News SUMMER 2019 Creative A Word from Flair at QAC! Bev
Last year we introduced QAC ArtsFest as part of our Summer Games. This year we decided it needed to be an event on its own and made it much bigger, taking place over five days just before Easter.
It was a fantas c week, with students QAC con nues on its journey going from taking part in more than 20 crea ve strength to strength… workshops including synth music, 3D pens, Anime art, rainmakers, puppet QAC Collec ve, who performed in the Our College student numbers increased making, badgemaking and many more! courtard before prizes and cer ficates again this year, the highest ever at 270. They really enjoyed trying something new were awarded. ArtsFest 2019 was hugely The broad curriculum offered by QAC, and crea ng things they could keep and popular with all involved, and will the staff exper se, the diverse support share with others. definitely be back next year, hopefully services and the con nuous focus on with even more workshops taking place. adulthood for all of our EHCP supported Two exhibi ons took place, one organised students, con nues to make QAC a by Photography Club and one open to all We would like to say a huge thank you to highly popular choice for young people, students to enter featuring a range of 2D, the staff that put their crea ve talents on their families and the local authori es. 3D and mixed media pieces submi ed show to host the workshops and to really showcasing students' imagina ons. everyone that donated towards making The staff and student voice have an ArtsFest possible including Central essen al part to play in the direc on and There were some amazing performances Birmingham Sorop mists, Art Discount, prac ces of College and the range and throughout the week including a Helix, Staedtler, Pegasus Paints, Cotswold formats of communica on and gathering 'Shotgun' performance by Dance Club, Mounts, Cult Pens, Crea on Sta on, views from staff con nues to impact 'Monster Mash' from Performing Arts and Nestle Chocolate and The Works posi vely. We were successfully, some great music from our band, (Harborne). forma vely assessed for our Investors in People accredita on which remains high priority. We also maintained our Investors in Diversity Accredita on and QAC Collective have commenced on our Leaders in Diversity journey. Wows! Midland Mencap's 70th birthday celebra ons. They performed four songs, We have an exci ng and ambi ous five- A er the excitement of closing ArtsFest, including 'Never Look Back', to their year plan (2019-2024) that will see QAC our student band – QAC Collec ve – really biggest audience yet. It was a great develop its Curriculum Services, had the performance bug and were keen evening with everyone enjoying the Community Services and Residen al to do more. performance, and some very loud cheers Services and we are proac vely from QAC fans in the audience! collabora ng and working with external In May, we were delighted to welcome partners on new ventures. Serious Studios to College, to record some We definitely look forward to hearing of our talented musicians. It was a great more from QAC Collec ve next year. Thanks to everyone who plays a part for experience and insight into the music QAC and your dedica on to our students industry, resul ng in an actual recording and our College throughout this year. I of an original song, 'Never Look Back', am proud to be part of such a strong wri en by Zoe and Hamzah. team of people whose excellent skills and diverse exper se makes a real But that wasn't all. In June they joined difference to QAC students and clients. other amazing performers on stage at QAC has even more to offer in coming Birmingham Town Hall as part of months and years, watch this space…! Bev Jessop Principal & CEO akeover QAC Table Cricket T Free Radio Studio T eam
zelen Fun Worcester Snoe
Special Effects Gore
Fun at Conkers
Oya Batucada Samba Workshop Comic Relief Photo Booth FEBRUARY QAC's Table Cricket Team took part in The Our Sport and PCFA students hosted the Lord's Taverners Table Cricket County Birmingham South Primary Schools Boccia Compe on at Edgbaston, playing against and Kurling Compe on with 9 schools previous champions Wilson Stuart School and compe ng for medals and cer ficates. A great Fairfax School who proved to be tough day was had by all involved. opponents. LEAP Ruby enjoyed a trip to Conkers where Our football team took part in their first they explored the indoor ac vity centre, tournament of the season, playing 4 games in crossed the wobbly bridge into the woods and Hollywood Monster V total, with 1 win (an impressive 4-0 victory), learnt all about recycling. isit drawing 2 and losing 1. A CBSO ensemble came to College to give As part of their Employability Thanks to Dragons Den, Sensory Club and PFL students a flavour of classical music where sessions, Crea ve Media students Purple were excited to enjoy lots more sensory they could look at and have a go at playing a visited Free Radio to