All posts by Victoria Brown

Choir Tour to Jersey

A couple of weeks ago a slightly depleted Chapel Choir took a weekend trip to Jersey. Though they generally tour for longer this year various commitments meant that tour time was reduced, making the relative proximity of Jersey the ideal choice.

The beautiful Gorey castle and habour, just 5 minutes from our accommodation

It would be fair to say that there were doubts in the choir about what the tour would be like, having become accustomed to more exciting sounding locations, but the doubters were soon proved wrong; Jersey turned out to have plenty to do, excellent weather and some of the best audiences the choir has had.

The Choir at St Aubin’s Methodist Church, with St Chad’s Alumni.

Continue reading Choir Tour to Jersey

St Chad’s College Charity Fashion Show 2017

 

In support of MHNE, SCCCFS ’17 saw Chad’s quad transformed into a stadium for viewing ‘beautiful people wearing clothes’ in the words of compère Rose Minshall.

Launching with an incredible display of core strength from Chad’s very own pole dancer Izzy Niner, the catwalk was sporadically taken over by entertainers ranging from the DU dance squad to singers Helena Morgan and George Cook, whose rendition of a High School Musical Classic left not a dry eye in the house.

Of course, *clothes clothes clothes* were in abundance and the SCCCFS exec secured 21 fashion brands. The gals and guys of Chad’s looked resplendent, and if you too desire to resplend then the morning of the 21st will see a fashion flash-sale in the garden. If metallic crops, jazzy leggings, bowtee shirts, and patriotic swimwear are your thing do come and join.

Gratifyingly, the show was an outrageous success, with a phenomenal five thousand pounds raised for the charity Mental Health North East. This more than doubles last year’s amount and the SCCCFS exec deserve a great deal of credit for working around the clock to support a cause so close to their hearts.

Charity officer Izzy Zeitlyn commented: “We were so pleased to have Lyn Boyd, Chief executive officer of MHNE, Tamara Blakey, one the MHNE young persons team, Jan Blakey and Karen brown, supporters of the charity, with us on the night. MHNE is such a small charity, with all their funding coming from donations, so the charity was thrilled to be SCCCFS’s chosen charity. The charity representatives really enjoyed the evening and we hope to stay in contact with the charity for future fundraising events.

Chaplain Appointment

We are delighted to announce the appointment of the Revd David Rushton as the next Chaplain and Outreach Officer of St Chad’s College. David has served as an NHS Chaplain for the last sixteen years. He is presently Head of Chaplaincy Services at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in London. David is also Chair of the Trust’s clinical ethics committee, Co-chair of the LGBT staff support forum, member of London Borough of Camden Inter-faith Network, and the Bishop of London’s Advisor for health care and healthcare chaplaincy. He read Theology at St Chad’s and is an experienced musician and an enthusiastic runner.

David will be taking up his appointment in time for the start of the new academic year. We greatly look forward to the experience and enthusiasm he will bring to all of us at St Chad’s.

General Election Question Time 2017

 

On Monday 5th June, just a few days before the General Election, St Chads played host to the newly formed Model Westminster Society’s Question Time event. Four of Durham’s prospective parliamentary candidates took part in a panel chaired by Chads’ own Conor Fegan, and students were invited to submit questions for the candidates to respond to. Despite the heavy rain and some flooding in Chads’ Quad, the event was packed, with more questions coming from the audience than there was time for at the event. Students asked questions on both local and national issues, including student housing and college fees, plans for development of schools in Durham, fox hunting and whether the police should be armed.

In addition to questions, the four candidates were given several minutes at the start and end of the event to convince students why they should be elected MP for Durham City, and all four stayed after the event to mingle with the audience and take further questions. Thanks should go to Jonathan Elmer (Green Party), Richard Lawrie (Conservatives), Amanda Hopgood (Liberal Democrats) and Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour) for taking part in the event and responding to a wide range of issues important to Durham students. The Model Westminster Society should also receive credit for what was a very ambitious and fantastically organised event, particularly for a new society.

From the turnout and length of discussion on the night, it is clear that Durham students are politically engaged and willing to challenge politicians on issues which matter to them. In an election where young voter turnout was especially high, students should be proud of the contribution we are able to make to politics, and strive to make sure our voices are always heard.

AGE UK Summer Tea Party

 

On Friday the 9th of June St Chad’s College welcomed members of Durham County’s 50+ community into the heart of the Bailey. As part of a community Outreach project Chad’s has partnered up with the charity AGE UK. Part of the project involves meeting once a week with a coffee morning group made up of elderly residents from the nearby town of Framwellgate Moor. Our summer tea party was a chance to welcome the members of St Aidan’s into the heart of St Chad’s. After much preparation, organisation, and of course baking, we were ready and eager to host what promised to be a lovely afternoon for all involved.

On arrival the residents were offered a selection of teas, coffee, and most importantly, a choice of mouth-watering homemade cakes. Given the quantity of cake consumed we safely can say they went down well!

