Scarborough University Campus

This afternoon I have enjoyed a group visit to the university campus just up the road from where we live.

Scarborough Campus, The University of Hull, Filey Road, Scarborough YO11 3AZ, 01723 362392

Scarborough Campus provides an exciting intermate study environment, bringing together 20th and 21st century architecture with all the resources you would expect from a larger campus. The campus has a wide variety of teaching spaces, ranging from rooms which can accept 100+ students to rooms for much smaller groups.

We also have state of the art digital media labs, and recording studios, along with science labs, performance studios and a theatre workshop. We also have all the facilities you would find on a larger campus, a comprehensive library, open access ITareas, onsite accommodation and both a dining hall and cafe bar. Not only that but we also have a Student Union shop and games area.

Scarborough Campus provides a fully wireless campus, so you can access your email and the web anywhere on campus. In the cafe, library or lectures you will always be able to connect your laptop to the network, either for study, or to keep in touch with your lecturers and other students.

To get a true feel for the campus, you can either visit us on an open day, or visit ourvideo microsite. Here you'll be able to see staff and students from the different subject areas living 'the Scarborough experience'.

Across the road is a centre which brings much publicity to Scarborough.

Welcome to the School of Arts and New Media (SANM) based at the Scarborough Campus of the University of Hull.

Our range of undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities encourage students to explore and contribute to the future of music, theatre, performance, english, computingand digital media.

The programmes offered in the school are designed to respond to contemporary art and media in the world today. Studying in SANM offers artistic and intellectual skills and experience that will enable you to work in traditional arts and new media industries. Together staff and students continue to explore what it means to be a musician, composer, performance artist, web designer, games developer, digital arts maker, theatre practitioner, actor, dancer, writer.

Scarborough School of Arts and New Media is home to an innovative team of subject specialists working together to offer a range of degree courses in the following subject areas:

• Interdisciplinary Degrees
• Creative Music Technology
• Digital Media
• English
• Theatre and Performance

Throughout your years in the School of Arts and New Media, you are taught by lecturers who are practising artists, scientists, choreographers, directors, software developers, actors, designers, musicians, performers and composers. They collaborate to share their enthusiasm for their arts with you as the future artists and audiences.

Whichever degree you choose you will be able to study, experience, experiment and explore your art in professional facilities. You will also have opportunities to see professional companies both on campus and in trips to theatres and other performance venues in centres such as London, Leeds and York.

Celebrating Success

Passers-by were shocked to see rowdy bikini-clad students struggling to stand up and vomiting at midday on a Sunday afternoon.

This year for the first time in 80 years the garden party, organised by the Wyverns, an all-male Magdalene College drinking society, had to be held in a new location after officials banned students from holding the event on university land.

Extra security and police were also drafted in this time to patrol the party, whilst other college parties elsewhere in Cambridge were cancelled.

But despite the new venue the end-of-exams celebration followed the same format with a blazers and bikini theme, and riotous drinking games.

"The way the students were behaving was absolutely disgusting," said one passer-by.

"It was only midday on Sunday and there were lots of families and young people around enjoying the sunshine.

"The students were lying across the verges, lots of them were vomiting and they were singing rowdy drinking songs.

"I understand they want to celebrate the end of their exams but they were completely out of control."

Hundreds of students turned up to the event which has traditionally been held in Trinity Old Field but was this year held in the grounds of Anstey Hall, a restored seventeenth century manor house in the sleepy Cambridgeshire village of Trumpington, three miles away from the university.

Many had to be carried or helped away from the five hour party and the police stepped in to help one party-goer who collapsed on a verge.

The highlight of the day was the jelly wrestling contest, with hundreds gathering to watch bikini-clad female students battle it out for a £250 prize.

Some garden parties were cancelled this year as college authorities have become extra wary of binge drinking.

The Newnham Nuns' garden party was cancelled by the college and many students were forced to hold initiations in secret.

Natasha Wear, president of the Newnham Nuns, said: "The college needed to be seen to be doing something to combat the problem of binge drinking."

(I do hope this is not how they celebrate at St Andrews - Francesca is "Eligible for the award of Master of Arts (Honours) Psychology First Class - she is now in shock... She can put up with the constant

rain in St Andrews ONLY if the weather gods

are getting all the rain out of the way in a oner, leaving graduation week full of blue sky and sunshine....*fingers crossed*"

The History Boys

Highlight of TV last night!

The History Boys (film)

The History Boys is a British film released in October 2006. It was adapted by Alan Bennett from his play of the same name, which won the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner, who directed the original production of The History Boys at the Royal National Theatre in London, and features the original cast of the play.

Plot
The story is set in a boys' grammar school in Sheffield in 1983. Crowther, Posner, Dakin, Timms, Akthar, Lockwood, Scripps, and Rudge have recently obtained the school's highest ever A-level scores and are hoping to enter Oxford or Cambridge, taking a seventh-term entrance exam in History. The General Studies teacher, known by staff and boys alike by his nickname "Hector" (Richard Griffiths), is their favourite, and works alongside their deputy head and regular history teacher, Mrs Lintott (Frances de la Tour).