find out ac vi es, using different toys and resources to variety of musical instruments. about how a radio sta on works explore their sensory needs, with the giant and the different roles that work beanbags and sensory foam being very Students and staff from Health & Social Care there. They had a fantas c me, popular! and Leap Opal visited Worcester Snoezelen taking over a studio so they could where they explored 5 amazing sensory listen to some live radio and have MARCH rooms including an interac ve room, a so their disco! Students and staff had the Mardi Gras spirit as play area and beau ful chill out spaces. The they wore fes val colours and created their trip was fun and a great way for H&SC LEAP Hub students hosted a own carnival masks. Oya Batucada Samba band students to learn more about the therapeu c 'Mothers Day' pop-up sale with delivered some fun music workshops and UCB benefits of a sensory environment. handmade gi s they designed students created fes val themed facepain ng and made themselves, with some for people. LEAP Crea ve visited prin ng firm Hollywood brilliant pieces on show, including Monster, where they met different members wooden planters, personalised Phil Brice from Koala TV visited Crea ve Media of the team who not only told them about the bags, frames and cards. students to talk about the company's work, prin ng industry but also helped students different roles and showing them some of the design and print their very own LEAP Crea ve To celebrate the centenary of media projects Koala have created. banner, which they proudly display in their women ge ng the right to vote, classroom. our 'Inspira onal Women' project Red Nose Day 2019 was busy with PFL Yellow explored topics such as The and PFL Black organising various fun ac vi es A group of UCB Level 2 Media students joined Suffrage es, The Women's including "Sponge the Staff", cra s, a treasure our Performing Arts group for a 'Special Ins tute and women who are hunt and a photo booth and Hospitality Effects' masterclass, showing how to apply heroes, with students talking students running a samosa sale. All groups special effects make up before transforming about women that inspire them – worked really hard and raised just over £200 students with broken noses, cuts, scrapes, quite a few mums were for Comic Relief. bruises and plenty of gore. men oned! ‘High T ea’ with the Governors Performance elcome to Japan’ s ‘W ‘All Roads Lead to Bearwood’ Anime Club’
Enchilada Making
Trussell Trust Food Collection APRIL Our Community Project Group organised a food collec on to support The Trussell Trust Coniston Crew Quinton/Oldbury Foodbank, making posters and leaflets to inform people what food items were needed. At the end of the project they presented the Trust with ten very full boxes and bags of food! Silent Disco T rial Working with Spectra, some students Anime Club hosted a "Welcome to Japan" VI Kickboxing Workshop and clients took to the stage for 'All a ernoon, showcasing Japanese culture, food, Roads Lead to Bearwood', a very music and games. Everyone enjoyed Japanese interac ve, community inspired themed performances with some dressing in Students and staff from QAC SPARK group performance at Bearwood Street Japanese inspired ou its with Photography joined thousands of others in Birmingham to Fes val. Club on hand to capture everything. take part in the City's Pride event, having great fun watching the parade and soaking in the A group of students and staff took part Our Speech & Language Team introduced atmosphere. in a 3 day residen al trip in Coniston, Construc on Club where students take on roles where they enjoyed all kinds of outdoor of 'Engineer', 'Supplier' and 'Builder' to use Some of our residen al students put their ac vi es including sailing, kayaking and Lego® to build different models. It involves a cooking skills to the test and took part in a climbing. It was a great experience for lot of collabora on and teamwork and is a healthy living cooking class led by Zeph, one of all involved, especially those who had great way to develop communica on skills the chefs here at College. They joined him in never done anything like it before. such as vocabulary, expressions, listening and the kitchen where he showed them how to a en on as well as imagina on. prepare and assemble enchiladas from scratch, Outdoor Club took to the water and before making some themselves; it was a great went canoeing. The group had great fun IT Level 3 students have explored the world of session, especially the tas ng part! as they worked together to build 'ra ed virtual reality thanks to equipment bought as canoes', with no-one going overboard! part of a Dragons Den project. They have Members of our Governing Board visited our created their own VR 360◦ tour of the college Hospitality café for a very special 'High Tea'. It JULY along with an architecture and culture based was a great opportunity for them to see Following a successful trial earlier in the experience