First year BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts students recorded a radio campaign for Trading Standards at the Newbury Sound studios in Bone Lane on 20/06/2010.

The campaign aims to discourage under age drinking which has become an increasing issue in West Berkshire as well as impacting on the health of young people in the area.

The campaign has already started its summer run during commercial breaks on Newbury Sound 105.6 & 107.4FM and can be accessed online by clicking here.

BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts students have performed their End of Year Show to a packed audience in the outside auditorium on the evening of 6^th July 2010.

For some of the students this was the end of 2 years hard work, for others it is a celebration of their first year as they look forward to a well deserved summer break.

The show included solo singing performances by first year students Ottavio Columbro, Emma Wilkinson, Louise Campbell-White and Georgina Hendry, monologues by Charlotte Vicerage, Harriet Drury, Jessica Burgess and Aiden Strickland; and a wide array of dance performances including Swan Lake and The Eskimo Myth of the Sun.

The finale piece bought first years and second years together for a show stopping dance performance of the Glee hit “Don’t Stop Believing” culminating in tearful announcements and farewells as second years said goodbye to their classmates and tutors who they have spend a memorable two years working so closely will.

Course Leader Vicky Scott welled up as she bid a very fond farewell, not just the second years, but the first years, her colleagues and the College. Vicky is off to discover pastures new on the other side of the world this summer as she heads down under for a new life in Australia.

Over 300 applicants arrived at Newbury College on Wednesday 30th June 2010 for the College's annual Summer Taster Day to learn more about their new courses.

The day gives applicants the ability to try a bite-sized sample of their chosen course before committing in to the programme in September

Next year’s fresh batch of Catering students turned their hand to choux pastry chocolate éclairs with Chantilly cream, new recruits in Public Services were told to get lost – and find their way back, and fledgling Child Care students got wrapped up in a newspaper fashion outfit task.

Last September saw an extremely high number of full time enrolments to the College’s vast range of vocational programmes and this year’s successful Taster Day shows promise of a repeat performance.

Applicants now have the long summer holidays to look forward to starting their new courses, a tense time for school leavers waiting on GCSE or A Level results to secure their place. Students who don’t meet their predicted grades or far exceed them however, should not worry. The College will be running Exam Clinics during the summer to help students move levels or create alternative progression routes.