After a mini tour of the gardens, the residents then settled down for some entertainment by one of Chad’s finest musicians, Floris Winckel. His self-composed piano piece blew everyone away, and despite his nerves, he delivered a flawless performance. Following this was a monologue by one of our guests from St Aidan’s Kitchen, reciting a part of ‘Albert and the Lion’, which was received with great humour and laughs from both young and old. After the laughs, everyone knuckled down for some trivia with a quiz written by two of Chad’s finest (and harshest) quiz-masters: myself and Emma! The winning team won with an impressive 6 point lead. AGE UK representative Peter Dawson then preceded to entertain us with a second comedic monologue.

After a closing thank you from myself, the guests and students bid farewell in what seemed like high spirits. The afternoon was a great success with many more arriving that was anticipated. This was all due to the diligent efforts of the bakers, students, AGE UK members, and kitchen and college staff involved. Thank you to everyone who made the afternoon so wonderful and enjoyable – we look forward to hosting similar events in the near future.

End of Exams Bop: Space and Beyond!

 

To celebrate the end of exams SocComm put on a bop, which was out of this world! We saw the Cassidy Quad filled with large volumes of dancing aliens, space raiders and even a TARDIS. Some beautifully homemade planet decorations from our new in-house decs officer set the mood. There was even another Chads banner ripping off a multinational corporation, which has been added to the ever-growing collection.

After some slight hiccups with the music the evening was filled with some classic tunes, both past and present before we closed the night with the inevitable ‘Country Roads’. A collaborative effort with BarComm meant we were serving up two themed cocktails, a fruity number called ‘Life on Mars’ and a smooth, blue concoction called ‘Supernova’. The evening was a huge success and a good way to end the three weeks of pain!

 

Book Sale!

 

Bonanza Booksale

Hundreds of books will be going on sale on Saturday 17th June in aid of St Chad’s College Scholarships & Bursaries Fund. The sale will run from 10 am to 4 pm in the Brewis Library and all items will cost just £1!

All subjects are represented: theology, history, art, classics, languages, literature, law, philosophy, sciences, politics, reference and much, much more.

Heritage Open Days

This year as part of Heritage Open Days St Chad’s will be opening its doors to welcome the general public on 8th September.

Our Librarian, Jenny Parker, will be conducting tours of the college buildings and sharing our passion for our college. To help tell our story there will a be supporting exhibition of photographs, plans and other fascinating documents from the college archives.

Heritage Open Days is a national Heritage Festival for which volunteers across England organise 5,000 events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. These events are free and are designed to give people the opportunity to visit hidden places.

The event is about celebrating the heritage, community and history of thousands of places across England.

Privacy Notice

 

Our Privacy Notice  can be read in full below:

 

St Chad’s College Privacy Notice

Data Controller

The Data Controller is St Chad’s College Durham. Our Registration Number in the Data Protection Public Register is Z1470934.

 

Overview

The St Chad’s College (‘the College’) Development and Alumni Office (‘the Office’) supports a global community of stakeholders (students, alumni, parents, donors, mentors, employers, researchers, policy-makers, and advocates) related to the research, engagement and outreach activities pursued by the College. In order to deliver all of the related products, services and opportunities in a bespoke manner and to ensure each individual and constituency receives relevant information, the Office process personal data of stakeholders. This helps to ensure that you are getting the best contact available from the College for your purposes. This also helps us, where appropriate, to ask for your support with the things we believe you care about the most.

 

Types of personal data collected and held by the College and University and method of collection

If you are a student/graduate, some of the personal data that the College holds about you is transferred from your University of Durham (‘the University’) student record to the University’s alumni database, Raiser’s Edge. This personal data will have been collected from you as part of your studies application process or provided by you via updates to your department or the College during your time as a student and will include:

 

Your name, title, gender preference, nationality and date of birth;

Your home or parental address, email address and telephone numbers;

Your former school and/or university;

Your familial relationships (parents, grandparents and siblings);

UCAS Number.

 

Some of the personal data the College and the University holds about you has been created by us as part of your education record, namely:

 

Mode of study (e.g. full-time, part-time, distance learning);

Academic department and programme of study;

Start, end and graduation dates;

Reason for leaving, type and classification of degree;

The college(s) you attended and your membership of a Junior or Middle or Senior Common Room (JCR/MCR/SCR)/clubs/societies/sporting teams.

Some of the personal data the College and University holds about you is provided by you during your transactions with us (contact details updates, www.dunelm.org.uk and www.stchads.ac.uk website activity, event registration, volunteer activity or making/soliciting a donation), namely:

 

Your bank account number, name and sort code (used for processing Direct Debits);

Gift amount, purpose, date and method of payment including cheque numbers or payment references.  At no point do we store payment card details if you donate, or pay for an event, using a payment card;

Tax status and Gift Aid Declaration information;

Your spouse/partner’s name and whether they are also a Durham alumna/us;

Updates to your contact details;

Children’s names, gender and year of birth;

Record of verbal or email conversations/meetings including any personal interests;

Dietary preferences;

Web activity whilst visiting www.dunelm.org.uk or www.stchads.ac.uk.

