For our arts award level 1 qualification we went to see Abigail's party. A lot of Pathways student really did enjoy the play. 

The Loreto Pathways’ exam takes place in the classrooms during middle of May. There’s going to be exams in these subjects which is Maths and English. And it’s only for 2 weeks, 1 week for Maths and 1 week for English. There are 3 exams for English and 2 exams for Maths. For English there is speaking and listening, reading and writing. For Maths there is calculator and non-calculator. Some students will do Entry level 2, and some students will do Entry level 3. The exams are only for the second-year students. We did mock exams every Tuesday to prepare for the exams in May and we have been improving a lot. Sometimes we do one to one session with the teacher to practice. We got a couple weeks until the exam start, and I only feel confident for maths but I don't think I feel  confident for English.

 From Taha

written by Wasima Begum

On the 26th of February myself and several students performed in front two schools and parents in the round stage at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. The theme of the performance was sanctuary. Our interpretation of this theme was to focus on the struggles and prevalence of homelessness in the UK.

We expressed this through multiple drama techniques we had learned in college. These included physical theatre, writing and performing our own sanctuary themed song and incorporating statistics (facts) about homelessness into our performance. On top of this performing in the Royal Exchange was really intimidating!

Our performance followed the story of a troubled young man, David, being pushed into homelessness by family problems with his mum and her new boyfriend. We tried to demonstrate the vulnerability and ease of young people becoming homeless. In the end the family argument is resolved, and David’s mum takes David back in the house and everyone is overjoyed. We finally sing our song, “No Danger”, and all took a bow and received applause.

As you can see, we put so much hard work into this, but it all paid off in the end when we delivered a brilliant performance to our friends and families in the round.

Although our performance has a happy ending this is often not the case for homeless people and leaves us with something to think of. It was a brilliant day which everyone thoroughly enjoyed!

The exam experience: 

Before I started my English exam, I had to do lots of revision in lesson it would take me around 45 minutes. I would listen to everything that the teacher says and I would also make sure that I would understand everything and if I didn’t understand something I would ask the teacher for some help.

A couple of weeks before my Maths exam I was doing lots of practice papers and they were non calculator and calculator papers which helped me a lot in the exam. We did a multiplication practice paper and we also did division, addition and subtraction. I found the division difficult. But then I got to use it and I was able to do it in the exam.

Before I went to do my English exam I would get lots of homework to do at home and most of my English homework would be writing an email, writing letters. 

On the day of my exam I was feeling anxious about it. The one that I was feeling the most nervous about was the maths and writing paper.

In my maths exam I was feeling really worried  to do it. But  on that day I was the most scared about  was  the non calculator paper.

Before the speaking and listening exam you have to choose what topic you want to talk about then,  once you have choose the topic you need to write it step by step then you have to read it to the other person. Then after that they   have to ask you questions about it. Then after that you have to listen to them and then you have to ask them questions about what they wrote.

 When I first did my English exam I passed both papers. I was so happy that I was able to pass them both.

But when I done my maths paper I didn’t pass the first time but then I done lots more practice papers which then after I did lots of practice papers I was able to pass both of my exams. I was so happy I passed the reason why I was so happy about it was because I got a really high score on my paper.  

I was glad that my friends passed all the exams.

Rafaela

The Event of Boccia

Written by Wasima Begum

For the past few weeks students from the Pathways Department have been participating in an internal Boccia tournament to find out who will go to the national Boccia finals in Nottingham. This is very exciting because lots of students have been matched against their close friends leading to some very heated games. Towards the end we started to do a livestream on the college Instagram to see the final boccia games with the most skilled players. This was exhilarating as everyone was cheering on their favourite to win in college!

From this process we have found our Boccia representatives. We are very excited to be sending 4 members who are Wasima, Taha, Ramsey and Pherrell.

How did we manage to get to play at the nationals you might ask? Loreto college attended the Northwest regional championships facing two other colleges, Blackburn college and Manchester college and beating them both!

The finals are being held at the University of Nottingham on the 19th OfApril. We have been practicing the Boccia game in college with the finalists and they can’t wait to go to Nottingham.

We have been asking our sport teacher Ben how he feels in anticipation of the finals.

Ben says that he feels “quietly confident” but thinks the most difficult thing will be supporting each other as a team.

The team members share the same sentiment as Ben but are feeling a lot more confident in their abilities. Wasima also emphasised the importance of teamwork and mutual support and both Wasima and Taha believed we could win this year!

Interviews:

Student representatives: before the tournament

1) How are you feeling about the Boccia game?

Taha – he is feeling good.

Wasima- I feel excited and nervous at the same time.

2) How do you think we will do?

Taha- he said we will do well.

Wasima- I think we are going to do great. I believe we will win it this year!

3) How do you feel as a team?

Taha – he said good so far.

Wasima – good, we get to communicate with each other. Your not doing it by yourself so it is important to work together as a team and support each other.

4) Are you proud of your achievements so far?

Taha – he said he is proud of his achievements.

Wasima- Yes, I am so proud of my achievements this year because it shows my progression in boccia.

Ben is the mastermind who coaches these 4 students for Boccia.

How did you feel about completing the boccia tournament?

Ramsey- He felt excited and proud.

How did we do?

Ramsey- he said we did ok.

What can we improve for next time?

Ramsey- He said we should come earlier then we have more time to practice.

Bens questions:

1) Why did we decide to Boccia?

Ben – Because it’s a very inclusive sport. Its engaging and I have never really taught it up until this year.

Did you think you get to the finals?

Ben- yeah, I had complete faith that everyone would try their hardest.

2) How hard is it to be a team?

Ben- it depends. Some players can gel really well and are on the same level and chemistry. However sometimes it takes

longer for some players to learn how to play with each other so it can sometimes be more difficult to work together.

3) How do you feel about the Boccia tournament?

Ben- quietly confident. After watching everyone playing in recent weeks, everyone involved has shown that they are more than capable of performing to a high standard of Boccia.

4) After the nationals

What was the experience like?

Ben -He think it’s exciting and really enjoy the fact it was our first national event as department.

How did you think we performed at the nationals?

Ben- we grow into the day as we played, he thought that after first 4 games we pick up momentum and finished on 2 really strong wins.

What can we improve for next time?

Ben- higher place finished however as it was our first event I am glad everyone gives it their best efforts and we finished where we did.

What advice you could give for next years?

Ben – go enjoy yourself and don’t take it too seriously if you don’t finish where you want to.