Level 3 dance student Maiya Curry and Course Leader Hazel Banham have together completed the Macmillan March Plank Challenge.
For 31 days, the pair completed three minutes of planking, with support from the Dance and Musical Theatre students.
The duo managed to raise a total of £672 towards our charity of the year, Macmillan Cancer Support.
A huge congratulations to both of you, on this incredible achievement!
Maiya and Hazel
This academic year our Level 4 Creative Enterprise students showcased their work at Space Studios, Queen Street, Colchester.
The audience included a representative from the Colchester Business Enterprise Agency (COLBEA), Space Studios, Marc De’ath the Culture, Museums and Theatre Manager at Chelmsford City Council and local entrepreneurs.
It was a chance for the students to not only show their work, but to talk of their future plans to professionals and receive valuable feedback.
“It was such a pleasure to be there. The audience was insightful, appreciative but not overwhelming. Well done it was a great event!” – Frin Arnold, Colbea.
Level 4 Creative Enterprise Students
Our Skills to Succeed Level 1 students have planted around 50 trees within the college grounds at our Braintree Campus, as part of their work experience. The tree planting was in response to the current climate change emergency.
The tree planting enabled students to take pride in their college, work together as a team and follow verbal and written instructions – as well as learning to communicate effectively, solve problems and plan their time.
Planting trees together
Students hard at work
Since September 2020 Swann Engineering have taken on 12 Colchester Institute Apprentices from our Braintree Campus and would like to continue with more this year.
Colchester Institute have a great working relationship with Swann Engineering and their senior staff visit regularly. This helps maintain industry links with the college to ensure the Apprentices are getting the skills and experience employers are looking for.
The picture below was taken on the occasion of a recent delivery of steel to the College – kindly donated by Swann for our Engineering Students to use in our fabulous workshops.
Swann join a number of other local engineering firms in supporting Engineering students at the Braintree Campus. Other organisations include, M & S Precision Engineers, Elmdale Welding and Engineering Supplies, Maycast Nokes and Braintree Precision Components! Thank you to them all for enriching our student experience in so many ways!
Swann Engineering with Colchester Institute Students
Students from BA (Hons) Fashion and Printed Textiles are currently involved in multiple industry projects!
Sharon Lee Hat Competition
BA Fashion and Textiles will be running a small competition for its students in collaboration with Sharon Lee, to see what they could realistically do with one of their hats, caps, or beanie products. The competition will be in partnership with their clients Boohoo or ASOS to see if the main winners could have their hats produced for sale in their shops.
Essex Rebels Basketball Kit Design
The Fashion and Textiles department has been approached by the University of Essex wanting a redesign of the local professional women’s basketball team, Essex Rebels. This exciting design competition, in collaboration with Kappa, is looking for creative input to the design of the kits for next season.
Bradford Society Textile Competition
Students have entered the prestigious Bradford Society Competition, an annual opportunity for students from UK universities and colleges to share their work and gain recognition. The Society’s annual with total prize money of over £14,500, is unique in its breadth of coverage and attracts over 1,000 entries from students throughout the UK.
Former Colchester Institute music technology student Sam Ryder represented the United Kingdom in the 2022 Eurovision song contest, finishing second against Ukraine.
Sam’s song ‘Space Man’ has since featured in the UK top 40 charts and on the Spotify Top 50 UK.
Not only this, Sam now has his own tour taking place later this year across Europe, and is also performing at the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations at the palace alongside Sir Elton John, Craig David and George Ezra.
Huge congratulations Sam – you have made your former College very proud!
Space, Man!
This term our motor vehicle students explored a range of staff-owned electric vehicles, as well as being allowed to ‘ask an owner’ some questions.
The session was run by Tom Welham, Colchester Institute’s Carbon Literacy Co-ordinator, and electric vehicle owner who added. “Transport accounts for around 25% of a person’s carbon footprint and switching to an electric vehicle is a great way of reducing emissions along with several other benefits.”
The response from the students was very positive and they left the session with a greater understanding of electric vehicles.
The college is also preparing for the future, having installed a row of electric vehicle chargers. This will particularly benefit staff or students who want to drive an electric vehicle but can’t currently charge at home. It’s important that chargers are installed in places where cars will normally be parked, to help with the roll-out of electric cars in the UK.
Students look inside electric vehicle
