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Students destined for ‘National’ stage.

09/05/2012 00:00:00

Unity Students destined for the ‘National’ stage.

After taking part in extensive auditions in Salford in February three Unity College students have been accepted as members of the National Youth Theatre. Lisa-Marie Ashworth, Sophie Dand and Vincent Khoza will all travel to London this August to take part in an intensive fortnight of training before a performance at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank. Once this training is complete then they will become full members of the National Youth Theatre, joining an ever growing number of present and former Unity students, allowing them to audition for future NYT productions and projects.

The three students, who all had leading roles in Unity College’s recent production of West Side Story, are excited by the prospect of working with some of the countries’ leading actors, directors and producers and working alongside the cream of young theatrical talent in Great Britain. They will also be hoping to follow in the footsteps of former NYT members such as Daniel Day-Lewis, Orlando Bloom, Dame Helen Mirren and David Walliams.

Director of the Arts at Unity, Dave Warren says. “We are absolutely thrilled that three of our students have once again been accepted to be members of the National Youth Theatre. This is the third year running that Unity students have been accepted into the NYT which is really remarkable. So many of those who get accepted come from stage and private schools and it is testament to the hard work of our students and staff that we are consistently producing actors of the very high quality required by the NYT”.

Whilst getting accepted for a place at the National Youth Theatre may be an amazing opportunity each student now faces the challenge of raising enough money to be able to pay for the fees involved. Anyone who wants to sponsor Lisa, Sophie or Vincent should contact Dave Warren on 01282 683010 or email d.warren@unity-college.com

Race for Life

09/05/2012 00:00:00

Unity Student wins another boxing trophy

23/04/2012 00:00:00

Unity student wins another boxing trophy

George Drinkwater has added another title to his Roche ABC success story by winning the North West 57-60K title at Gorton's Boxing Centre of Excellence on Sunday.

To read the full article please go the Burnley Express website

Disneyland Football Trip

19/04/2012 00:00:00

Disneyland Football Trip

Our boys football team visited Disneyland in Paris during the Easter holidays for the annual football tour. They had a brilliant time going on rides, meeting the disney characters and playing in the football tournament. If you didn't get a chance, take a look at the blog to see what they got up to.

The team came 3rd- which was a brilliant result (although many felt the Unity team deserved 2nd place). Well done to all of our boys - you did Unity proud!

Mr Booth has put together a ten minute video of their trip. Take a look below.

Disneyland Football Trip Video [wmv] Please note this is a large file so may take a while to download.

Disneyland Football Trip Blog

Groundworks Pennine Lancashire deliver workshop to Year 7

16/04/2012 00:00:00

Groundworks Pennine Lancashire deliver Flood Risk Awareness workshop at Unity

A group of Year 7 iXL students at Unity College were fortunate to be involved in a recent workshop delivered by Groundworks Pennine Lancashire, the biggest environmental charity in Lancashire. The topic of the workshop was Flood Risk awareness and students were given the opportunity to take part in practical activities to help them understand how global warming can be a contributing factor to increasing the risk of floods. Through looking at how we can prepare for floods students then looked at how the Unity College building has been especially designed to sit on stilts due to it being situated on marshland which could potentially flood.

Year 7 students look at the stilts holding up Unity College

Unity College staff and students are also setting up an Eco-club with the aim to achieve 'Green Flag' status as an Eco School. The Eco-club are also looking to set up a college garden next to the MUGGA.

For more information please contact Miss Holden or Mr Williams.

Gadget Show Trip

30/03/2012 00:00:00

Trip to the Gadget Show

The Gadget Show trip takes place on Thursday the 12th April 2012. The coach will be leaving at 8.30am so students on the trip should aim to get to Unity by 8.15am.

Students that regularly take any form of medication must ensure that they have these on them on the day. eg. Inhalers for asthma, travel sickness tablets etc.

The coach should be back at Unity College for approximately 6.30pm.

If you have any questions or problems please contact Mr Patel

p.patel@unity-college.com

Students win prizes at Work Inspiration Day

30/03/2012 00:00:00

Unity score a hat trick of prizes

Unity College students were recently successful in winning all three top prizes in a competition run by Neville Gee Recruitment Agency. Students from all the secondary schools in Burnley attended the Work Inspiration day at Safran Aircel and were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the day. Winners were then picked at random from the students who handed in their forms – and Unity College students won all the top prizes! Prizes, donated by Neville Gee, included memorabilia from Burnley Football Club.

Beth Stone and Gina Deehan (Neville Gee Recruitment Agency)with Unity College students, Alex Reid, Lenina Howells and Ben Taylor, and Assistant Headteacher, Mr Stone.

Students visit Offshoots Permaculture Project

22/03/2012 00:00:00

Offshoots Permaculture Visit

A group of twenty Year 7 Core Skills Investigation students recently visited the Offshoots Permaculture Project, based in the old walled garden of Towneley Park, Burnley. Offshoots is a thriving one acre organic fruit and vegetable garden boasting five different forms of eco-friendly buildings that are renewably powered and used daily.

The students toured the site and witnessed upcycling first hand. They had a very enjoyable and informative visit and were a credit to college both in terms of behaviour and the interest they showed in permaculture.

If you are interested in visiting Offshoots Permaculture yourself, it is open to the public on the first Saturday of every month, free of charge. For more information take a look at the Offshoots website - http://www.offshoots.org.uk/

UCFB Languages Trip

14/03/2012 00:00:00

Unity Students Strengthen Their Love of Languages and Football During UCFB Trip.

Unity College students of French, Spanish and German were recently lucky enough to spend one of three days at the University College of Football Business (UCFB), situated in the grounds of Turf Moor. This university is the only one in the world to offer business-related degrees in Football Business and as such is a major first for the town of Burnley. We were very excited to be given the opportunity to spend some time there.

After being greeted by the University’s Provost, Philip Wilson and by Paul Fletcher MBE, each day saw the students enjoying every minute of a stadium tour, learning many interesting facts about the football club and even getting the chance to walk through the tunnel itself. The Student Services Manager from UCFB, Mandy Baxter, hosted a session entitled ‘Why Learn a Modern Foreign Language?’ during which students learnt many new and important facts about the advantages an MFL can make to their future career. Under-graduate students from UCFB also gave our Unity students an insight into university life. This was extremely interesting and enlightening as many had never been to a university and furthermore were previously unaware that UCFB offered a unique opportunity to study a degree in football and business, directly on their doorsteps !

The day was packed with many other activities but the highlight for many was the guest appearance of Ben Mee on Thursday. This young Burnley player has previously worked under Sven Goran Eriksson and Roberto Mancini and also been a player in the multi-lingual Manchester City team. He was therefore able to give a fantastic insight into how important an MFL can be in the world of football.

The behaviour and effort of our students was outstanding and the learning which they achieved on the day guarantees that we will look to repeat this very successful event in the future.

Scarlett takes executive role

09/03/2012 00:00:00

Unity College student takes executive role on the Lancashire Youth Council

Scarlett Morris, who attends Unity College in Burnley, was recently successful in gaining a highly responsible executive role on the Lancashire Youth Council.

Student council with Mrs Cryer

Scarlett first became involved when she joined the Student Council at Unity College. The Student Council meet regularly to discuss issues at the college and put their views to Unity staff and the Senior Leadership Team. The student council have regular visitors from outside of college and Scarlett found herself motivated to get involved in wider local issues after a visit to college from a local youth worker.

Headteacher Sally Cryer is thrilled that Scarlett’s skills and talents have been recognised “Scarlett is an outstanding student and a role model in every respect. She will be a real asset to the Lancashire Youth Council and will get actively involved in ensuring young people’s views are heard and listened to. I am very proud of her achievements.”

Scarlett is extremely pleased to have been chosen to be one of the three executive members representing Burnley although slightly stunned to have been successful. During the elections, Scarlett’s PowerPoint presentation failed to work. Despite the technical problems, Scarlett still managed to impress the judges and earn herself the highly coveted executive role on the Youth Council.

The role of the Lancashire Youth Council Executive is to plan, deliver and facilitate events for young people across Lancashire that enable young people to have their say on issues affecting them. Elected representatives have the opportunity to meet with County Councilors, Cabinet Members and key decision makers from across Lancashire. This year the Youth Council have been discussing and working on the following campaign areas; Equality & Diversity; Sex & Relationships Education; and Positive Images of Young People.

PE Able and Talented Evening

03/03/2012 00:00:00

PE Able and Talented Evening

Our latest PE Able & Talented evening was held on Wednesday 29th February for all students in Able & Talented groups in Year 8 and 9. This was a handball evening with parents and students taking part both with and against each other.

It was another successful evening with a huge number of students and parents in attendance.

Parents feedback included

"It was exciting! The kids showed excellent sportsmanship, played fairly and seemed to really enjoy it."

"It was a fun evening! There was a good display of enthusiasm for sport."

Students comments included:

"It was really good"

"It was fun"

"It was good and I really enjoyed it. Thank you".

If there are any students reading this and wishing that they had an opportunity to take part in these kind of events alongside their parents, you need to make sure you are putting 100% effort into every lesson and showing you can perform at a high standard!

A massive well done and thank you to our three Year11 sports leaders, Matthew Bland, Thomas Hoey and Craig Hardy, who led the whole session from start to finish and did a fantastic job! Well done lads!

Also, a huge thank you to two Year10 sports leaders, Alysha Starkie & Karly Bland who also helped on the evening and helped the evening run smoothly. Thank you ladies!

Keep up the good work Able & Talented groups. If for any reason you couldn't make it to this evening, we hope to see you at the next one!!

Miss Lomax

Year 7 Parents Evening

20/02/2012 00:00:00

Year 7 Parents Evening

The Year 7 Parents Evening will take place on Wednesday 22 February 2012, at Unity College, please note that this is a change of date. Subject staff will be available from 5.00pm-7.00pm and an open appointment system will operate.

A list of your child’s subject teachers will be available for you to collect on the door. Some staff will have an asterisk (*) by their name which indicates that these staff would particularly like to discuss your child’s progress with you.

As you can appreciate this is a very important time for your child and it is vital you take this opportunity to see as many subject staff as possible.

S Cryer

Year 8 and 9 Options Evening

20/02/2012 00:00:00

Year 8 and 9 Options Evening

Year 9 Options Evening will take place on Wednesday 7 March 2012. Please note that this is a change of date.

There will be a presentation explaining the Options process in the Auditorium at 5.00pm and again at 6.00pm. It is vital that parents of Year 9 students attend one of these presentations.

Parents will also have the opportunity to meet and talk with their child’s subject teachers, who will be available from 5pm-7pm. There will be no appointment system on this evening. You will also be able to talk to subject specialists about each of the courses on offer.

The whole of year 9 will also have a ‘Choices’ assembly on Wednesday 7 March 2012 where an outline of each course to be offered at KS4 will be given by staff.

If you wish to discuss any issues or concerns regarding Options, subject staff or members of the Senior Leadership Team will be happy to talk to you on the evening.

West Side Story

20/02/2012 00:00:00

West Side Story

Unity College students delivered a hugely successful performance of West Side Story during the week before half term. Take a look at the review on the Burnley Express website.

Click here to take a look at the photos of this production.

West Side Story - the show starts

08/02/2012 00:00:00

West Side Story

Our school production, West Side Story, commences tonight. Based on the popularity of previous shows, West Side Story has already sold out - sorry to those of you that didn't get in quick enough. If you did manage to get a ticket - the show starts at 7.30pm in the Auditorium.

Based on rehearsals so far this is going to be another huge success for our Expressive Arts department. Enjoy!

Upcoming Sports Fixtures

01/02/2012 00:00:00

Upcoming sports fixtures

Unity College students will be taking part in several upcoming sports fixture. Details of dates and times will be available shortly on our Sporting Fixtures calendar

Burnley Schools Cup

Year 7
Unity v Shuttleworth
Sir John Thursby v Blessed Trinity

Year 8
(1)Unity v BT

Hameldon v Winner of 1
SJT v Shuttleworth

Year 9
SJT v BT
Unity v Shuttleworth

Year 10
(1) Hameldon v Unity

Winner of 1 v BT
Shuttleworth v SJT

Year 11
(1) BT v SJT

Shuttleworth v Hameldon
Unity v Winner of 1

Year 7 Able and Talented Evening

01/02/2012 00:00:00

Year 7 Able and Talented Evening

The PE department are holding one of their hugely popular termly Able and Talented evenings this evening (1st February 2012). This Able and Talented evening is for Year 7 Able and Talented students and their parents.

This is an outdoor and adventurous evening where students and their parents have the opportunity to take part in Rock Climbing, Problem Solving and Orienteering. The evening will take place at the climbing wall (obviously), sports hall, foyer and throughout the college grounds.

Stay tuned and we will let you know how this evening goes.

Exam Timetable

24/01/2012 00:00:00

Exam Timetable

The latest Exam timetable is now available on our website. Click here to view.

We shall endeavour to keep this timetable updated with any changes as and when they occur.

Yr11 Parents Evening

24/01/2012 00:00:00

Year 11 Parents Evening

In addition to the Year 11 parents evening held earlier this academic year, there is an additional Year 11 Parents Evening for parents of targeted Year 11 students. Letters have been sent home to all of the parents concerned.

This parents evening will take place from 5pm to 7pm.

Unity College now use ParentPay

19/01/2012 00:00:00

Unity College are now using ParentPay

There is now a more convenient way to pay for school meals, trips, photographs and much more. Unity College is now using a service called ParentPay and we are sure you will want to help us implement this cashless payment system.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH OR CHEQUES TO SCHOOL TO PAY FOR SCHOOL ITEMS UNLESS YOU HAVE NO ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

ParentPay offers you the freedom to make payments whenever you like 24 hours a day 7 days a week, safe in the knowledge that the technology used is the highest internet security available. Your family has a secure online account, which can be accessed with a unique user ID and password for each student. You can change these to something you will easily remember. ParentPay enables you to view all items available to each of your children along with relevant costs and details.

If you haven't received your userID and password please contact us and we will issue you with one.

For more information about ParentPay and how to use the system please go to our ParentPay pages

Yr8 Football team doing well in English Schools FA Cup

19/01/2012 00:00:00

English Schools FA Cup

Unity College Year 8 football team have made it through to the last 16 schools in the country for the English Schools FA cup.

Unity progressed against last years beaten semi-finalsts St Wilfreds 3-2 to make it into the last 16.

Congratulations to the squad who will now play a school from Salford in the next round, they have just knocked last years winners out!!!!

Parents Council Meeting

17/01/2012 00:00:00

Parents Council Meeting 17th January 2012

The meeting will be held this evening - 5.30pm - 7pm

There will be light refreshments served.

Everyone Welcome

West Side Story - Ticket Sales Commence

16/01/2012 00:00:00

West Side Story

Tickets on sale from Monday 23rd January 2012.

West Side Story will only run for three evening performances - so make sure you get your tickets soon or you could miss out!

Unity impress across all sports!

13/12/2011 00:00:00

Unity impress across all sports!

Once again, Unity College's successes have made the local paper - this time due to our sporting achievements.

Burnley Express has a very detailed article from Friday 9th December reporting on how well Unity students are doing in sports such as football, netball, rugby and basketball.

To read the full article please go to the Burnley Express website - http://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/unity_impress_across_all_sports_1_4045675

Carol Concert

12/12/2011 00:00:00

Carol Concert

Unity College are holding the annual Carol Concert at St Stephens Church at 7.30pm this evening.

Everyone welcome.

Unity's Got Talent

07/12/2011 00:00:00

Unity Dance Troupe make the final four at 'Burnley's Got Talent'

Unity College entered a troupe of dancers into the local talent competition "Burnley's Got Talent". The competition was open to all age groups and talents with auditions taking place at KoKo's in Burnley on 16th October 2011. "Unity" dance troupe successfully got through the first audition phase gaining a place in the final at Burnley Mechanics on Tuesday 29th November 2011.

There were ten acts who performed at the final. The judges then selected the best four acts, one of which was Unity Dance Troupe and the audience then voted for their favourite act. Unity dance were fantastic - a real credit to the school, their choreography, energy and commitment was brilliant. Unfortunately we did not win but achieving a place in the final four out of all the people who entered the competition was excellent.

Seasons Greetings

07/12/2011 00:00:00

Seasons Greetings from everyone at Unity College

This year we will be donating money to our House Charities, NSPCC and Pendle Hospice instead of posting Christmas Cards.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Future bright for Unity College

06/12/2011 00:00:00

Future Bright for Unity College

Following the recent successful inspection by Ofsted please view the full inspection report below:

Ofsted Full Inspection Report (3-4 November 2011)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Unity College and to thank those parents that sent in the questionnaires for the Ofsted inspectors.

Sally Cryer

There is also an article about Unity College in the Burnley Express - click here to view it.

Strike Action 30th Nov 2011

23/11/2011 00:00:00

We have been informed by both teaching and support staff unions that they will be taking industrial action in the form of a strike on Wednesday 30 November 2011. This action is not against Unity College itself but is part of national industrial action organised by these trade unions about changes to the pension schemes of their members. There is no requirement on unions to inform us of which members of staff will take action, but I have already been informed that forty staff will take action on this day.

Neither the governing body nor the head is legally allowed to close the college ‘in sympathy’ with the strike and we will not do so. However, our main concern is the safety of our students. We will not be able to adequately supervise students where their lessons are affected by teachers taking industrial action, so regrettably the school will be closed to all students on Wednesday 30 November 2011.

Unity College will be open as normal for all students the following day.

Sally Cryer

Zoofari Mobile Zoo

15/11/2011 00:00:00

Zoofari comes to Unity College

The Zoofari Mobile Zoo recently came to Unity College bringing with them an assortment of exotic animals for students to see and interact with. The aim of Zoofari is to bring the message of conservation and important ecological issues to students attention in an exciting and thought-provoking manner. They cover a wide range of topics including predators, the food chain, geography, habitats, history and ecosystem which all fit into both the KS3 and KS4 curriculum. Zoofari also allow students to touch/handle some of the animals which is something that wouldn't happen if they went to the zoo.

