Anisah Osman Britton, who studied at Bilborough from 2009-2011, is one of the youngest people to be awarded an MBE in this year’s New Year’s honours.  She received her award last week from King Charles for services to diversity in tech.  Anisah is also a Forbes 30 under 30 honouree and is listed in the Financial Times’ 100 most influential BAME leaders in tech.

After completing her studies at Bilborough College, Anisah decided to intern in small to medium sized businesses around the world as an alternative to university. Following that, she started an online freelancing business for students, winning Young Entrepreneur of the year 2012.  Subsequently, she launched a coding school for women where, for every paying student, the school teaches a disadvantaged woman in India.  Anisah said of her time at the college, “your ability to make learning fun, your belief in students and the way you treated us like adults gave (and I’m sure still gives) students that little bit of extra confidence to achieve whatever it was we wanted to achieve”.

Bilborough’s current Principal, David Shaw, who taught French to Anisah when she studied at Bilborough College, is extremely proud of her achievements.  He said, “I’d love to express my surprise that Anisah has been honoured, but my only surprise is that it has taken 10 years!  Anisah always had a desire to make a difference, and she has maintained that drive in all she has done.  She is a perfect role model for our current students who, like her, are encouraged to believe that anything is possible with the right knowledge, skills and mindsets.”

Anisah is currently a reporter at Sifted, where she writes the Startup Life newsletter and is the author of ‘Brown Bodies’ where she explores sex in the South Asian diaspora.

One of our students Nate Smulska has been selected as the winner of the Eduqas AS/A Level Psychology Research Poster Challenge.

The Eduqas poster competition was used as part of WREP week in June 2023. It was to boost students’ research communication skills. Psychology students across the UK were invited to create academic posters to showcase their research ideas. The poster had to explain what the student’s psychological research idea was, how the research could be conducted and why they think it would be a valuable addition to psychology. Every entry was excellent and the Psychology subject team had a very challenging time selecting a winner. Nate and Bilborough College won £500 worth of prize vouchers each. Below are the judges comments:

Judges’ Comments

Eduqas Psychology Subject Officer Rhiannon Murray commented:

“Nate’s entry was considered to be a well-thought through methodology for an under researched, yet important area of psychology. Although much is known about some eating disorders, it seems clear that we have much more to learn about the impact of gym culture (which encompasses a supposedly healthy activity) and its potential negative impact on psychological wellbeing.”

For the last 2 years our Geographers have been involved in the excellent Midlands Engine Young Peoples Green Growth Assembly working to secure pledges from local businesses to do more on the environment. One interesting outcome already has been the development of a Hedgehog House by a local firm to help improve the plight of wildlife. The programme has been amazing to see the students involved going from strength to strength, even very shy students making powerful speeches to rooms full of local business leaders and politicians, we are very proud of them all!

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We took 140 Drama and Performing Arts students to see Gecko’s production of Kin at Nottingham Playhouse on 12 October.  The piece explores migration, racism and family.  Our students were extremely positive ambassadors at the theatre and gave insightful contributions to the post show Q&A where Gecko’s artistic director Amit Lahav asked the audience to share what they had connected with (most of the voices were our students!).  Here are a sample of some of our student responses:

“I really connected with the part where the performer painted themselves white and it reminded me of how I, as a black person, or person of colour, has to whitewash myself or code switch to fit into society and feel like I matter.  It made me feel seen and understood in that moment.”

“I connected with the fact the puppets were their ancestors because I was born here but my parents weren’t, so I feel disconnected from my culture back home, because I have my culture here.  It felt like they were a part of me.”

“Your piece was really inspiring.  I didn’t think I had experienced racism directed at me, but now I’m thinking at a deeper level it has made me go back to certain parts of my life to see if I was treated differently because of how I looked or how I behaved.  Now I think of it I think that has happened.”

“I think what really spoke to me was the idea of family as a whole, no matter what culture you are from, or what time period, there is always this idea of family and community.  The fact it was stripped away from these characters, whether that be from immigration borders, or people being taken away to camps, it made me take a step back and realise how lucky I am to have the family I have.”

“I connected with the moment when they had to change their clothes or how they looked to fit in with other people.  Even outside of other cultures, within one culture, everyone has to change themselves in some way to not stand out of be different.”

“I feel connected because it shows no matter what colour, what gender, or whoever you are, you should be accepted for who you are.  For me, I was born in Poland and left when I was 2 months old to come to England.  It has been hard for me to find my own culture in this English culture.”

Another audience member said this in response to our student’s insights:

“I have been feeling really depressed about everything that is going on around the world, but after hearing these marvellous young people speak tonight, I feel there is hope.”

We have been awarded the Special Merit Award for Science and Technology 22-24 from Rolls Royce. As part of this we will join their School Prize Alumni which will allow us to mutually benefit from a working relationship with the company.

Our project we are going to conduct over the course of the year will be based around “Solving real-world sustainability problems using artificial intelligence and machine learning”. We have been awarded £1000 as part of the award and we intend to use this money to set up a small robotics team based at Bilborough. We are hoping to buy-in new equipment which we can use alongside the technology we already have to work on programming and coding skills as well as team work and research based learning. We also intend to equip our team with the resources and knowledge needed to showcase what they have learned and accomplished to other students during open evenings and outreach events, in conference style presentations and hands-on workshops.

We are hopeful that this new enrichment will be launched to students starting college in September 2023 and we will be able to encourage a new group of experts in programming and robotics within the college. The potential connections we can establish as part of our programme makes this a really exciting time for us in our outreach with industry and our local schools.

One of our former Music Tech students Gideon Akpovi (aka JERUB) opened the coronation concert at Windsor Castle on Sunday. (more…)

We are delighted that Simon Holland, Head of Faculty for Geography at Bilborough College has received the Ordnance Survey Award.

Commenting on his award Simon said “I am deeply honoured to receive this RGS Ordnance Survey Award. Geography is an amazing, engaging, empowering and ever-changing subject which opens so many doors for young people. It is a real privilege to teach the subject I love every day and share my genuine passion with so many students over the last 18 years of my career. I work hard to open the eyes and minds of my students, encouraging them to fully explore all that the subject has to offer, including engaging with the many wider opportunities on offer to them. In recent years, my students have won awards including the RGS Young Geographer of the Year and the GA award for NEA Proposals. Seeing my students go on the achieve enormous success in their diverse careers, often engaging with Geographical career paths directly and indirectly, including at COP26 for example, is extremely rewarding and inspiring. Receiving this award was a wonderful surprise and I am immensely proud to receive this unexpected recognition for my hard work and huge enthusiasm for Geography education over so many years – without geography you are nowhere!”

You can find out more about the award below.

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