Meet our Students

Tuesday 26th January 2021  

08:30 – I have just woken up but I still have plenty of time to get ready for online lessons. I am going to go get dressed and set up my computer. I can’t concentrate downstairs with everyone at home so until now I’ve been sitting uncomfortably on my bed, but yesterday we moved a desk into my room so I have somewhere quiet to sit for my online lessons.

09:00 – Lessons have just started and I have Jo first who teaches me animal behaviour. We were learning about imprinting behaviours. We work on Teams and everyone has to have their camera switched on. It’s good to see all my course mates as I’ve made some great friends.

10:45 – It is now time for vet nursing with Gemma. She put us into groups and we had to work together to create a poster about anaemia in cats.

12:15 – I am having a chicken sandwich for lunch today. It was delicious but I know I will be hungry later on. I watched some YouTube while I ate and then it was time for the next lesson.

13:15 – Synoptic is supposed to be our practical lesson with our lecturer Andy. We are supposed to handle small animals and learn how to health check and look after them but of course we can’t do that at home. Instead, today we had to go around our house and find items to represent food that you could feed to a particular animal. The animal I chose was a donkey but we were not allowed to use actual food so we had to grab random objects and explain what it represented and why we had chosen it.

15:00 – Lastly, I have livestock and Gen is teaching us. She mentioned about silaging and the pros and cons of it. She also talked about how to silage and why it is important. I found this particularly interesting because I would like to work with cows in the future.

16:00 – I am now going to continue my assignments. I have two I need to get on with. I have one for Welfare and Breed and I also have one for Small Animal Rehab. I am enjoying writing my current assignments so far and I think I might be close to finishing them.

17:30 – Now I am going to do some exercise. I try to do about half an hour of exercise each day. It feels good to get up and move after sitting in front of the computer all day.

19:00 – I am going to make myself some prawn and chicken noodles. I am quite hungry so I feel like I will be full up after this, then it’s time to relax and enjoy my evening! 

Hi all,

Studying at home can be tiresome and hard work; it brings a lot of uncertainty. With us not having a lot of control over life at the moment, it can be important for us to stay in control of the areas we can, such as studying. But it can be made fun! When studying, your space is really important and designing it to fit with your schedule can be a nice way to spend your time and to help keep you motivated.

I have spent time designing my space to make it more relaxing. I tidied my room, got some candles, lights and plants to decorate the place. I even hung a calendar and I sectioned off a place on my wall to hang important notes for work.

There is no need to spend money and you can use what you have a home to make a peaceful place for you. Some of my lessons can last up to 3hours, so I had to make my space comfortable and use pillows and blankets, I mean there is nothing wrong with being cosy when in class. Let’s be honest, how many of us have attended an online class in PJs!

I’m not one for routines and sticking to a timetable. This can make studying hard, especially if there is no teacher to push you. Finding ways which work for you is also important. I liked to listen to music or watch Netflix when doing work, as long as you’re not taking attention away from what the teacher is saying, you can have more freedom to do the things that help you to work.

So, no matter how we like to study at home, it’s important we keep on top of it and continue. But remember to give yourself breaks and work on other hobbies or interests during this lockdown.

Stay safe and until next time,

Bye.

Although my time at the College campus was brief, due to the current pandemic, it was very resourceful. For example, I made lots of friends as they shared the same interest as me, but also the college made sure to keep students safe by zoning off the different sections of college and using sliders, to separate us when we had to sit next to each other.

So I’m glad that I chose to go to Wiltshire College & University Centre, as the staff have given me a lot of help when I needed it. They understood my problems so they could help me more, for example, when working on designing my mech, I used to trace around already made objects, which made the overall mech look horrible, but when asking my lecturer, he taught me that all I had to do was get a normal shape and just morph the shape into the body parts needed for my mech. This greatly improved the overall look of my mech and made it look much better.

Overall, I got the support I needed to greatly improve my new skills. I have also started doing graphic design in my spare time, to further enhance my abilities.