Protest at City College Brighton over increasing class sizes

Brighton’s cycling accident black spots uncovered

By Mathew Beech

Two safety conscious cyclists riding along Brighton seafront. Credit: Mathew Beech

Hundreds of cyclists have been injured and five killed on Brighton’s roads over the last five years as new figures reveal accident black spots in the city.

Figures published by the Office of National Statistics show there have been 850 accidents between 2005 and 2010, with the palace Pier roundabout proving to be the most dangerous section of road.

This junction sees Marine Parade, Madeira Drive, Grand Junction Road and the A23 converge, and caused 129 accidents, 23 resulting in injuries to the cyclists.

Ian Essex, chairman of the Brighton Excelsior Cycling Club, told the Argus: “From my experience on some of the roads in Brighton the figures don’t surprise me but it is still shocking.”

The second most dangerous spot for bike-riders is the Lewes Road/Coombe Road junction, where 18 people were injured in 83 accidents.

Brighton up to 4th!

By Paul Healey

Brighton beat sorry Derby on Tuesday 2-0 and remain fourth even after this weeks wednesday results.

The start given to defender Indigo Calderon paid almost immediate dividend as he scored after only 9 minutes and a further goal come from a Vicente cross in the 65th which Ashley Barnes only had to tap in.

Brighton dominated the first half and a good deal of the second but Jake Buxton headed over twice for the visitors after the break and Paul Green nodded wide from a Theo Robinson cross.

Kazenga LuaLua was a constant threat and well worth his start having been involved in the second goal and playing  80 minutes.

Brighton have put the 3-1 away loss at Blackpool behind them and there will be exciting times ahead with only eight games remaining.

JOURNALISM DISCUSSION GIVEN BY JOHN WHITBREAD

By Abby Rugg

Journalism can be an unpredictable career for reporters and editors as they are often faced with difficult yet surprising challenges within the world of news.

Photo used under Creative Commons by thatgirl

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Boxing academy celebrates 1st year with success and smiles

By Elizabeth Hughes

It has been quite a year for Coach Adam Haniver and the young boxers he trains on the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) at City College Brighton and Hove.

After surviving funding cuts threatened by the change of government in May last year, the Academy opened its doors in November 2010. Since then, there has been a 2 week training camp in Tenerife, the first competitive bout for the team’s only female boxer and a National Title win for an Olympic hopeful.

Out of the Ordinary Festival

By Lily Davis

Classing myself as a bit of a ‘fake hippy’, it is somewhat surprising that I haven’t made it to the Out of the Ordinary Festival before – especially as it is literally a five minute drive from my house. Fortunately, 2011 was my year. Though after pulling into Knockhatch’s incredibly long drive, it appeared that every other person with a faintly bohemian calling had also decided to venture to the three-day festival, held between Eastbourne and Brighton for the last five years.

The king is Dead! Long live the King!

nothing to see here except this kitten, please move along

Hats off to everyone involved in Brighton-lite thus far…. But there are some new lunatics in charge of the asylum and you’ll be hearing from us soon… meanwhile here is a picture of a kitten…

‘Kitten’ appears courtesy of  http://www.freeanimalswallpapers.com/

News: City College Brighton and Hove Teacher on Europe’s Most Wanted List

One of Europe’s most wanted women was arrested while teaching French at City College Brighton and Hove under a false name.

Former Greek judge Antonia Ilia, 52, taught adult classes using the name Antonia Jamin and was arrested by Sussex Police at the Pelham Street campus last Wednesday after a tip-off by Interpol.

She had been convicted in her absence of fraud in Greece and was wanted under five European arrest warrants.

Ilia, who had been living at an address on Portland Road, was refused bail when she appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London last Thursday.

Greece has requested her extradition after she was found guilty of being part of a trial-fixing ring and sentenced to almost seven years in jail.

When arrested, she claimed she was not Ilia but a French citizen before police searched her apartment and found her Greek identity card which confirmed she was the fugitive.

A spokesman for City College, Brighton and Hove, said: “We can confirm that a part-time lecturer working four hours per week delivering adult French classes, was arrested on Wednesday evening by Sussex Police.

“The college takes matters such as this very seriously and we are assisting the relevant authorities with their enquiries.

“At the present time, we are unable to disclose any further information, due to confidentiality.”

News: Brighton Marathon Wall helps fundraise for Kenya trip

By Claire Smyth

A marathon runner usually hits an invisible wall which can stop him dead in his tracks after running for more than 20 miles.

So a group of City College Brighton and Hove construction students built a real wall at the 22 mile point of the Brighton Marathon to encourage participants and raise money for charity.

Tom Dowds (right) in front of The Wall which was first featured in the Brighton Marathon last year but featured a fundraising buzzer this year

Husband and wife Tom and Sharon Dowds, who both work at City College, are fundraising for a return trip to Kenya where they hope to build a proper kitchen at a school of around 800 children.

Sharon Dowds, City College’s learning support assistant, said:  “Last year we had an organisation, that came up to Freshers’ week, who were talking about doing some volunteering in various parts of the world.

“And I thought: ‘We’ve got all these departments – plumbers, electricians, carpenters, builders – in this college, why aren’t we doing something?’ ”

Tom spoke to local companies, such as Ocean Sport, Portslade MOT Services and Beechwood Timber, who agreed to pledge a donation for each runner who pushes the buzzer fixed to the wall on Basin Road.

