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Before the holidays Newbury College Academy students were joined by local artists Jaime Jackson and Sally Payen to help them produce artwork based around the theme of peaceful protest'.

Jaime and Sally have a special exhibition of artworks on display at West Berkshire Museum called The Knitted Fence. The exhibition explores the actions of the Greenham Common peace women's non-violent protest during the 1980s, as well as eco activism, recycling, collaborative working and politics. Sally is a former Newbury College student, studying art at A Level when the College was based at its old site in town.

The pre-16 students learned about the peace camp, where protesters peacefully campaigned against nuclear warheads being stored at the Greenham airbase. They went on to develop images about causes important to them and stencilled or transfer-printed the images onto textiles before tying them onto a piece of fence with plaited ribbons.

The fence forms part of the special exhibition which is on show from 28 March to 29 April 2018. Entry to the exhibition is free. It is open Wed-Sun, 10am to 4pm.

A fantastic collaboration by a group of music technology students at Newbury College has resulted in Snow' this summer as their debut single, of the same name, hits Spotify. The students, who have completed their Extended Diploma, have been working in the college recording studio to record and mix two original recordings for their end-of-year skills project.


The songs have been written by Rhys Clements and have been performed, recorded and mixed by Rhys and fellow students Sky Curtis, Robin Nutley, Lauren Peters and Tegan O'Connell Dorward. The aim of the skills project is to stretch our students and give them the opportunity to produce a vocationally relevant product at the end of their course.


"The Music Technology Extended Diploma students have been fantastic this year," said Matt Foster, the course leader. "They have really developed as studio engineers and music producers and enjoyed working independently in the studio to produce this skills project."
You can listen to the singles; Snow and Different on the Newbury College website www.newbury-college.ac.uk/courses/media-music-and-performing-arts where you can also enrol now for full-time Music Technology courses.

Sky Curtis, who studied Music Technology for three years at Newbury College, has been awarded The Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship, by the University of Portsmouth. The scholarship is awarded to students who achieve very high grades for their Level 3 qualification.

Music Technology tutor, Matthew Foster said, Sky is an exceptional student who excelled in all areas of our Level 3 Music Tech course and gained a 100% grade on the awarding body's results system. Her practical and technical skills were matched with excellent academic abilities and I was sad to see her go at the end of the last academic year.

Sky commented, "I'm extremely happy to have been awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship. This is in no small part due to the dedication of my tutor, Matt Foster, and the music technology subject team at Newbury College. Thanks to the College's support and their belief in my future aspirations. This award will make a big difference in my ability to further my music technology education."

Newbury College offers a wide range of Music, Media and Dance courses with full time Music Technology courses at Level 2 and Level 3. To find out more, visit the College Open Event on, Tuesday 6 November between 4pm - 8pm or explore the courses page.

December 2018 - Lynne Stafford of Thatcham received an extra special festive surprise this week, when she heard she was the winner of the Newbury College wordsearch featured in the Newbury Weekly News Christmas Guide. She was delighted to hear that she had won £30 worth of vouchers, towards a part-time course at Newbury College.

Lynne commented, "It was a real surprise to have won the competition, as a childminder I often do the puzzles with the children but this is the first time I've won. I am looking forward to browsing the options and trying something new in 2019.

We have a huge range of one-day courses starting from just £30 and 100s of part-time courses including ballroom dancing, drawing techniques, Microsoft Office for beginners, nutrition for physical activity, business administration and bookkeeping. To find out more, search here