they shared at ArtsFest. students in ac on and enjoy some delicious year, our residen al students enjoyed a treats; they enjoyed it so much they want to do silent disco, complete with smoke MAY it more regularly next year. machine. They loved wearing the IP students organised their very own headsets and dancing along. sponsored walk, doing laps of our field to raise JUNE money. Those who took part really enjoyed As part of Men's Health Week, our Healthcare Our seventh annual Summer Games themselves, par cularly when the sun came Team hosted a workshop to discuss men's saw students, staff guests and out. They did amazingly well raising nearly health issues including tes cular cancer. It was volunteers enjoy a series of sporty, and £600, some of which will be used towards a a great session, with students asking lots of non-sporty, challenges as teams ba led trip to Minehead over the summer. ques ons and leaving with lots of informa on. it out for medals and points.
Our VI club took part in a brilliant kickboxing Despite the less than summer-like weather, our We say goodbye to a number of session delivered by PKA Kickboxing's Kerry, Duke of Edinburgh group completed two students and staff this summer, and having great fun and learning about the expedi ons as part of their programme, staying would like to wish them the very best of techniques involved. overnight and trekking the Malvern Hills! luck for their next adventures! Criminal Green Healthy Justice Fingers Lifestyles Following successful fundraising, Gardening is a popular ac vity for many At QAC, we do our best to we were able to deliver a Criminal students, with sessions taking place at encourage healthy lifestyles and Jus ce project looking at crime, College and at Umberslade; it enables them this year we have done a criminals and jus ce. Students to experience outdoor learning and develop number of things to support par cipated in a drama workshop a range of skills whilst having fun. this. with Freshwater Theatre Group to learn about democracy and A er nearly 12 years in place, our onsite In March we hosted a 'Healthy women's' suffrage and took a step raised beds area needed some a en on and Hearts Friday' and were visited back in me to view items from a er some successful fundraising, and a by The Ac ve Wellbeing Society the West Midlands Police compelling Dragons' Den pitch, we were who brought with them a hula Heritage Project including capes, really excited to be able to update it so that it hoopist to give a demonstra on huge handcuffs, hand held was more prac cal and accessible for the to students. They also brought a speedometers and whistles. students we work with now. smoothie bike, with students using pedal power to produce Round Midnight Theatre We were even more excited when Cadent their own delicious smoothie. Company performed their Gas wanted to be involved and help. So on There was also a presenta on interac ve 'Cu ng Ties' June 28th, as part of West Midlands Giving by one of our Healthcare Team workshop which looked at issues Day, we welcomed a team of eager who spoke about the Spotlight such as friendship, bullying and volunteers to College to work with our importance of maintaining a knife crime in school, presen ng different Maintenance team to re-develop the exis ng healthy heart. scenarios for students to discuss. area. They painted sheds, helped deconstruct the exis ng gardening beds and prepare the Our biggest event was the A highlight was a talk from pres gious Craig area ready for Maintenance to finish the School Food Showdown where Pinkney, a Criminologist and Youth Specialist, project over the summer. teams of students and staff who spoke about knife crime, drugs, gang competed against each other, culture and the impact bad life choices can It was a great day for all involved and a and the clock, to prepare the have on individuals, their families and friends. couple of weeks of intense rain it was nice healthiest meal from the Craig was emo ve and was able to use that the sun came out! We look forward to ingredients provided. The personal experience to tackle a very difficult September when the students can get to audience then voted for the subject, giving students lots of useful advice work in the area and hopefully we can invite best meal using their red and on how to make posi ve life choices. Cadent back to work with us even more. green pepper cards, and plenty of cheering. It was lots of fun for The project culminated in students pu ng alks Choices everyone involved, with H&SC Craig Pinkney T their detec ve skills to the test to solve a and LEAP Ruby walking away as series of clues and crime scenes to help solve winners! the QAC 'crime' of the missing trophy! Celebrating Volunteers School Food Showdown Volunteers play an important role in life at QAC. We have a number of regular volunteers who support students and staff across College and each year we host interna onal students on placement year who work as LSAs in classrooms.