Students got to see and touch a diverse selection of animals from Pythons to Meerkats. One class out of each year group plus a group of students from Brunshaw Primary School were able to take part in the sessions ran by Zoofari. The day was such an overwhelming success that the science department are now planning to make this an annual event.

Yr7 Settling In Evening - tonight

09/11/2011 00:00:00

Yr 7 Settling In Evening

Tonight 5.00-7.00pm

Refreshments will be available.

West Side Story - Coming Soon

07/11/2011 00:00:00

Ofsted Update

04/11/2011 00:00:00

Ofsted visit November 3 and November 4 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents who sent in the questionnaire to Ofsted this week.

Staff and students worked very hard to ensure the visit had a positive outcome.

The full details of the Ofsted visit will be available for staff, students and parents once the report has been published next week.

Sally Cryer

New Mobile Phone Policy

01/11/2011 00:00:00

Mobile Phone / iPod Policy

After consultation with students there is now a Mobile Phone / iPod policy in place.

Please view the attached documents for more information.

Mobile Phone Letter [PDF]

Mobile Phone Policy [PDF]

Parental Agreement Form [PDF]

OFSTED INSPECTION NOVEMBER 2011

01/11/2011 00:00:00

Ofsted Inspection November 2011

Unity College will be inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 from Thursday 3 November to Friday 4 November 2011.

The inspection will follow “The framework for school inspection” which is available on the Ofsted website www.ofsted.gov.uk.

The lead inspector, Mrs Linda Tetik, will be sending a letter home to all parents / carers tomorrow as the inspection team would like to know what parents / carers think about the college.

There will be five Ofsted inspectors in college visiting lessons, observing teaching and learning and interviewing staff, students and governors about the college.

Sally Cryer

Unity does Masterchef

30/10/2011 00:00:00

Unity does Masterchef

A group of year nine students at Unity College, Burnley have planned, cooked and served a three course meal to the senior management team as part of their interest module course. The students have worked really hard to develop the three course menu and to also refine their practical and organisational skills. A high degree of planning has gone into the event with consideration of the selection of the dishes, the table layout, the timings on the day, the roles and responsibilities through to the presentation of the food. The students on the day were very excited to be involved in the whole process and were a real credit to the college.

In recognition of their effort and the extremely high standard of food served, the students were presented with certificates and awarded 100 vivos each.

Burnley's Got Talent - Vote for Unity

17/10/2011 00:00:00

Burnley's Got Talent

Burnley is currently holding its own version of Britain’s Got Talent - Burnley’s Got Talent.

At present it is looking like a predominantly Unity College final, which is outstanding, however, to achieve this we need you to vote, to ensure all of our acts get through the second stage of voting.

There are three ways in which you can vote, once online at 2BR’s website http://www.2br.co.uk/bgt.php , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/burnleyexpress or via a paper voting form to be returned to the Burnley Express or ASDA . You can vote for more than one act to get through.

It would be wonderful for Unity to win everything - so get voting and show your support!

Letter to Parents / Guardians

07/10/2011 00:00:00

Letter to Parents / Guardians

All parents and guardians will shortly receive a letter from college (either via post or during the upcoming Parent's evenings). This letter will also include a questionnaire and a letter from the Headteachers of the schools and colleges in the Burnley Learning Partnership.

October 2011 Letter to Parents [pdf]

BLP Social networking letter [pdf]

(Please note: there was a mistake in the hard copy letter from Unity College which referred to 1000 vivos being given out to students returning the questionnaire - this should actually have stated 100 vivos. The correct letter can be seen above. We apologise for this error.

Open Evening

28/09/2011 00:00:00

Open Evening

Unity College are holding an Open Evening for prospective students and their parents on Monday 3rd October 2011 - 5:00 – 7:30 pm

There will be four Headteacher speeches throughout the evening, along with tours of the college, led by our Prefects. Light refreshments will be available from Brontes Cafe.

College tours will also take place on Thursday 6th October at 9:00am and 11:00am. Please contact college if you would like to book a place on either tour.

We look forward to welcoming you to Unity College.

Parents Council

28/09/2011 00:00:00

Parents Council

The next meeting of the Parents Council will be at 6pm on Tuesday 4th October at Unity College. Light refreshments will be available from 5.30pm onwards.

Young Writers Competition Winners

15/09/2011 00:00:00

Students at Unity College have been successful in Young Writers' latest creative writing competition, Mini Sagas.

Year 8 students entered the competition by compeleting work as part of their Year 8 English scheme of work. The competition was to write a mini-saga in 50 words. Students entered the competition just before the summer holidays and were informed over the summer that they had been successful in the competiton. Successful stories were selected by the Young Writers editorial team based on imagination, perception, expression and creative use of language. The students' work will be published in an anthology called 'Mini Sagas- Swashbuckling Stories Northern England' which is due to be published on 30th November 2011.

Once the book has been published the Young Writers team will select school winners - the top 3 prizes of £1,000, £500 and £250. We are hoping that Unity are in a good position for winning one of those prizes as we have had so many students be successful.

Congratulations to Imogen Porter, Harry Nuttall, Leon Wells, Connor Watson-Reid, Luke Kirkbright, Jamie Grimshaw, Jack Barnett, Lauren Smithstone, Amrit Chahal and Lucky-Rae Pepper.

GCSE Success

13/09/2011 00:00:00

GCSE Success

We are delighted this year to be celebrating another record breaking year of GCSE results at Unity College. 79% of our students achieved five or more higher grades, a result which is well above last year’s county and national average. This also represents a massive improvement on last year’s figure of 68%.

We are also celebrating the percentage of students achieving five or more higher grades including English and Maths with our best ever results of 39%. Our record breaking results are a reflection of the hard work and commitment from staff, governors and students and we wish all of our leavers every success for the future.

Term Info

20/07/2011 00:00:00

Term Information

College will close for staff and students at 12.05pm on Friday 22 July for the summer holidays. College will re-open for staff and students on Monday 5 September 2011. Students can arrive from 8am onwards, with lessons starting at 8.45am prompt. All students, Year 7 to 11, will start at the same time – there will be no staggered start this year.

For more information about the start back in September please refer to the recent Letter from the Headteacher.

Don't forget that you can still access Unity's VLE and SAM Learning throughout the summer holidays.