The headmaster, Felix (Clive Merrison), hires an energetic young contract teacher named Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to assist Hector and Mrs Lintott in preparing the boys for the Oxbridge entrance exams. Irwin's style is utterly different from Hector's and Mrs Lintott's; while the older teachers emphasise cultural and factual knowledges and the quest for truth, Irwin urges the boys to put a spin on their historical analysis, to value originality above objective truth.

As the plot progresses we learn that Hector habitually offers some of his students rides home on his motorcycle and surreptitiously fondles his passengers. The boys have all come to a mutual understanding on the subject and, while mildly annoyed, laugh off their teacher's advances and more or less willingly continue to take turns riding home on the back of his bike. This practice eventually lands Hector in trouble as he is reported to the headmaster by a school crossing guard who witnesses his action. When the headmaster insists that Hector and Irwin share a class, they and the boys engage in a tense discussion about how best to analyse the Holocaust.
As part of their general studies the class acts out scenes from romantic films and literature, and Posner (Samuel Barnett) sings a love song – Rogers and Hart's "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" – which he pointedly directs towards Dakin (Dominic Cooper). Later he seeks out Irwin to discuss his attraction to Dakin. Dakin, who characterizes himself as an aspiring lecher, is currently pursuing an affair with the headmaster's secretary, Fiona (Georgia Taylor). He is not displeased by Posner's attention, but finds himself interested by Irwin. Gradually, Dakin's quest to impress Irwin intellectually evolves into a flirtatious, potentially sexual pursuit of his young teacher – who, as Posner, his friend Scripps (Jamie Parker) and even Hector note, is visibly attracted to Dakin.

After interviews, when the boys receive their replies through the post, it seems that they have all gained Oxbridge places, except for the group's gauche sportsman, Rudge (Russell Tovey). When Mrs Lintott questions him about it, it turns out that Rudge had already been told at interview that he has a place, due to a family connection with the college.

Dakin approaches Irwin in his classroom after the celebrations and reveals that he found no record of Irwin's attendance at Corpus, the Oxford college he claimed as his alma mater. Irwin confesses that he lied about his past. Dakin then invites Irwin to give him a blowjob "as a thank you". They make an appointment to "have a drink" on Sunday. Dakin tells Irwin that he has seen two sides to Irwin – a reckless, challenging intellectual and an uptight, cautious personality – and he cannot reconcile them.

Dakin then proceeds to the Headmaster's office and, by threatening to reveal Felix's own sexual harassment of Fiona, forces him to reinstate Hector.

The boys prepare to leave the Grammar School at the end of that term, and Hector agrees to give Dakin a ride home on the motorbike "for old times' sake". However, before they leave, the Headmaster runs out of the school and stops them, saying Hector shouldn't take one of the boys. He suggests that Hector take Irwin instead. Dakin gladly hands the helmet to him, and the screen fades to white as they drive off, the boys waving happily and laughing.

Fast forward to a few days later, as it is revealed that the bike was in an accident on the way home, possibly caused by Irwin leaning the wrong way on a corner. Irwin was badly injured; Hector did not survive. At the memorial service, the boys sing "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" and the headmaster gives a trite eulogy. The scene then changes abruptly to an almost empty hall with only the eight boys and Mrs Lintott inside. "Will they come to my funeral, I wonder," Mrs Lintott remarks, before recounting the futures of the eight boys. They have entered a variety of careers: Rudge has become a builder, Dakin a tax lawyer, and Posner a teacher who followed in Hector's footsteps, with similar ambivalence and angst, yet without "touching the boys." Lockwood (Andrew Knott), who entered the army, died as a result of friendly fire at the age of 28 while serving in the York and Lancaster Regiment, an infantry regiment that was actually disbanded in 1968. It is also revealed that Irwin stops teaching and becomes a maker of TV history documentaries.

The film ends with a collection of moments involving Hector, leading up to the moment that a photo of the entire class was taken at Fountains Abbey, from earlier in the film. The photo spans the entire screen, and the closing credits are played over the photo.

Critical acclaim
According to Time , the film is better than the original play, as the transformation to film improved the 'flow and intimacy' of the production, while preserving the messages it seeks to convey. Rolling Stone notes that some sense of familiarity with the subject of the film is lost in the cutting of nearly an hour from the original play, but the dialogue remains witty and pointed as is the customary style of the author. New York describes the film as 'brilliant and infectious', and filled with Alan Bennett's customary dead-pan humour. The author writes as though he simultaneously envies the extrovert characters he has created, yet is happy to stand apart from them. Hector's classes ramble, but manage to inspire the boys to the extent that they are pleased to adopt his approach to learning, and contentedly go along with his eccentric behaviour. The film is peppered with literary references and carries an encouragement to engage with life.