 

The College may hold personal data relating to your professional history. This data may have been provided by you, or it may have been obtained from social media (e.g. LinkedIn,Twitter, Facebook) or publicly available sources (Companies House and other business-related resources, the World-Wide-Web, publications and news articles such as Queen’s Honours List, Times Rich List, and the National Change of Address File and other services that provide email addresses and telephone numbers), namely:

 

Your employment status (e.g. part-time, full-time, retired);

Your current job title and work email address;

Your previous role(s) and job title;

Your current and past employers, name, address and telephone number;

The dates that you have been employed in any particular role;

Your photograph;

Your income band.

 

The College may hold personal data that has been created by the University or the College from other personal data that we already hold (i.e. name, address, postcode, employment data), either through internal or external research/profiling, namely:

 

Your estimated asset worth, property value and shareholdings;

An estimate of income and potential capacity to make a large gift;

Philanthropic interests and gifts to other charitable organisations;

Internal classifications and ratings as a major gift prospect;

A rating of your level of engagement which is created from a mix of your event attendance, donation history and other interactions with the University and the College.

 

How personal data is stored by the College and the University

Personal data of alumni, donors and other stakeholders is stored by the Office in a propriety database called Raiser’s Edge.  Raiser’s Edge is installed on the University’s servers located in Durham. Access to personal data is restricted to those members of staff who have a requirement to maintain a relationship with you, and is controlled through password protection and user security profiles. All University employees, contractors and volunteers that are given access to personal data receive mandatory Data Protection training and have a contractual responsibility to maintain confidentiality.

 

How personal data is processed by the Office

Personal data is processed by the College and the University, departments, other Colleges and Durham Student Organisations to:

 

Promote events;

Send news and updates;

Recruit alumni volunteers and mentors;

Make fundraising appeals by email, direct mail, telephone and face-to-face meetings and ensure that we only send you communications about events or fundraising appeals that would be of interest to you.

 

Who the College and University shares personal data with

Personal data is shared with third party organisations in a limited number of instances.  The University is required to disclose some personal data of graduates to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the purpose of a survey of new graduates.

 

If you have registered to attend an event organised by volunteer alumni, The College may share with the volunteer a list of attendee names, year of graduation and department so that introductions can be made or seating plans created.

 

The College may share personal data with third party organisations which carry out contracts on behalf of the University (such as a venue hosting a College event).The College will only share personal data that is relevant and proportionate. The College’s partners are subject to contractual agreements which help to ensure compliance with Data Protection legislation. This will happen in the following circumstances:

 

To send you a copy of our printed alumni magazine or other newsletters;

To send you direct mail relating to our fundraising appeals;

To maintain your contact details so that we can keep in touch by letter, email or telephone;

To assess your ability to support the College with a major gift.

When the College shares personal data as detailed above we ensure that security is maintained, using tools such as encryption.

Personal data is NEVER sold on to third parties.

 

How long personal data is held by the College and University

The College considers its relationship with alumni, donors and other stakeholders to be life-long. This means that we will maintain a stakeholder record for you until such time as you tell us that you no longer wish us to keep in touch. In this instance the Office will delete the majority of your personal data it holds, but will maintain basic personal data to ensure that we do not inadvertently create a new record in the future.

 

How to object to the College or University processing your personal data

Individuals have the right to object to the College or Univeristy processing their personal data for any or all of the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice; they may do so at any time. To exercise this right, please email: m.r.i.roberts@durham.ac.uk giving clear details of the processing activities and/or types of personal data to which your objection applies (see sections above for descriptions).

 

Access to personal information

You have a right to request copies of the data held about you by the College and the University. To do so please submit a Subject Access Request. Should you object to the holding of your data by the College and/or the University, the use of your data for any or all of the above purposes, or should you wish to amend the type of communications you receive or the way in which Durham University contacts you, please contact m.r.i.roberts@durham.ac.uk.

 

Visitors to our websites

When someone visits www.stchads.ac.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be transparent about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

 

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

 

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 25 May 2017.

 

Further Information

If you have any questions which you feel have not been covered by this Privacy Notice, please do not hesitate to email us or write to:

 

The Director of Development

Development and Alumni Relations Office

St Chad’s College

18 North Bailey

Durham

DH1 3RH

m.r.i.roberts@durham.ac.uk

 

James Holland – Historian and Author

James Holland (St Chad’s 1989-1992, BA History) is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of the best-selling Fortress Malta, Battle of Britain, and Dam Busters, he has also written nine works of historical fiction, five of which feature the heroic Jack Tanner, a soldier of the Second World War. He is currently writing a three-volume new history of the Second World War in the West and a book about the Defence of the Admin Box in Burma. The first volume, The War in the West: Germany Ascendant, 1939-1941, is out now.

He regularly appears on television and radio, and has written and presented the BAFTA-shortlisted documentaries, Battle of Britain and Dam Busters for the BBC, as well as the Battle for Malta, Cold War, Hot Jets, and Normandy 44.

Co-founder and Programme Director of the hugely successful Chalke Valley History Festival, he has his own collection at the Imperial War Museum, and is Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

James can be found on Twitter: @James1940.

He appeared on Radio 4s Today Show on 2nd of May, discussing The War in the West.