GCSE Results Day

20/07/2011 00:00:00

GCSE Results Day, this year, is on Thursday 25 August 2011 and will be held in the Auditorium at Unity College. College will open at 9.45am and there will be a short assembly in the Auditorium at 10.00am before you collect your results.

Unity College wish every Year 11 student the very best in their results and look forward to seeing you on the day.

Year 6 to Year 7 Transition

20/07/2011 00:00:00

New for this year, we have a transition section on our college VLE - called Moving Up.

The Moving Up section of the VLE provides information about coming to Unity College, including details of our college uniform, the structure of a typical day and information about Treasure Island, our transition service dedicated to helping Year 7s settle in at Unity.

There is also an online forum where you can post questions and information for teachers, buddies and new Year 7s. In addition, there is an online enquiry form with which you can ask questions directly to staff. We will be keeping a close eye on the transition pages over the summer and will try to answer any questions promptly.

Click here to go to the Moving Up section of the VLE

Sports Day Cancelled

18/07/2011 00:00:00

Sports Day Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions, the Unity College Sports Day has been cancelled.

Fun Day Cancelled

07/07/2011 00:00:00

Fun Day Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Unity College fun day has had to be cancelled.

We hope to be able to hold the fun day next year - date to be confirmed.

STRIKE ACTION

28/06/2011 00:00:00

STRIKE ACTION - Thursday 30th June 2011

We have been informed by the NUT and the ATL unions that they will be taking industrial action in the form of a strike on Thursday 30 June 2011. This action is not against Unity College itself but is part of national industrial action organised by these trade unions about changes to the pension schemes of their members. There is no requirement on unions to inform us of which members of staff will take action, but I have already been informed that twenty of our teachers will take action on this day.

Unity College will be open as normal for all students the following day, Friday 1 July 2011.

Parents Council Meeting

13/06/2011 00:00:00

The next Parents Council meeting which will be held on Tuesday 14th June, 5.30pm - 7.00pm. The main focus of the meeting will be: College Specialism – English with Performing Arts.

For more information about the Parent's Council please see our Parent's Council page

Business in the Community: Business Class Showcase to Sky TV

19/05/2011 00:00:00

Business in the Community
Business Class Showcase to Sky TV

On Wednesday 18^th May Unity College was delighted to host a group of very important visitors. Our guests were: Dame Julia Cleverdon and Bernie Hearne, and David Feldman from The Prince ‘s Trust, Sinclair Beecham founder of Pret A Manger, and Jo Fox from Sky TV, John Clayton, Managing Editor of BBC Radio Lancashire and Clare Hutchinson from Business in the Community.

Mrs Cryer gave a very powerful presentation to show the visitors the impact of the excellent collaborative work that the college does with our business partner BBC Radio Lancashire.

It was a great opportunity to celebrate the great work being done by students at Unity College!

Mrs G. Botterill

Year 10 Football team in the Cup Final

18/05/2011 00:00:00

Keighley Cup Final

The Year 10 football team are playing in the Keighley Cup Final on Tuesday 24th May against Shuttleworth at 5pm on Turf Moor. It will cost £4 to watch the game and you enter the ground via the Bob Lord stand.

This is a huge occasion for the school, it is only the second time in five years that we have reached the final.

Please come along and support our team!

Able and Talented Evening

17/05/2011 00:00:00

Able and Talented Evening - 17th May 2011

On 17th May Unity College PE and Food Technology department held an Able and Talented student and parent evening. This was very well attended and parents and students enjoyed three workshops aimed at raising awareness of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. They did aerobics, trained on our state of the art gym equipment and made delicious fruit smoothies.

This was the sixth event of this kind which has been hosted at Unity College and we will be offering more in the future. If you wish to take part or want to suggest any future events, please contact Mrs G. Botterill or Miss K. Lomax.

Parent's Council Meeting

10/05/2011 00:00:00

Parent's Council Meeting

There will be a parents council meeting this evening in the Conference Room at Unity College.

Refreshments will be available from 5.30pm onwards.

Please see attached agenda

PE Able and Talented Evening

09/05/2011 00:00:00

PE Able and Talented Evening

Tuesday 17th May - 4.00pm to 5.30pm

PE are holding an Able and Talented Evening for all able and talented groups in years 7 - 9 within Physical Education. The evening will consist of a fitness session in the fitness suite, aerobics in the dance studio and a healthy eating session in food technology.

This is for parents and pupils to take part in together and has, in the past, been an enjoyable experience for all. The more parents and pupils that get involved then the better, so do come along and join in.

Parents Council Meeting and Summer Fair

06/05/2011 00:00:00

Parent's Council Meeting

The next meeting of the Parent's Council will be on 10th May 2011 5.30 - 7.30pm. During this meeting we will be starting to plan our Family Fun Day (which will take place on 16th July 2011).

If you can help in any way then please come along to our meeting .

For example, you could help by:

1. Manning a stall
2. Baking cakes
3. Donating prizes

For more information about the Parent's Council please see the Parent's Council pages on this website.

Contact: Mrs Botterill by Telephone: 01282 683010 or email: g.botterill@unity‐college.com

Job Vacancies

06/05/2011 00:00:00

Current Vacancies at Unity

Unity College currently has vacancies for a Teacher of Food Technology and/or Hospitality and Catering; and a Leader of Humanities (specialist in History or Geography).

For further details please see our Vacancies section.

Prague Football Tour

29/04/2011 00:00:00

Prague Football Tour

24 Unity students are heading to Prague on 29th April 2011 for a week on a football tour.

Keep up to date with what's happening on the trip by following our Blog page. You can view it here.

Prague Football Tour

28/04/2011 00:00:00

Prague Football Tour

24 Unity students are heading to Prague on 29th April 2011 for a week on a football tour.

Keep up to date with what's happening on the trip by following our Blog page. You can view it here.

Arts Week at Unity College

26/04/2011 00:00:00

Unity College Arts Week

April 4-8 2011

Our annual Arts Week has always taken place during the last week of term before Easter. With the move to our new building we were excited to organise a week that would utilize our fantastic facilities and show to all our students why the Arts are so important to the life of Unity College.

We had a packed week of activities, many during lesson times some outside of the normal timetable and a series of lunchtime concerts on the bridge above Chaucer’s.

We had two Drama workshops. The first was Trestle Theatre Company who has become a feature of our Arts Weeks over the last few years. They delivered their superb masks workshop to two year 10 groups on the Monday morning and afternoon which were greatly appreciated by the groups involved. On the Friday Spike Theatre Company from Merseyside joined us to deliver workshops to year 9 in the morning and year 8 in the afternoon. The workshops were looking at spontaneous improvisation – basically how to make Drama up on the spot in the style of “Whose line is it anyway”. These were some of the best Drama workshops we have experienced for a long time providing a huge variety of techniques to help in putting improvisational drama together. Every student involved came out of these sessions buzzing with enthusiasm and wanting to use the techniques in their Drama work.

In Dance we had Energise Dance Company with us for much of the week delivering their unique brand of Street Dance to students from all year groups. The workshops were high energy and great fun and enjoyed by all the students who took part. On the Monday evening a group of Dance staff and students travelled to Burnley College to see a performance by Lancashire’s very own professional contemporary Dance Company Ludus Dance. This was a superb performance which left all those who were lucky enough to attend full of ideas and enthusiasm for future Dance and choreography projects. The final part of the Dance jigsaw was a Break Dance workshop on the Tuesday after school continuing to prepare a Unity Crew to compete in the National Break Dancing Championships in 2012.

The Music element of the week was provided by our programme of Lunchtime concerts. Since moving to our new building we have had concerts every Friday on the bridge above Chaucer’s, provided by our own staff and students. It was decided that during Arts Week we would use this model as the blueprint for lunchtime concerts by professional artists. These kicked off on Wednesday 6^th April with a visit from Manchester based singer song writer Alexis McLean, a former student of Towneley High School. She played a superb set of her own country tinged compositions to a very appreciative audience and spent some time afterwards talking to some of her new “fans” about her music, how she became a singer and how she write her songs. Unfortunately “Second Shepherds”, a local young Indie band were unable to play on the Thursday as the lead singer had lost his voice! It is hoped that they will provide a Friday concert later on in the term.

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly the final concert on the Friday lunchtime. At our opening Gala Concert in October international Opera star Sean Ruane was our guest of honour and he very kindly agreed to come into college to sing on the final lunchtime and finish off our week in style. He was joined by two of our own remarkable young male singers, Cole McLaren-Bailey and Jack Herbert, who each sang a song from the Musical Les Miserables. Sean then continued the theme with “Empty chairs and empty tables” also from Les Mis before a beautiful rendition of “Maria” from West Side Story. He was then joined by Jack and Cole in one of his signature tunes “Jerusalem”, which he has sung before the last two Ashes winning test series with the England Cricket team, before finishing with the classic “Nesun Dorma” again rather unexpectantly joined by Cole and Jack who’s Italian pronunciation was rather interesting to say the least. Sean left to a huge ovation and finished off a very successful Arts Week 2011.

Report on the Mock Trial

30/03/2011 00:00:00

REPORT ON THE MOCK TRIAL

The Mock Trial Competition takes place every year in March and is run by the Citizenship Foundation in London. It gives schools the opportunity to compete against other schools in the local area by performing a mock trial in the Magistrates Court. Our Year 9 students have been preparing for the trial during their Interest Module lesson on a Wednesday afternoon. As well as rehearsals they also took advantage of visiting Burnley Magistrates Court during a live court session to let our students see, first hand, what goes on in a real court. They also took advantage of UCLAN's invitation to visit their moot court room, which is in the new Burnley College building for one of our rehearsals.

The trial was performed twice in the competition, once as defence and once as prosecution; our opponents were Blessed Trinity and Southlands from Chorley (the eventual winners). Our three Magistrates were Ben Atkinson, Josh Stuttard and Brendan Cooke-Allman. Sam Whitaker-Hoban was a very convincing Legal Advisor, Ethan Aitken played the part of the Usher and our two Defence Lawyers were Kieran Stockdale and Molly Carter. Our prosecution team were Scarlett Morris and Sam Johnson. Yasmin Roberts played the part of our defendant, while Maria Shah played the part of her sister the other defence witness. Megan Lambert was a police lady and the first prosecution witness, while Anthony Tither was the landlord and the second prosecution witness. Last but by no means least Brandon Incles was our court reporter and court artist; Brandon's report and sketch will be submitted to Citizenship Foundation to be entered in a separate competition. Anthony Tither won the prize for the most convincing character.

All the students enjoyed their experience and have commented on how this competition has really increased their confidence. They are now looking forward to going to London in April to visit Parliament where they will continue the theme of Law by doing a workshop called 'Making Laws'. They will also have the opportunity to meet our MP, sit in the public gallery and have a tour of Westminster. The trip to London is over two days so there will also be time to go on the London Eye have a Thames River Cruise amongst other sightseeing activities.

Mrs Hancock

Unity Students donate Vivos to Comic Relief

30/03/2011 00:00:00

Well done - you generous lot!

Unity Students dug deep into their vivo rewards accounts and donated a staggering 13,392 vivos to Comic Relief. This equates to £133.92.

We had all sorts of donations from 1 vivo up to 675 vivos from students. Year 9 were the most generous year donating 5,095, followed closely by year 8 with 4,755. Year 11 donated 1,804, Year 10 1,416 and Year 7 donated 322.

Breakdown by Houses - East - 5,040, South - 4,374, North - 2,437 and West - 1,541.

All in all, donating using vivos was a huge success - Vivo have raised £1021.21 for Comic Relief across all the participating schools.

Pippa Currie from Vivo said: "Unity students have done brilliantly, the College is one of the highest donating Vivo schools for Red Nose Day 2011!"

Unity students interview Ed Miliband

24/03/2011 00:00:00

Miliband questioned by School Reporters

Unity students joined students from other schools around the country to interview Ed Miliband at a press conference in the library at South London's Lilian Baylis Technology School. This event was part of the BBC Schools Report which our students have been involved in previously.

Students started by asking some tough questions about gangs and the makings of a good prime minister. The press conference finished with a series of quick fire questions covering all sorts of things such as Mr Miliband's favourite food, time of day, tv programmes and even what his favourite plant is!

The BBC Schools Report is a fantastic thing for our Year 9 students to be involved in giving them an insight into the world of broadcast journalism and a flavour of learning beyond the traditional classroom.

Click here to watch the video report of the press conference with Ed Miliband.

Click here to view other news reports which our students have been involved in as part of the BBC Schools Report project.

Ramblers present map to Unity

17/03/2011 00:00:00

Celebrating 25 years of rambling with the Burnley and Pendle Group at Unity College!

On Friday 4th March 2011 representatives of the Burnley and Pendle Group of ramblers were welcomed to Unity College by students and staff. They had come to present the college with a framed map featuring footpaths and areas of interest in the local countryside as part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the group. The map was purchased with money bequeathed to the group and it has been provided to encourage young people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and take up walking to improve fitness levels and increase their appreciation of the many attractions of the local area.

Receiving the map on behalf of the students at the college were Senior Prefects Paul Blanchard, Shaun Whittaker, Josh Dand, Emma Reid, Jacob Hoban and Danielle Hardy.

For further details of walks in the area visit the website at www.burnleypendleramblers.co.uk

Praise for Unity at Year 9 Consultation and Options Evening

17/03/2011 00:00:00

Evaluation of the Parental feedback from Year 9 Parents Consultation and Options Evening

Thursday 3^rd March 2011

The evening was very well attended, with the majority of Year 9 students represented.

From the evaluation forms returned it was clear that the overwhelming number of parents consider teaching at Unity College to be good, that they are well informed about how their son or daughter is getting on at Unity College and that the Parents Evening itself had been informative. They also agreed that Unity College is successful in promoting equality and eliminating discrimination.

Parents agree that their child is making good progress and feels safe in college. They feel comfortable about approaching the college with questions or a problem. They agree that the college is well led and managed and that staff have high expectations of their child.

Parents stated that they are happy with the educational provision that their child has had this year.

A parent commented "I found the evening very informative, the staff were very helpful. I have no worries about my child."

GBO 17/03/11

Parents Council Meeting

02/03/2011 00:00:00

The next Parents Council Meeting will be held at Unity College on Tuesday 8th March at 5.30pm.

Refreshments will be available during the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Further information about the Parents Council can be found on the Parents Council pages

Little Shop of Horrors Promotional Video

15/02/2011 00:00:00

Little Shop of Horrors

Tues 15th to Fri 18th February
7.30pm
Tickets £5 / £4 concessions

If you haven't already bought your tickets for Little Shop of Horrors WHY NOT???

Watch this video - and go and buy some tickets NOW!!!

Unity Radio

02/02/2011 00:00:00

Unity Radio - Little Shop of Horrors broadcast

A group of students currently studying the Creative and Media Diploma have put together a fabulous radio broadcast advertising the upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors.

Click here to listen to the Unity Radio Broadcast

Parent Council Meeting

13/01/2011 00:00:00

The next Parent Council meeting will be held at Unity College on Tuesday 18th January 2011, at 5.30pm.

Refreshments will be available at 5.30pm for the meeting to begin at 6.00pm.

If you wish to suggest anything to include in the agenda, please contact Mrs Botterill at the College via email g.botterill@unity-college.com or telephone, by Friday 15^th January.

Please see the Parent Council Flyer for more information.

Parent Council Flyer (PDF)

Little Shop of Horrors

09/01/2011 00:00:00

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
by kind permission of Josef Weinberger
15th - 18th Feb 2011

Hot on the heels of last year's stunning musical, GREASE, the Expressive Arts Department are pleased to bring you another extravaganza of a production.

'Hold your hat and hang on to your soul' as 'something's coming to eat the world whole!'

As last year, tickets are bound to disappear extremely quickly for this production. They can be obtained by contacting college on 01282 683010.

Tickets are priced at £4/£5 and performances start at 7.30pm in the Auditorium.

For more information please see our Productions page

Parent Governor Vacancies

08/01/2011 00:00:00

We currently have two Parent Governor vacancies. For further details please see the Governors page

Merry Christmas

12/12/2010 00:00:00

This year Unity College will be making a donation to charity instead of sending Christmas Cards.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Health Information now available online

03/12/2010 00:00:00

Health Information is now available on Unity's VLE

The School Health Team can offer lots of useful advice and support to students and their parents on issues including long term medical conditions, bullying, relationships, behaviour, physical, emotional and sexual health, smoking cessation, alcohol and drugs and self harm.

Health information is now available in the School Health Team Information section on the VLE for you to take a look at. To view this information you will need to log in as a guest.

Unity closed due to bad weather

02/12/2010 00:00:00

Unity is closed today (Thursday 2nd December) due to the bad weather and dangerous travelling conditions.

Please check back for an update tomorrow.

Drama Winners!

01/12/2010 00:00:00

Three of our students took part in the Colne Festival of Speech and Drama at the weekend. Matthew Robinson came 1st, Vincent Khoza came 2nd and Sophie Dand came 4th. This is a huge achievement for all three students as there was a lot of tough competition. Congratulations to all three students, and to Ursula Holden-Gill for all their hard work.

Carol Concert

30/11/2010 00:00:00

This year's Carol Concert will now take place at Unity College. It begins at 7.30pm and we would love to see as many students, parents, governors and friends of Unity at the evening to celebrate the festive period. Our annual Carol Concert is always a great way get in to the Christmas spirit. We look forward to seeing you there!

Further information can be obtained by contacting the main college switchboard.

Student Protest

24/11/2010 00:00:00

In light of the proposed student protest over student funding cuts it has come to light that there may be a demonstration in town later this morning (Wed 24th Nov).

The college position is clear. College remains open as usual and Mrs Cryer has not sanctioned any student to leave college premises. Any student that leaves college premises will be deemed to be truanting, and will be dealt with accordingly.

UNITY COLLEGE GALA EVENING

21/10/2010 00:00:00

The official, V.I.P, launch of the school.

Mrs Cryer held a formal gala evening for special guests and VIP’s to celebrate the fantastic opening of the new unity college building.

Unity College’s headmistress, Mrs Cryer, held a very formal gala evening on the 7^th October 2010 to celebrate the opening of the fabulously new Unity College building.