Analysis
Furthermore, due to the intricate social issues discussed throughout the History Boys the play has been added to the list available for study at A-level drama and theatre studies, and should shortly be added to the English syllabus.

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures named The History Boys one of the Top Ten Films in its 2006 awards.

Awards
The film has been nominated for the 2007 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film - Limited Release.

Griffiths and de la Tour received BAFTA nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

Trivia
Even though based in Yorkshire, the setting of the school was filmed in Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School For Girls in Hertfordshire.

Differences from play
Whilst there are several differences between the film and the play due to the contracted running time of the film, among the more obvious ones are:

In the play, Irwin (confined to a wheelchair) leaves television and works in government in an unspecified capacity.

Lockwood does not die in the play, instead he becomes a magistrate.

Whilst Posner's ending in the film may seem sad, in the play he fares even worse; he attempts to blackmail Irwin after the play's end, and later is described by Mrs Lintott as living a lonely life, with the majority of his contact with other people over the internet.

Education Sunday 2007

Education Sunday 2007
04 February 2007
A national day of prayer and celebration for everyone in the world of education
Education Sunday has been celebrated since 1878. It is the day when churches join to offer to God the work of education, in schools of all kinds, in colleges and universities and in the church. It is the time to celebrate the achievements of education, to recognize the challenges, and support and pray for all who are involved in education. Further information is available from the National Society's web site: www.natsoc.org.uk/educationsunday2007


© 2007 Education Sunday Steering Group
The Education Sunday 2007 theme was devised by an ecumenical steering group
representing the following Christian denominations and organisations: the Association of Christian Teachers, the Baptist Union, the Catholic Church, the Church of England and the National Society, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, the Student Christian
Movement and the United Reformed Church. All worship material in this publication may be freely copied for single-occasion use as part of Christian worship. Any organisations or individuals wishing to reproduce this material in any other circumstances should seek
prior permission from the Education Sunday Steering Group, Churches Together in England, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HH.
www.educationsunday.org 4 February 2007

ULTIMATE MAKEOVER? jesusislord jesusislord jesusislord jesusislord jesusislord
The world says: perfect smiles and beautiful bodies are more important than loving hearts and
caring minds; success is skin deep. The Bible says: success is about being more Christ-like
and more Christ-centred; it is about loving God, loving other people and loving God’s world.
The world says: everyone can be outwardly transformed . . . for a price . . . all it takes is a nip
and tuck, a professional makeover or a trendy new wardrobe. The Bible says: everyone can be
inwardly transformed . . . and the price has already been paid by God . . . all it takes is faith.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians invites us to join a learning conversation that echoes
through the centuries, and is still pursued in classrooms and lecture theatres by teachers and
students alike. From long before the time of Isaiah to now we have searched for fulfilment and
to become more fully human, to be truly happy and fulfilled. But where can we find this
happiness? Our culture informs us that if we want to be loved, valued and accepted, first we
need to look good and become a fashion icon. Yet all these changes are passing and do not
last. They leave us searching for meaning beyond the immediate.
This search for meaning and understanding is one that generations have engaged in. For
fulfilment is not found just in the externals but through becoming an icon of Christ. Through
God’s grace we are invited to respond to the Lord’s invitation to follow and become more like
Him. For Isaiah, holiness is not found in grand gestures but in small acts of loving God, loving
other people and helping to sustain the beauty of creation. What Paul in the midst of his
failure came to understand is God’s unconditional love and he leaves us this example of faith
and humility, reminding the people of Corinth to become what God desires of them. Through
this endeavour of hope we too will be transformed both inwardly and outwardly to become, in
our time, part of God’s holy people.

A PRAYER OF THANKS FOR ALL GOD’S CHILDREN
Lord our God
We thank You that You made each one of us in Your image and likeness,
and that we are all Your beloved children.
We pray for the children/students we teach.
We pray for children/students who … make us smile; … challenge our way of thinking;
We pray for children/students who … test our patience; … we find easy to like;
We pray for children/students who … we find difficult to like; … are bright;
We pray for children/students who … are hardworking; … find learning tough;
We pray for children/students who … get on our nerves; … are a delight;
We pray for children/students who … like to laugh; … always look sad;
We pray for children/students who … always look lost; … talk all the time;
We pray for children/students who … never say a word; … are easily overlooked;
We pray for children/students who … are impossible to ignore;
We pray for children/students who … remind us of ourselves when we were younger!
We thank You for all the children/students who have an impact on our lives and for the
privilege of having an impact on their lives.
Lord, help us not to label those we teach or to fall into the trap of thinking we have got them
sussed. Help us to be open to new revelations and the work of Your Holy Spirit in each of their
lives.
Lord, use those we teach to teach us. Help us to be Christ-like at all times;
seeing each one with Your eyes and valuing them with Your heart of love.
We ask this prayer in the name of Jesus the teacher.
Amen