

In sport, on Monday and Tuesday, the students planned and delivered some movement to music activities for local residents at Rowan Court residential home and also heard from visiting experts from Keele University and Staffordshire University. Students were also fortunate to partake in a badminton masterclass with Andy Aspinall, the European coach who is ranked number two in the world.

Elsewhere, NSCG Sport lecturer, Ross Cope delivered an introduction to some of the techniques used for taping and strapping and Will Bratt gave an introduction to kettlebells where the group learnt some of the techniques for exercising with a kettlebell as well as how to instruct a session.

On Wednesday, students heard from guest speaker Sam Duckworth who owns Samien Fitness and Andy Weston who owns Guerilla Training. Both spoke about how they started and built their PT businesses and the skills required to be a successful PT.

Thursday saw the students spend a day at Pure Gym where students got to take part in a variety of mini workshops including a practical fitness session where they worked on developing the skills and qualities needed to become a PT. They also listened to a business talk on building a business and finished the day with a coaching session on deadlifting a barbell giving the group chance to coach each other.

Rounding the week off, Year 1 students enjoyed a sport psychology talk from Dan Rochester in the auditorium.

In Public Services, Level 2 and 3 students from both year groups partook in a range of activities and heard from guest speakers from the NHS, Royal Navy, visiting magistrates, Police Officers and the College’s own security team.

Todd Bailey, Curriculum Manager for Sport and Public Services at Newcastle College, said: “Our 2023-24 enrichment week has given students studying on Sport, Fitness, and Public Services courses the opportunity to try new and varied activities that enhance the wider curriculum and support skill development, resilience, and motivation.

"We are incredibly grateful to all of our industry experts who have visited or hosted our students to help them pursue wider interests and achieve their goals.”

The enrichment activities were carefully curated to enable students to apply their learning to specific skills, roles, and experiences within their chosen industry.

Louise Finney, Curriculum Leader for Level 3 Sport, added: “Alongside the range of activities throughout the week, the Sports students were also given the opportunity to work towards leadership qualifications including Badminton Leaders which was led by Andy Aspinall, A hockey leadership qualification with In2Hockey and Quicksticks, a Disability Awareness qualification in football, and Headcase qualification for rugby which focuses on concussion awareness training.”

By extended learning beyond the classroom, our students have benefited from taking part in comprehensive learning opportunities that foster a holistic understanding of industry needs and expectations, preparing students for their future endeavours in employment and helping them to engage with their courses in a much deeper level.

Take a look at our gallery of photos below from everything that took place this week or to find out more about the range of Sport and Public Services courses on offer, click here.