On the evening there was a champagne reception and canapés for the guests, VIP’s and teachers attending the prestigious evening.

At the evening a few teachers, prefects and senior prefects were handing out raffle tickets for the chance to win some of the fantastic prizes, such as: a gift hamper; bottles of expensive wine; lots of vouchers, such as a free spray tan; meal vouchers at amazing restaurants; and lots of other prizes. Also on display was a Burnley football shirt signed by the whole Burnley football team which was open for bids. The highest bidder got to take the one of a kind shirt home with them.

Students attending Unity College had choreographed and performed a Michael Jackson tribute dance for the entertainment part of the evening, along side was drama performances and singing.

The dance acts were simply amazing and well choreographed. Miss Botteril, an Art teacher at Unity, said, ‘Awesome! What a show.’

Some of the dancers looked scared about the huge crowd, with one of the students commenting, ‘I’m feeling quite nervous’. However, they certainly pulled the dance off and wowed the guests with how talented they were.

Shortly after, guests saw drama performances performed by some of Unity College’s most brilliant actors which included extracts from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, and the Scottish play Macbeth. A fellow pupil said, ‘Adrian Mole is a good book, but seeing it performed was even better!’

After the interval the guests were taken back into the auditorium to watch the famous opera singe, Sean Ruane, who sang for the guests and near the end of the evening he sang with Unity College’s School of Song.

Sean Ruane sang a mixture of old and new opera songs on the evening and astounded the guests when he joined The School of Song to sing an Italian melody, which blew the guests away.

Miss Hodgkinson-Smith, from Briercliffe Primary School, was quoted as saying, ‘Wonderful, amazing, spectacular!’

The gala was a brilliant success; the guests enjoyed themselves and so did the prefects and senior prefects. Students, who performed at the evening, had an extraordinary time and so did all the teachers and other staff attending to the event.

By Joshua and George

Rugby makes a comeback

27/09/2010 00:00:00

The new rugby field at Unity College is making the headlines.

Unity is thought to be the first school in the town to have a pitch since Burnley Grammar pulled its posts down in the mid 1960s.

To read the full article in the Lancashire Telegraph please see the Unity College article in the Lancashire Telegraph

Open Evening

20/09/2010 00:00:00

You are warmly invited to attend our Open Evening on Wednesday 29th September. The college is open between 6pm and 8pm and the Headteacher will be delivering her address at various points throughout the evening. Tours around the college are also taking place during the day on 4th and 5th October. Contact us to book a place.

Community Cohesion goes live!

03/09/2010 00:00:00

On Monday 7th June Unity College welcomed honoured guests, students and staff to celebrate the launch of a new and exciting course called - Community Cohesion! The course has been specially designed by a team of Unity college staff to give Unity College students opportunities to learn about themselves and the many communities they belong to, from the college and the community to the national and global community.

At Unity College we share a vision of a community where young people have a passion for life and a passion for learning, are respectful of themselves and of others and who are united in learning and in uniting the community. Through the Community Cohesion course we encourage tolerance and understanding, celebrate diversity, respect people’s right to hold different views, and promote our vision and values. Students learn that with rights come responsibilities and that by making a positive contribution to their community they will benefit themselves as well as others. Students will learn about the great faiths of the world and how they have shaped people’s lives and provided a framework for explaining the difficult questions life poses.

The balloons we launched represent our determination to reach out into the world and engage with our community, and we hope and trust that they will travel far and wide, spreading our message of Respect, Passion and Unity to people as yet unknown!

For further details of this and other exciting curriculum innovations contact Mrs G. Botterill, Director of Community Learning.

The Undecided play in Blackburn

02/09/2010 00:00:00

Eight Unity students who attend a lunchtime rock band club performed on Sunday 4th July at Witton High School in Blackburn as part of Blackburn and Darwen's fun day to celebrate the role of the male care giver.

The band performed three sets across the day. Their music was broadcast on The Bee radio too. By the last set the band were so good that they were able to control the heavens - upon the first drum beat the rain poured down, and then miraculously stopped when the band finished playing. Now that's rock and roll!

Well done to everyone - the day was a lot of fun and the rock band were awesome.

Click here to view pictures of the band playing.

September 2010

01/09/2010 00:00:00

In 2006, Mrs Cryer and her team sat down with a blank piece of paper and an Architect and began the process of designing a brand new school. Lots has happened since then, and Unity College has gone from strength to strength. This September however sees one of the most important moments in Unity College’s history to date as our new state of the art building opens its doors to staff and students. The new college building offers truly superb facilities across all areas of the curriculum. In addition to the learning spaces, we are very proud of our Arts, Sports and community facilities and we hope to welcome many of the local community through the doors in the very near future. The new college boasts a stunning new climbing wall which was designed by a world champion climber. We also have a brand new fitness suite and Astroturf. At the heart of the building is a fantastic, purpose-built theatre which will open its doors to the public with productions of Arabian Nights in October, and Little Shop of Horrors in February. As always, the best way to understand what we offer at Unity College is to arrange a visit. Please contact main reception if you would like to come and experience Unity yourself and take a look around our fantastic new building.

Year 7 Able and Talented Evening

05/05/2010 00:00:00

The Year 7 Able and Talented evening took place on Wednesday 5th May. A staggering 49 of our Year 7 Able and Talented pupils and their parents attended the evening.

Parents and pupils took part in three activities during the evening; Problem solving, Orienteering and Rock Climbing. All of our sports leaders were also involved and were a credit to the school.

The atmoshphere was fantastic and parents all got fully involved - even running around outside in the rain!

Here are a few of their comments from their evaluation forms:

"Excellent"
"Thankyou - makes a change for children to be rewarded for the good"
"We can see all the good work they do"
"Excellent afternoon, I will look forward to the next one"
"Everyone was great and got on really well! Really enjoyed this evening"
"It was brilliant"

Some parents also suggested that we have a Parent vs Children rounders match, which we hope to run this summer, and other sports which they would like to get involved with.

As all of the feedback from parents was extremely positive, we will be continuing to pursue this evening and hope to set up many more like this one within school.

You can view more photos of the Year 7 Able and Talented evening here.