2015 Welcome Meal

What a wonderful time we had at our

2015 annual Welcome Meal

last night.  Including my marvellous student helpers

(Aiste, Amira, Andrew, Basel, Eadom, Marcello,

Mohamed, Mr Sharsheer & Naomi)

54 students from 23 different nations attended the event!! 

Nations represented were: Belgium, China, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Hungary. Italy, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda and the UK.

Between our main course and tea & cakes we had a quiz. After some arguing over scoring, for which the adjudicators needed to be consulted, our winning team was announced.

From left to right:
Pauline, Saswath, Sonali, Tim, Caitlyn, Aiste, Core & Mr Sharsheer

There are a plethora of people to thank. People, without whom, this event simply couldn't happen.  The names are many and I'm afraid of missing someone but my thanks go to all those who provided home baking, those who transported students to and from the venue, all those lovely ladies who beavered away in the kitchen, and those from both St Mary's Island and St Mark's churches who helped to make the students feel so welcomed. Thanks also go to St Mary's Island Primary school for the use of their hall. Last but by no means least, a very special thank you to Janet Mann - you're a star!!! 

TABLEtalk has re-started

YEAH!!! TABLEtalk has re-started!!!

For any longer term students, we have now moved to Thursday evenings each week.

Same place: Gillingham Baptist Church, Green Street ME7 5TJ.

Same time: 7:30-9:30pm.

What better way to kick off a new academic year than with a game of Horses, Knights & Cavaliers - this is the ice-breaker of the millenium!!

A few action shots ...

The last three teams standing ...
Johnny & Abdul      Connor & Nishyank
Aiste & Sonali

After the madness that is Horses, Knights & Cavaliers it was time for more refreshments and, to some degree, more sedate games.

World Cafe

Our weekly World Cafe gets off to a good
start with a wonderful mix of both
new and more familiar faces.

October Calendar

Bric-a-Brac sales

As usual we held a series of Bric-a-Brac sales last week and despite the low, low prices we ask (10p for a mug or glass, £1.50 for a jumper or sweat-shirt, £1 for a saucepan) we made a grand total of £215.39!!!

Thank you to all those who have donated items,

to those who came along to help

- especially Frank -

and of course to those students who discovered

our little corner of the campus

and came along to purchase stuff.

International Orientation Day

International Orientation Days, run each September & January, are two of my most favourite days of the year.  It's always a pleasure to be part of this welcoming programme and to play a small part in helping students to adjust and settle to life in the UK.
This year I ran a session in the morning entitled 'Arriving in the UK: first impressions and expectations'. 

Students engaged well in the exercise and my post-it board was soon inundated with comments.  

Not sure who wrote this but there are plenty of
sports societies on campus, you should check
the GKUnions website :-)

Sorry our beer is weak,
try some of the local stuff!!

This is my very favourite - what a lovely comment :-)

Thank you to Mohamed, Aiste and Yasir who helped to round off the orientation programme with a student panel, sharing a little of their own experiences with the new students and answering question.

We then held a social/games session for new internationals though I think many had gone off to have their dinner!

Last, but by no means least, a HUGE THANK YOU to My colleague Katie Jenkins who put a mammoth amount of work in to planning and organising the day. Katie, you are always a pleasure to work with :-)