Christmas, Charity and Fun: North Notts College Students End the Year on a High
North Notts College students at the Retford Post-16 Centre have enjoyed a COVID-secure Christmas fun day, bringing a real sense of community and cheer to end what has been a challenging first term of the academic year.
Staff and students at the centre came together to enjoy a Christmas lunch, festive games and a secret Santa gift exchange, whilst enterprising students ran stalls including gel nails, wax melts and earring making with proceeds being donated to local homelessness charity Hope Community Services.
Level 3 Theatrical Media Make-up student Abbie French offered a very popular gel and press on nail stand.
Abbie said: “Today has been nice, it’s felt a little bit like College has returned to normal. I’ve been offering gel and press-on nails, it’s been really popular, I’ve had 12 people book in. It’s nice to be able to take a skill I learned at College and use it to raise money for a local charity.”
Level 2 Hair and Media Make-up Student Darcey Armstrong offered an earring and jewellery stand and ran an earring making workshop for her fellow students.
Darcey said: “The College have given students who have a small business outside of College the chance to come in and run a stand today, I think it’s really nice. I make jewellery, normally earrings and necklaces – I started it during lockdown as something to do and I’ve carried it on.
“In the New Year I’m looking at branching out into clothing, and longer-term I’d love to go into cosmetics. I’ll be progressing on to Level 3 as we learn more about cosmetics and it will help me reach my ambitions.
“One day I’d like to open my own shop; that’s the dream.”
North Notts College Senior Curriculum Team Leader Karen Connole arranged the fun-filled activities.
Karen said: “This year has been so different and a real challenge for our students who haven’t had the same student experience as previous years. This was an opportunity to get students from all subject areas involved, have some fun and bring about a real sense of community that is so important for our students.
“They’ve all worked so hard and have adapted brilliantly to the new normal of blended teaching and learning and social distancing, this was a nice way to say thank you for all of their hard work and end the year on a high whilst raising funds for a worthwhile cause.”
Find out more about our courses delivered at Retford Post-16 Centre.
Watch Hope Community Services’ Christmas Appeal Video – parts of which were filmed at Retford Post-16 Centre with our students: