TOBES Charity Walk 2017

 

 

 

On Thursday 6^th April 2017 over 150 TOBES students and 30 members of staff participated in a sponsored walk across the Thames path. The walk was organised by the students as part of their social action project to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and 2 other charities, voted for by the students. Witney students picked the Albert Kennedy Trust and Abingdon chose the Make a Wish Foundation. At around 10am all the students and staff met up at The Trout Inn car park at Wolvercote, ready to start the walk.

 

 

 

At the Trout Inn, some of the Sport students conducted a fun warm up for the students. The students and staff were briefed, put into groups and there was a chance to have some breakfast. At 11:30am we were ready to set off! Each group walked back to either the Witney or Abingdon campus depending on where they study.

Each group had a set of instructions and map to follow to get back to their respective campus. This really tested the map reading skills of the students and staff at times. There were many sites to see along the way and the weather was perfect sunshine.  

 

 

The day overall was a huge success as the final total raised was over £1500 and nearly all the students made the full 12 miles!

 

 

 

Travel & Tourism Rhodes Residential

Rhodes - Greece 2017

 

As first year students, we have a unit that evolves researching, planning and delivering a residential for both Travel and Tourism year 1 and 2 students, and we chose to go to Rhodes for this.

The Island of Rhodes is such a beautiful place with so many things to do. Here is just a small list of what we did:

 

Day 1 was a long day travelling and began at college at 4 o'clock in the morning! After many hours of travelling, we finally got to our accommodation, explored the local surroundings and went out for dinner at a local Greek restaurant where we ordered the most English things possible.....burger and chips.

Day 2 was our ‘Discover Rhodes’ tour where we explored both the new and old towns of Rhodes. We looked at the history of the island and discovered all of its beauty, walking along the harbour. After a quick bite for lunch, we continued through town and finally ended up at Ellis Beach where we chilled, played games and started on our tans.

 

Day 3 consisted of another little tour round to the castle of Rhodes in the old town and then we made our way round to the Thrones of Helios museum where we experienced a 9D cinema. The showing of the history of the island and how the Island of Rhodes came to be. As we watched the video, we suddenly started moving in the seats; up, down, left, right, forwards and backwards. Not only did we move, we also felt the scenery around us with materials that brushed by our legs. We also got to feel the climate, if it was hot and windy, we felt the wind, if it snowed we felt the snow. Not only was it informative, it was enjoyable.

 

Day 4 was a fairly chilled day. We made our way to the aquarium where we saw all types of strange sea creatures. After a rather short walk round the aquarium, we went to the beach, which just so happened to be right next to us. Whilst at the beach, we played a game of rounders, where you had to be quick or otherwise you burned your feet on the sand for standing still for too long. After a relaxed 4 hours at the beach, we had dinner and headed straight back out to ‘The Escape Room’ located within the Castle walls. We split into four groups and entered our rooms. The rooms were allocated as ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Monopoly’, ‘Casino’ and ‘Mechanism’ rooms. After an hour of trying to escape our rooms (which we all nearly completed) we took a slow stroll home looking at our surroundings and settled in for the night.

Day 5 was switch over day where we left our accommodation in Rhodes Town and moved over to Pefkos village. Once we arrived, we chilled at the poolside for a few hours and then headed out for dinner. We then arrived back at our hotel and played some card games.

 

Day 6 we travelled into Lindos where we walked up to the Acropolis and took a few group photos and watched the donkeys carrying up the lazy few people who didn’t want to walk! Once we made it back to the bottom and into the town we located the Byzantine church and explored round it for a little and read through the history of the artifacts that were exhibited. Once finished in the church we split off and found some lunch and looked round the town market for a few hours. After a good 6 hours in Lindos, we headed back to our hotel and went out for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

                         

Day 7 we had planned to go to the Falaraki Waterpark, but unfortunately, we discovered that they were closed due to weather. We made a group decision to split off into two groups and had one half go to the beach for the day and the other half walked in and out of every shop on the way back to the hotel. We chilled at the pool side, had some lunch, played a few card games then all met up for a meal together.

After a glorious 7 days in Rhodes, we had to come home. We spent another long day travelling to the airport and made our way home. It is safe to say we all really enjoyed our time in Rhodes and if ever we were given the opportunity to go back, we would. It was historical, cultural, relaxing and enjoyable.

Mackenzie Dancer - Foundation Degree in Business Management & Communications

I was always told throughout my entire school life that I was “not an academic person”. I really believed it and always took the easier option. I took lower exam papers in everything and gave up if things got difficult. I took business A-level in sixth form and didn’t get past the first term running out the door screaming “I’m not academic!” I was so sure studying was not for me I refused to go to any open days or talks on further education. I remember arguing with my mum and teacher that it would be a waste of time and completely pointless for someone like me to go to university.

