Prestigious award for Lewisham College

Congratulations to Lewisham College and it's TUC Studies department for gaining the TUC Quality Award for it's work and in recognition for its achievements.

The unionlearn Quality Award is awarded to providers who are committed to working with trade unions and can demonstrate that unions and union learners are considered in the design, development and delivery of courses and programmes.

As part of their work Lewisham College provide tutor led courses at the Red Star Learning Centre for our learners so we are very proud of their achievement and look forward to working with them for the benefit of working people.

Learning Week Roadshow at Chatham

Adult Learners Week finished today with a Learning Fair at the Red Star Centre in Chatham, where the theme was "Learning? It's a piece of cake". Everyone who undertook a Skills for Life assessment or completed a Learning Needs Questionnaire were given a piece of gateau or cream cake to enjoy with their drink whilst browsing the other activities that were taking place.


We had video screens showing clips from our roadshows that had taken place earlier in the week, and a fantastic BBC RaW corner offering learners the chance to take 'Quick Read' books away with them. Our BSL signing expert was on hand to explain about learning sign language, we also demonstrated digital photography and were also visited by representatives from all three Rail Unions.


Everyone involved in Learning Week had a fantastic time and really enjoyed meeting all of the staff. We're looking forward to starting some new courses very soon, including Basic Computer Skills starting in just over 3 weeks.

See you there!

Learning Week Roadshow at Hastings

Today was down by the beach again for the Red Star team (and Monkey) as we visited the staff at sunny Hastings! We met with all of the staff on duty, including cleaning and catering staff, and handed out 'goodies' and Learning Needs Questionnaires.



Everyone had a great time, and we had a display set up in the Training Rooms with DVD's promoting Learning at Work. The staff are looking forward to a British Sign Language course being held at Hastings later in the year.



A big thank you to Clare today for helping us meet with the staff, and for showing us around the station. We were made very welcome, and look forward to building up a good relationship with the staff who work there.

Learning Week Roadshow at Ramsgate

Today we took the Learning Week Roadshow to Ramsgate, where Dave Bull had organised Geneology Taster sessions in the staff area and was busy promoting Adult Learners Week with lots of posters, freebies and information for potential learners.





Mike and Ken also went over to the engineering depot during the morning and had a very successful time meeting with some of the staff there. The possibility of hosting learning sessions at Ramsgate was discussed, and all of the staff we met seemed very keen to find out when they could get involved.




Overall the visit to Ramsgate was a huge success, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

A big thank you to Dave Bull too for organising a great event.

TSSA

Hi the new advert for the centre has know gone public I will post it up to here ASAP. Today we are at the centre dicussing adult learners week, so I hope to see you all there we will be at Ramsgate, Hastings and Chatham also dont forget June 2nd which is the learning reps forum. Bye Karl

Changes to the project

You will have no doubt heard a lot about various changes to the way our learning project works, so just to enlighten a bit further, RMT, TSSA, and ASLEF have all now successfully bid for funding for their own learning projects. How this will affect us remains to be seen, but I want to reassure everyone that we will carry on working together to achieve work place learning opportunities for our colleagues. We only succeed when we work together!
We will be having another reps forum at the Red Star centre soon and will brief all the ULR's who attend on the day. The good news is that there are now three funding streams we can access instead of one! So lets get creative!
See ya!
Mike

April Fools Day 2008

10 stories that could be April Fools... but aren't

It's here again, the day when jokers set out to make fools of the rest of us. But not every bizarre story is a hoax. Here is a round-up of some of the day's seemingly spoof news stories which are actually true (and one that isn't).

1. A new pay-per-view funeral service scheme is being launched today. The Daily Mail says the scheme at Southampton Crematorium allows mourners to grieve from home by watching proceedings online.


Penguins

Here's one that is - 'flying' penguins from the BBC. More details below

2. A turtle is addicted to nicotine. He became addicted after picking up the smouldering butts in his owner's garden, in Kouqian, China, and sulks if he doesn't get his fix. The Daily Express, which picked up the story from Chinese news agency Xinhua, includes a gob-smacking picture of the turtle doing a rather good impression of Dot Cotton.

3. The menopause is caused by the age-old battle between wives and mothers-in-law, reports the Times. As long as 50,000 to 300,000 years ago, competition for food in a family unit was a battle won by the younger women who fed their offspring, which led to the older women losing their ability to breed. With food hard to find, mothers-in-law tended to help rear the grandchildren rather than have more children themselves.

4. An injection that allows women bigger and better orgasms by increasing the size of the mysterious G-spot is being launched in the UK, says the Sun. The £800 collagen jab takes less than half-an-hour and is given under local anaesthetic.

5. School desks and chairs are to be enlarged to meet the needs of the UK's ever-heavier schoolchildren, reports the Express. On average British children are a centimetre taller than they were 10 years ago, and there are more obese youngsters, so desks supplied to UK schools will reflect this.

Baby crocodile

Stolen from a busy aquarium

6. Wind turbines or solar panels built by UK companies anywhere in the world could count towards Britain's renewable energy targets under controversial government proposals, according to the Financial Times.

7. You will soon be able to have a tattoo on your teeth, reports the Sun. Steve Heward, the dentist who started the craze in the US plans to set up in Britain.

8. The traditional Chinese martial art T'ai Chi can help control diabetes, reports the Daily Mail. Apparently, researchers have found the flowing movements and deep breathing involved can result in a fall in blood sugar levels.

9. A thief walked out of a busy Norwegian aquarium with a crocodile that was over two feet long, says the Independent.

10. Drinkers have been banned from calling barmaids "love". An outraged Daily Star says new discrimination laws mean landlords that allow punters to chat up staff could be hauled before a tribunal and face unlimited fines.

And finally, a genuine spoof. Have you heard the one about the penguins that can fly? A BBC camera crew filming a colony of Adelie penguins were astonished when they did something "no other penguins can do" and took to the Antarctic skies. Go to BBC iPlayer to see the "footage".