Hey everyone! 👋
Welcome to the Winter Edition of the Students' Association update.
Can you believe it's almost Christmas? Where has this year gone? There's been lots happening in the Students' Association with plenty more coming up. We have our 'Positivitree's' up in both Students' Associations where you can share a wellbeing tip!
After the success of 'Sock It' last Christmas, the 'Raise It' Society have decided to run their 'Sock It' initiative again designed to help the homeless in Glasgow. The aim of 'Sock It' is to fill a sock with essential items for those in need.
We require the following items:
• Toothbrush & small tube of toothpaste
• Roll on deodorant
• Disposable razor
• Sweets or Chocolate
• Comb
• Gloves
• Boxers or knickers (Medium)
Once you've filled the sock, simply hand it into the Students' Association at City or Riverside by Wednesday 18th December at 12pm.
We are excited to announce the return of our Festive Fun cycle on Tuesday 17th December on the Mezzanine within our City Campus from 12.00pm - 1.30pm. Christmas can be an amazing time of the year for many, but for some it can also be a challenging time. The Student Engagement Team and the Students' Association will be working in partnership with the Lodging House Mission to raise money to help them continue to support people affected or at risk of homelessness.
In teams of 5, you will have 2 minutes to warm up on the spin bike. The foghorn will sound and for 1 minute your team will peddle as fast as they can. The distance covered by each team will be accumulated and added to the leaderboard.
Each team will pay £5 to participate in the event, all money raised will be given to the Lodging House Mission.
There will be a range of festive foods and refreshments on offer along with our Festive tombola and a prize for the team that covers the most distance.
All participants must complete the online registration form and hand in their £5 registration fee to the Students’ Association 2nd Floor City Campus and level 0 Riverside campus. To submit a team, click here
Since August, we have been working hard implementing our Student Mental Health Agreement as we believe mental health should be at the heart of everything we do. We kicked off with our World Mental Health Day event on the 10th October, where we encouraged students to ‘Take a Break’. We also launched our Wellbeing Society which takes place every Tuesday at 4pm. We are delighted to announce that we won the Think Positive small grant scheme of £250 to use for the Wellbeing society! This money will be used to run Mindfulness and Yoga sessions in the new year.
12 Days of Wellbeing
We're currently running a campaign called the 12 Days of Wellbeing in the run up to Christmas, where our Student Exec team and our Faculty Reps are sharing tips on what they do to improve their own mental wellbeing. You can view this everyday on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Social Media Blackout
On Wednesday 27th November, we launched our first ever ‘Social Media Blackout’ where we encouraged students and staff to step away from their smartphones, encouraging less screen time and more ‘me’ time. between 12pm and 2pm. We conducted research into the link between social media usage and mental health. 171 participants took part in the survey and 62.72% advised that being on social media for long periods of time does affect their mental wellbeing.
The next Social Media Blackout will be on Wednesday 18th December. If you would like to take part, you can find out more information here
Think Tanks
Think Tanks are a chance for students to expand on existing feedback and help us generate ideas to influence change at City. This block's topics include; Induction, Catering, College Facilities and IT Resources. So far we have hosted our sessions on Induction and College Facilities with the following scheduled to take place in the upcoming week:
Tue 10th Dec at 12pm - IT Resources (CitySA)
Wed 11th Dec at 12pm - Riverside Experience (Riverside SA)
Thu 12th Dec at 4pm - Catering (CitySA)
Sessions last about 45 minutes over lunch breaks and students can book into as many topics as they wish. If you would like to attend a Think Tank, click here
You said, we did
Thoughtout Block 1, the Students' Association and the Student Engagement team collated feedback from students through My Voice, Your Voice Counts, Class Rep Think Tanks and the Student Experience Questionnaire to find out how we can improve the student experience at City of Glasgow College.
Some of the comments we received about poor signage at the lifts on Level 5 and 6 have already been actioned. We have also working on our Faculty Representatives System - an example which you can be seen below.
Look out more more 'You Said, We Did' success stories on the screens around both campuses and on our social media channels.
Our Social Media channels are the best way to keep up-to-date with what's happening in the Students' Association. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn ! We would appreciate if you could follow us to find out more about your Students' Association.
And finally, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from your Students' Association 🎄
You can get in touch with us by email, phone or pop into your nearest Students' Association Space
dylan.duff@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk | 0141 375 5624 eva.curran@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk | 0141 375 5322 robyn.lambert@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk | 0141 375 5322 callum.cross@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk | 0141 375 5322
The next edition of this newsletter will be published in February. If you have an article that you'd like to feature in the Students' Association Update, please email madeline.jean@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk