First day of term, T-minus 1

It's 4pm on Sunday 4th September. In 14 hours we open our doors once again to several thousand eager students. This is always the most exciting day of the year for me. As I posted in my last blog - you're never quite sure of who you're going to get, what these personalities are like, what they will add to the diversity of the College - but you can guarantee that they are, each and every individual, taking a positive step towards their future.

So, what are we, the College staff doing on this normal, rainy, Sunday afternoon? Teaching staff are at home, girding their loins for another year. Support staff are ... well mostly here, at College, beavering away to make the place perfect for the new academic year.

There have been so many improvements, additions and the occasional subtraction (see my initial blog about demolition) that we've all been working to the wire to get the place ready. It's great to wander the corridors now and see, in place of trailing wires & cardboard boxes or unpainted plaster and builders' ... (well, you know what builders show), that we now have upgraded PCs, new offices and classrooms, enhanced wifi and a new Information Store ... makes the difficult summer all worthwhile.

There's still a couple of bits of work that aren't done - there's more to do to the Information Store and the Enterprise Zone won'y open it's doors for another few weeks - but these were always planned as longer term projects and they had to be started sometime.

The Enterprise Zone I have mentioned before. This is the physical face of a new ethos that runs through the College. A focus on Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. Students will find these words cropping up more and more in whatever subject they're studying - from hairdressing to mathematics, from sport to history.   

It might be worth thinking about the definition of Enterprise - you'll see some of the qualities and benefits we see it bringing to our students and our organisation...

• An undertaking, especially one of some scope, complication, and risk. 
• A business organization. 
• Industrious, systematic activity, especially when directed toward profit
• Willingness to undertake new ventures; initiative

Enterprise strikes me as something we should all strive for.

I wish all students, new and returning, a great first week back. If you get a chance, please let us know how it went - and if you want to be truly enterprising, let us know how it should be made better!

Harry Greiner's Blog