The money raised will go towards a new kitchen at a primary school – currently a tin hut – which will be built by the 18 students and three staff preparing to travel to Kenya in July.

Sharon added: “The cook cooks for 400 children at the moment. Two hundred go to a school up the road and 200 go home to the dump site to try and get something to eat.

“If they haven’t got 17p for their meal then they don’t eat.”

Last summer, a group of 12 students and three staff went to Nakuru, in Kenya, to build two timber-framed houses on a dump site, and Tom and Sharon realised they had to return.

Sharon said: “We need to go back. We promised them we would change this. When we were in the school, we were looking round – we did a little bit of gardening, we replaced the desks – everything was falling apart.”

Each student is responsible for paying for their own trip along with fundraising for the project, through an African evening in the Gallery restaurant and a ‘Knickers for Africa’ event.

Carpentry team leader Tom was sponsored to run the Brighton Marathon which is where the idea came from to construct the wall.

Tom said: “If there’s money left over, we could maybe set up a drip feed to the school to provide food for all those children.

“If there’s enough, we could actually then sponsor some children on to further education. If we raise an extra £1,000, that’s four children another year in the next step of their education.”

There will be a mix of skills in the group with construction, catering and travel and tourism students going on the trip, and the plan is for the catering people to cook a meal for all the children at the school.

Sharon added: “They treat us with absolute joy. They can’t believe that we would do what we’ve done. They just can’t believe it.

“They can’t believe why we would go there. It’s a small drop in the ocean – the poverty is so extreme – but we really do feel we’re doing something.

If anyone would like to support the Kenya project with ideas or donations please contact Tom Dowds at tjd@ccb.ac.uk.

Sport: Rugby League on the rise in Sussex

By Daniel Bell

Sussex Merlins RL in action against East London Phantoms

Rugby League is on the road to becoming a major participation sport in Sussex.

Nick Weston, chairman Hove-based side Sussex Merlins, said: “It’s growing all the time, we only had 10 people at our first training session [in May 2009], now we have an open-age team, under-18s and several junior teams.”

The drive to establish the game in Sussex has now received professional backing, with the creation of a four-way partnership between Merlins, City College Brighton and Hove, Harlequins Rugby League and the RFL (Rugby Football League).

“This is a landmark agreement, not only for us but for Rugby League”, said Weston. “There is now a clear path from under-7 to open age in Sussex.”

City College Brighton and Hove (CCBH) recently became the first team to represent Sussex in the South East region of the Carnegie Champion College Finals.

And four of their players, including Gareth Dean from Moulsecoomb, have earned places in the southern area squad.

News: City College music students stream a gig live

By Rich Hook

Music students at City College Brighton & Hove will perform and stream a gig live from their on-campus studio today[Wednesday March 30]– a first of its kind in the UK.

This is the latest innovation from the musicians who have previously set up their own record-label, Brighton Records, and released an album to showcase some the best young musical talent in the country.

Jason Murphy, City College’s team leader in music, said: “It’s rare that any music course does anything like this. This show is going to help the students reach a wider audience and forge greater links with the music industry.

“It’s a proactive response to the changes in the music industry and part of our ongoing plan to make Brighton Records bigger and better every year.”

The music on show will range from acoustic and indie to hip-hop and dubstep, with the best tracks being recorded for a second album set to be released digitally on iTunes. Watch the show at HERE.

News: Wikileaks journalist Nick Davies talks to City College Brighton and Hove journalism students

By Claire Smyth

The newspaper industry is dying because the internet is stealing all its readers. This was the message to Brighton journalism students who attended a talk earlier this month by the Guardian newspaper reporter who helped to break many of the recent Wikileaks cables.

Award-winning investigative journalist, and author of Flat Earth News, Nick Davies spoke to a group of journalism students at City College Brighton and Hove on March 14 (Mon).

He described his first meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a Brussels café where they negotiated the handing over of secret documents on the war in Afghanistan which the Guardian newspaper published last year.

Nick Davies before his talk to City College Brighton and Hove students

Mr Davies said he chanced upon the discovery after reading a story about the arrest of Bradley Manning – a whistleblower who passed on classified information to Assange.

He said: “Most of the time I find stories by using my imagination, looking at something and wondering if anything else is there.

“You’re constantly using your imagination to guess what might be there. You have to use your brain like a muscle.”

While also working on the News of the World phone-hacking revelations, Davies was secretly investigating the documents handed over by Assange – who gave him access to secret files by underlining letters on a beer mat to create a password.

Davies added: “We had to lie to friends and family. We couldn’t tell anyone. We had our own room in the Guardian offices, complete with a cover story of why we were there.”

Davies’s book, Flat Earth News, was published in 2008 and describes the pressures on journalists today which often results in the ‘churnalism’ of press releases.

Davies told the students: “Because we are short of resources lots of news desks and reporters churn out unchecked stories.

“You’re training to get into an industry that is clearly dying. But it is happening at the same time as the journalism itself is really exciting.”

City College Brighton and Hove journalism student Georgie Newman, 23, from Guildford, said: “His accounts of the clandestine meetings with Assange were really exciting. Who knew journalism could be so fun?”