We also welcome corporate volunteer teams who spend me on campus or at Umberslade working with students and/or comple ng various gardening and maintenance tasks for us. We pride ourselves on building strong rela onships with many volunteers enjoying it so much they come back again and again.
To celebrate Na onal Volunteers Week, and say thank you to our volunteers, we invited some to join us for 'tea and cake' hosted by Volunteers Week Celebration one of our Hospitality groups. Since NVW last year, we have welcomed over 240 corporate volunteers (equa ng to over 1200 hours), and olunteering this was a great opportunity for them to meet Cadent V other volunteers and share experiences. Fundraising Corporate & Community
In April, QAC SPARK group joined other Team QAC We were awarded £1000 from LoveBrum towards our runners at Co on Park excited for this year's community workshops at Umberslade, with representa ves Gung-Ho! run but sadly, Storm Hannah had other visi ng a session a few weeks later to see what the support ideas and the event was cancelled. Although the meant. We also had the opportunity to a end their 4th obstacles were deflated our team was not, instead birthday event and speak to guests about the work we do. choosing to brave the cold, wet and windy condi ons to run the length of the 5k circuit. City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club took to Grand Central Sta on to showcase wheelchair basketball to We hosted our first 'A ernoon of Wellbeing' in travellers and shoppers, whilst raising over £600 for QAC – May, where visitors enjoyed ac vi es such as thanks guys! Pilates, Archery and Qigong, different holis c therapies and stalls to mooch around, selling At the start of June, students and staff from Judo Club products such as crystals and candles. People le a ended the annual We Are all Making A Difference awards feeling thoroughly relaxed and recharged, giving us lunch. The group had a great me at the event, talking about great feedback to grow the event for next year. what judo means to them and were delighted to accept a cheque for £2000 towards Judo Club for next year. A number of staff joined Team QAC (and hundreds of others) to pound the streets of Birmingham, take in the sights and take on It has been a busy, and fun, few months with lots of great local City runs. In May Jakub completed the Simplyhealth Great corporate volunteering sessions happening. We have worked Birmingham 10k, and in June some brave souls le the comfort with our friends at RBS, The West Brom DWP, AXA XL and of their beds to take part in a very wet, very early Sunrise 5k! Zurich to complete a number of maintenance, gardening and student ac vi es at QAC and Umberslade. Our summer fete was a scorcher as the sun shone brightly all day as people enjoyed samba music, dance demonstra ons, UCB students supported ArtsFest with fun facepain ng archery, games and ferret handling as well as a range of stalls to sessions and worked with Performing Arts students in a look around. It was a great day, raising over £1100 for College. special effects masterclass as well as their regular sessions with Looking & Feeling Good Club. To show that fundraising should be fun, Bev (Principal) and Jan (Deputy Principal) were great sports and took on a series of We are excited to be building rela onships with Waitrose challenges in a bid to raise money to develop our sensory Harborne, Cadent Gas and Equini who have all started provision. They took part in a sports wheelchair race, rode a volunteering with us and which we look forward to tandem and even formed 'dance off' crews to ba le it out, all to developing over the next few months. the amusement of students and staff! A big thank you to all the companies and individuals that have We have now launched our Amazon wishlist, which features a supported us this year whether through volunteering or range of items that you can buy and donate directly to us. The dona ng items and/or money to us; your support really does list includes sensory toys and resources, books, gardening tools make a difference to our students and helps us help them. and other supplies for use in classrooms and can be found by searching for Queen Alexandra College on Amazon's wishlist tab. If you would like to know more about how you can get involved in suppor ng us, please Big thanks to everyone who has supported our events this year, contact [email protected] we couldn't do it without you. We are busy planning upcoming or 0121 428 5064 events including our first Firewalk (4th October) and Dinner in the Dark (21st November) amongst others! Gardening with The W Summer Fete Samba est Brom Gung Ho! Smiles
