Happy Christmas from the Boarders

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Boarders Venture to Formby Beach

On a rare lovely sunny dry afternoon, our boarding students ventured onto a 150 acre wide sandy beach with high dunes, furrowed grassland and a belt of pinewoods known as Formby Beach, stopping for a hot chocolate on their way home. A lot of fun was had by everyone involved, many of the students said that this beach reminded them of their beaches at home in Estonia. We are so lucky to live in an amazing city where we are surrounded by outdoor facilities such as this on our doorstep at Liverpool College, which has helped clear away cobwebs during the national lockdown. 

Mrs Latham (Head of Boarding)

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Y13 Boarders Join Forces with Y7 Howson’s and Y8 Selwyn’s in Christmas Community Project

Y13 boarders joined forces with pupils from Y7 Howson’s and Y8 Selwyn’s to bring some early festive cheers to Redholme Care Home, Mossley Hill. The idea was to create an inclusive project where everyone within the Care Home was appreciated for the enormous efforts throughout the pandemic. All the boarding students and pupils from Y7 Howson’s and Y8 Selwyn’s were given the name of an elderly resident from the Care Home. They were tasked with having to write an old-style pen pal letter informing an elderly person about their studies at Liverpool College, their hobbies and interests and their likes and dislikes. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Head of Boarding, Head of Howson’s and House Mentors the pupils created some wonderful informative and decorative letters. The boarders also presented the Matron of the care home with flowers to appreciate her work within the community and chocolates for all the staff to share. One of our boarders also presented an amazing piece of art work she had painted of our local part, which all residents would be familiar with, for the matron to put up in the care home.The care home were delighted to receive the letters and gifts and continue the strong community relationship between Liverpool College and Redholme Care Home.

Mrs Latham (Head of Boarding) and Mr Cook (Director of Sport)

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Year 13 Talk: The World is your Oyster

In a time of global uncertainty, have students ever considered the possibilities offered by working abroad and what the implications of this might be? This week, Year 13 students were given an opportunity to get a realistic look at that option when Katharine Crompton delivered a stimulating talk about her life working and studying abroad. Employed as an ESL teacher, Katharine has worked in both Japan and China teaching English as a second language. Katharine’s desire to work abroad started, for her, in Year 13, when she selected a University degree that required her to study overseas for a year. Attending Mejiro University in Japan, she recognised how the different cost of living in other countries led to inflate wages in real terms, providing a higher standard of living. Katharine then gave a demonstration as to how you can teach English as a second language, even when you don’t speak the language of your students. Using a combination of facial expressions, visual clues and artefacts, Katharine taught the students a little Chinese. Currently working in Shanghai in China, Katharine spoke with passion and zeal about her chosen profession and the wonderful opportunities it can provide.

For anyone interested in further information about working abroad, please contact Mrs Doran.  

Mrs Doran

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Y8 Talk - BBC App Designer Sarah Willoughby

Ever wondered what the people who design of some of the UK’s most popular Apps are really like? Speculated on who decides the content of BBC News or how Apps personalise content on BBC sport? Well, this week Year 8 pupils were given the opportunity to meet and question one of the senior members of the BBC App design team.

Based in Manchester’s Media City, Sarah Willoughby is a Senior Business Analyst. In essence her job, as a digital project manager, is to build Apps for the BBC, primarily BBC Sport and BBC News, but also BBC iPlayer, BBC Weather and CBeebies. Sarah explained the complex considerations required in App design such as working with data providers to access data such as league tables, providing up-to-the-minute sports’ results, provision of on-demand service and personalising content for each individual user. She also explained multi-variant testing, the practice of conducting experiments on up to 4 million users per week, to test different versions of apps, the results of which are then analysed to ensure the best version of each App is rolled out to customers. Our thanks to Sarah – the pupils certainly ‘app’reciated her valuable time. 

Mrs Doran 

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Year 7 Talk - Aileen Wiswell MBE

Y7 pupils were given a glimpse into the world of Westminster, politics and the inner working of the civil service this week, when Aileen Wiswell MBE led a fascinating virtual talk. Aileen, who regularly attends Number 10 Downing Street, is a Cabinet officer in charge of Estates for Westminster.  Her role is to support the agenda of any political party holding office, through managing Government owned property such as the Capital building in Liverpool to the Ministry of Defense.  Aileen is currently responsible for the logistical and strategic agenda to address the current North/South divide within the civil service.

Following a superb explanation of the vast array of career opportunities available within the Civil Service, which is the biggest employer in the UK, Aileen took the pupils on a whistle stop tour of her own varied, and immensely impressive, career. Aileen famously started her profession working in Liverpool, having worked in every one of the 129 job centers in the city. After celebrating 40 year in the civil service this year, Aileen discussed the pros of working in the profession. Aileen has travelled the world, been awarded an MBE for her immense charity work and has danced down the stairs of Number 10, just like in the film Love Actually.

I would like to thank Aileen for her informative and motivational talk, and the fabulous insights into the real people working to help the government of the day develop and implement its policies.

Mrs Doran

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