I travelled around a bit. I worked as a waitress, barista and bar maid until I got a job in an office as a customer service adviser.  It was about three years after leaving education and working a dull job every day when I thought there has to be more than this. I felt as if my brain was turning to mush and I wanted a challenge. It was then I started looking into the foundation courses Brookes offer.

Giving up work was not an option for me. A full time course, one day a week for three years seemed ideal. I was so nervous going back into education and was pretty certain I’d fail, but I sucked it up and figured I had nothing lose. What has happened since continues to surprise me on a daily basis. I haven’t failed anything (so far) and am actually doing much better than I ever thought I was capable of. I haven’t run away and have even signed up to third year.

I also have the course to thank for my career change. I thought I would be happy working any old 9-5 office job. In first year I discovered I love communications and so I started setting my ambitions much higher. The Brookes career service told me I’d be an ideal Community Fundraiser. I took the plunge and haven’t looked back since. I now work as a fundraiser in for the mental health charity Restore and love every minute of it.

I have changed my entire opinion of myself. I’m more confident and more skilled. I couldn’t recommend it enough. I’m doing a job I would not have even dreamed of applying for before. A massive thank you to all my lectures especially the incredible Rebecca Philbrook, who has helped me so much throughout these two years. I’ve come such a long way since dropping out of business studies I can’t thank you all enough.

Charity Walk - Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis Society

As part of their social action project; Level 3 students from TOBES are organising a charity walk to fundraise for the MS society. The walk will start at Port Meadow in Oxford and students and staff will walk back to their respective campuses; approximately 13 miles!

 

Business, Sport, Public Services and Travel students have joined forces to advertise the event, set up sponsorship pages, contact local business for their support; donate food and drink, design warm up activities, plan fitness regimes,  nutrition, the route,  create a nutritious breakfast and lunch and identify places of interests and toilets stops along the way!

 

The walk will take place on Thursday 6^th April. Transport is arranged from each campus to Port Meadow, leaving at 9am. Breakfast and warm up activities will start at 9.30am with the first group of walkers starting at 10.30. It is envisaged that the walk will take approximately 4.5 hours.  

 

There is rivalry between the 2 campuses to see who can fundraise the most:

You can donate to this event via just giving pages that the students have set up:

Witney campus: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Witney-College2

Abingdon campus: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/AWCTOBESCharitywalk

Visit from Coventry Building Society

 

An interesting and informative talk to the business and accounting students today on the internship programme available through Coventry Building Society. Josh, who now works for Coventry Building Society, spoke about his experiences of the internship programme, as well as the benefits it would provide to our students. This was followed by a CV workshop delivered by Helen and Josh on how having a CV that is clear, concise and factual is a winner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activities of working out the attributes to sell a house, and how a student would sell themselves on paper took place in small groups. A further CV analysis task was used for students to identify who they would give a job to. The students enjoyed this experience and showed their appreciation of thanks with a round of applause at the end.

 

 

Travel & Tourism trip to Go Ape! Moors Valley

By Ellis Hardy Level 3 Travel and Tourism

 

 

As part of Unit 3 - UK as a Destination, we were required to organise a day trip to a rural destination. The rural destination chosen was Go Ape in Moors Valley and the nearby town of Lyndhurst.

 

We set off from college just after nine o’clock in the morning. The majority of the journey went smoothly, however, as we had to navigate our way there, things started to get interesting. One individual (not naming any names!) accidentally cancelled the route on the sat nav so we were heading in the wrong direction! Despite this we eventually managed to get there in time… After a mad dash for the toilets!

 

We started with a safety demonstration and were taught to ‘always stay attached!’ After being fitted with our harnesses and ‘shaking with excitement’ we set off on the course. Many ropes, nets and awkward stirrups that made us do the splits, lay ahead of us. Despite these obstacles we all finished the course. However, not without flips, trips and backflips!

 

 

Course leader Steven Read - Not quite the smooth landing he was hoping for!

 

Having been given our certificates and brushed off all the mud, we set off for Lyndhurst. Upon arrival we walked up the main road of the town where there were many shops, cafes and restaurants. We stopped off for lunch to satisfy the enormous appetite we had built up! We then headed for the tourist information centre and museum. Here we picked up a few leaflets about the town and the surrounding area before we set off home… completely exhausted!

Witney Hospital Visit - Valentines Tea Dance 💕

Our Witney Business Students are still visiting Witney hospital as part of their enrichment hours. On Tuesday 14th February better know as Valentines Day a few of the students went along to help out at the Valentines Tea Dance. Hannah Driscoll and James Scott made sure that everyone got involved and no body was sat on their own. There was also a fantastic turn out from the patients families.