UCB Students
LoveBrum Presentation
10k Complete Soggy Sunrise 5k RBS Hospitality Cafe Grand Central Basketball Enterprises Open to QAC students and the local community, we are a fully equipped commercial gym designed QAC Enterprises consists of a wide range to meet the needs of everyone including of businesses that raise money for College wheelchair users and people with limited mobility and provide excellent work opportunities as well as able bodied members. Flexible for students. membership options are available. Contact us on 0121 428 5010 They raise invaluable funds for the College and promote good practice in disability employment. Many of the enterprises offer students work placements in real-life establishments, enhancing their learning experiences. By supporting our enterprises, not only will you benefit from first rate service and our Located in Selly Oak, we are a rural idyll in an friendly and helpful staff, you will be urban setting comprising of a small retail outlet, supporting our services for people with the `Potting Shed` tea rooms & various disabilities. horticultural facilities for hire. Contact us on 0121 472 4894 If you would like to know more about them please contact the team directly. Conference & Training Facilities available for hire We have a varied range of excellent facilities available for hire which are ideal for conferences, We provide a specialist service transcribing training, meetings and corporate away days. Our documents into alternative formats (Braille, friendly and helpful staff are on-hand to support Large Print, Audio) for people with a visual your needs during your time onsite. impairment. Facilities include meeting rooms and a sports hall. Contact us on 0121 428 5018 Contact us on 0121 428 5041
CHILDREN`S PARTIES The beautiful traditional yurt and sensory garden at Umberslade, in Selly Oak, is the perfect place QAC is the UK distributor of acclaimed to hire for children`s parties. Or hire our wonderful Revolution Carbon Fibre Canes which are sports hall - available evenings, weekends and out lighter in weight and more durable than of term time. traditional aluminium canes. Contact Nicky on 0121 472 4894 (Yurt) Contact us on 0121 428 5041 or Dave on 0121 472 5010 (Sports Hall)
QAC SightSight VVillageillage exhibitions events are are the premier UK`s leading UK events exhibitions showcasing of technology technology, equipment , support and and support services forfor people people who with are visual blind impairment or visually impairedand for people and those experiencing experiencing age age related related sight problems. sightFor more problems. information visit our website; www.qacsightvillage.org.uk or call 0121 428 5041. for moreThe events information. take place Sight in various Village UK events cities are throughout free to visit the –year see and you are there! free to attend. Information on dates and venues for 2018 will be announced on our website. North-West (Manchester) South-East (London) 1st October 5 th /6 th November
Autism Central showcases a range of products and services, with a full programme of workshops and Autism seminars Central throughout showcases the aday range. Entry of productsis free and and a full services, range of with presentations a full programme will take of place. workshops and seminars throughout the day. Entry is free and a full range of presentations will take place. CranmoreVilla Park, Park, Solihull Birmingham Birmingham 9th24 Octoberth October 2018
Queen Alexandra College, Court Oak Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 9TG For more information about what is happening at QAC Tel: 0121 428 5050 E-mail: [email protected] and our Enterprises, and how you can get involved, visit Registered Charity No. 1065794 Registered in England No. 3387540 www.qac.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter & Facebook.
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