Digital Storytelling with the Poppies at Caernarfon Castle

Coleg Llandrillo students

On Tuesday 11^th October, 20 IB & A Level Media Studies students took part in a digital storytelling workshop exploring the emotional impact of WW1 through the ceramic poppies installation “Weeping Window” at Caernarfon Castle.

 Coleg Llandrillo students worked in conjunction with Wales for Peace and 14-18 Now to record and document, explore and question, film and photograph the poppies themselves, the artist Paul Cummins, Lady Sainsbury, Tom Piper and those first few visitors to the castle to discover, in the 100 years following World War 1, how we remember and how Wales has and continues to search for peace.

"Weeping Window" at Caernarfon Castle

The initial concept came from artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper’s installation ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ at the Tower of London in Autumn 2014. Caernarfon Castle is the first venue to host the sculpture in Wales and our students were one of the first visitors to experience this, thanks to the WCIA who manage the Wales for Peace project.

Cameron Doherty (Rhyl), an A Level Media Student said of the experience “It has been great to put in to practice, aspects that we have only previously studied from textbooks.” The Media students worked closely with Tash, Sam and Mark from C1 Media on using DSLR cameras, soundkit and editing software.

 Media Studies and IB students during the editing process

The IB students chose to explore both the artistic approach utilising filmic captures combined with the audio recording of the bilingual poem taken from the 2014 Urdd ‘Wonder/Tybed’ as well as the documentary approach exploring the history and the message of the exhibition and Cymru Dros Heddwch Project. IB student Keziah Lewin (Craig y Don) engaged wholeheartedly with the brief; suggesting a stream of abstract considerations, angles and images to use in support of IB student Morgan Hogan's (Dwygyfylchi) bilingual recording of the Urdd 2014 poem. Keziah stated " I enjoyed learning about the different photography techniques and learning how to use iMovie effectively, to put the shots we had taken, together."

IB students meeting wth Tom Piper and Lady Sainsbury

These videos will form part of a national memorial video commemorating the centenary of WWI. The students developed the ideas, shot the video and edited them all in the space of four hours - a fantastic achievement. The organisers were very complimentary - this was the first College group they had worked with and they were impressed by their attitude, enthusiasm and engagement, especially given how little preparation they had had.

Rob Hughes, the Gen Ed Programme Area Manager, so impressed with the work undertaken, has secured an exhibition of photographs and film outtakes of the day to be used in a college exhibition hosted at the Rhos on Sea campus in November. Dafydd Evans, CEO also passes on his thanks to the students for their commitment and hard work.

For more information on the exhibition please visit: http://www.wcia.org.uk/wfp/Poppies.html

2016 Debating Championships

Once again, this year two of the 2016/17 IB Diploma from Coleg Llandrillo students entered the Wales Schools Debating Championships, sponsored by Julian Hodge Bank. Debating can help learners of all ages and abilities to develop a number of important skills. These include the ability to work as a team, to reason logically, to understand both sides of an argument, and to speak engagingly and convincingly.

Keziah Lewin and Morgan Hogan attended the Masterclass hosted at Bangor University to hone their debating skills before receiving their proposition debate topic: This House does not believe in zero hour contracts. Over the course of a week they researched and prepared themselves for the North Wales debate being hosted in Bangor.

On October 6^th they arrived at Ysgol Tryfan in Bangor ready to face their opposition Ysgol Eirias. Opening was Morgan, who confidently outlined the problems and concerns of zero hour contracts. The adjudicators commended her for her ‘outstanding debating’ skills and her composed rebuttals of Points of Interest and competent knowledge from Forbes etc, as evidence in support of her argument. Keziah followed up, articulating effectively the dangers posed by these contracts and querying why the opposition would choose to focus on big businesses rather than those individuals who suffered at the hands of these corporations. In summation Morgan asked the judges, the audience and the chairperson to consider the human rights infringements that zero hour contracts posed as well as the effects on mental health.

Both Keziah and Morgan were commended for their contribution to the North West Wales Heat and now have the opportunity to apply for a place in the Worlds Debating Team.

We hope in the not so distant future, we will also see the inaugural Inter-College Debate in preparation for future CEWC Debates.