St Mary's College newsletter provides updates on upcoming events and student achievements. Key dates include half term breaks in February and March, and a visit from a London art historian who discussed incorporating art history into students' creative work. The newsletter also highlights a student participation in a Holocaust memorial event and the upcoming annual art exhibition featuring student work. Two students are recognized for their sporting achievements in refereeing football and advancing to the national tennis championships.

1. St Mary’s College
NEWS Issue 26
February 2017
Full term dates are available on the College website: www.stmarysblackburn.ac.uk
www.facebook.com/stmarysblackburn www.twitter.com/smcblackburn www.youtube.com/stmarysblackburnuk
Friday 10 February 2017 - College closes for Half Term
Monday 20 February 2017 - College re-opens
Wednesday 1st March - Admissions Interview Evening
Friday 31 March - College Closes for Easter
Tuesday 18 April - Study Day
Wednesday 19 April - College re-opens
Monday 1 May - College closed for Bank Holiday
Friday 26 May - College closes for half term
BE CONNECTED Dates for your diary
Courtauld Institute Visit
On the 25th January St Mary’s Art Department held an ‘Explore Art
History’ workshop for the Fine Art students.
London based Art Historian Helen Higgins, came from the Courtauld
Gallery in London to visit the students in their studio.
Students discussed their views on Art History, what it is, what it means
to them and how they can use it to influence their creative practical
artwork. Helen then set the students off on a group task to curate their
own Art exhibition, giving reasons for selecting specific artworks, art
themes, spaces, lighting and how their exhibition would communicate a
theme or message to the viewing public.
Students worked exceptionally well with creativity, intelligence and
confidence.
One student remarked,”Seeing how Art History can be intertwined with the artwork I am making
was really useful. The workshop has taught me to think on a deeper level when analysing an
artwork and to look for hidden themes, messages and clues that can only be picked up on from
studying an artist’s work on close inspection”.
Another student said, “I’d never really thought about how an art exhibition gets put together
before. Why some artworks are chosen, how they link to a theme and why they get sited in a
particular place. It’s made me consider how I could link my own artwork through a theme, its
subject matter or style of making”.
Holocaust Memorial Day
St Mary’s students recently took part in a Holocaust Memorial Day event.
Student governor Lucy Wright, together with student council members Mohammad Abdullah
and Khalid Choglay, took part in an event held in the Council Chamber in Blackburn Town Hall
to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. Young people from across Blackburn with Darwen
gave presentations from the ten stages of genocide and listened to inspirational talks from the
Interfaith Forum and a leading Rabbi.
Khalid said, “It was a moving event; it is important to remember what happened in the past so
that we understand how important it is that we always respect everyone”.
Assistant Principal Kelvin Rice said, “St Mary’s were delighted to support this event as we are
committed to countering all forms of discrimination and hate crime. St Mary’s students have
covered Holocaust Memorial Day with material on Darfur and Bosnia”.
Our latest news update leading us into half term...
Annual Art Exhibition
Each year the Art and Design department hold an exhibition in order to celebrate the success of
our students. We represent work from each student and each of our four Arts A Level subjects;
Fine Art, Graphic Design, Digital Photography and Textiles and Fashion.
We have some amazing talent in the department and it is the highlight of the year for us to
be able to share this work with the general public. Past work has been exhibited at St Mary’s
College, The Platform Gallery in Clitheroe, Blackburn Library and Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham.
This year we are thrilled to be exhibiting the students work for a full month at The Platform
Gallery in Clitheroe, a lovely setting in the Ribble Valley that the general public can easily access.
The exhibition is in place from the 9th until the 27th February. Please feel free to go along.
Opening times for the Gallery are: Monday-Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 10am–4:30pm, Sunday
Closed.
This venture would not have been possible without donations made by staff, students and
our very generous Alumni community. We were thrilled to have reached our full target of £550
which covers hire of the gallery space, setting up costs, refreshments on our opening night and
advertising. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible. We couldn’t have run it without
your support!
Andrea Westall, Head of Art adds, “Dear supporters, thank you! Without your backing this
exhibition would not have been possible. The students are thrilled to see their work displayed in
such a prestigious gallery setting. We hope you are able to come along to the exhibition and view
the students work. Please sign and leave your coments in our visitor’s book!”
Sports Superstars
Congratulations to Matthew Cooper who has his sights set on becoming a professional referee
in top flight football. Matthew, has been refereeing since 2014 and is currently a referee for the
North West Counties Football League - he refs for the Blackburn Combination League and the
Blackburn Sunday League. Matthew is a Level 7 Referee at the minute and looking for promotion
this year.
His favourite referee is Martin Atkinson and he has also had the honour of meeting Mike Dean,
Mark Clattenburg, Anthony Taylor and John Moss at the Blackburn Referee Association Meeting.
This inspired him to continue in the field and to be the best he can be.
Matthew says, “I really enjoy football and play for St Mary’s College, but I wanted to get to
know every aspect of the game so I naturally started looking at refereeing. I’m hoping my
determination and enthusiasm for the love of the game will help me set my sights on becoming a
professional referee in the major leagues in years to come”.
Congratulations also to George Hutchings who has successfully made it through to the Tennis
National Championships. George, participated in the British Colleges Tennis Tournament in
December of last year and won the whole competition. Next he will be pitted against players
from across the UK in the National Championships, which are to be held in Nottingham from
21st–23rd April 2017.
George started playing tennis when he was 5 years old, mainly due to the fact that his father
was a tennis coach and his older brother Charlie, who won the same tournament last year, also
plays tennis. He is currently training at Blackburn Northern Tennis Club and Middleton Virgin
Active, as well as being previously trained at a high performance tennis centre in Nottingham.
George says, “I have played for Great Britain on many occasions and have competed at a high
level in international tournaments. I hope this winning form continues. My short term goal is
to make the top 100 ITF before I reach 18. My long term goal is to achieve the top ATP, which is
incredibly tough but can be done through hard work and determination.”
Head of Sport Howard Best added, “We are very proud of the achievements and excellent
progress that both Matthew and George have made in their respective sports. Like all top
performers they are both highly talented, but in particular they show the necessary ambition
and determination to continually seek to progress to the next level. Their progress is all the more
impressive as they have to balance their sporting ambitions with their studies in BTEC Sport.
We are confident that they will be very successful students and look forward to watching them
develop into top level performers in the future.”
Visiting Speakers Programme
As part of the ongoing visiting speakers programme at St Mary’s, a London School of Economics
representative, James Gibson, recently visited the College in January. Our students had the
chance to discover more about the degrees on offer, the cutting edge research they do and what
university life is like at this world renowned institution.
Students from a range of subjects attended to find out more about courses including Economics,
Law, Maths and Social Sciences.
This was a great opportunity to help our students prepare for their future choices after leaving St
Mary’s College.