SPORTS IN UK UNIVERSITIES

Sports in the UK 

Sports are an important activity for UK Students and form an important aspect of life in UK Universities. An organisation called British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) oversees university sports in the UK. This organisation organises about 50 inter-university sports within the United Kingdom for about 2.3 million students attending various universities.

The activities of the organisation include the BUCS Gatorade Nationals which in 2013 replaced the BUCS Championships, hosted in Sheffield since 2010, and BUCS Bug Wednesday, a championship final of 14 sports that takes place at Leeds Metropolitan University Campus over one day. These new competitions were organised due to a very high demand for high level student competition.

Staffordshire University

Here at Staffordshire University, large areas are dedicated for sports activities including facilities available for Gym activities (open to both students and the general public).

 At the Stoke Campus, there are:

• More than 30 student-run sports clubs and societies
• Students’ Union sports clubs and societies
• Regular weekly fixtures
• Staff and public sports teams and clubs
• Floodlit all-weather sports pitches
• Four-court indoor sports hall
• Extensive sports fields
• Athletics training facilities
• Well-equipped fitness suites

Opening times

The Pitches and Courts are open:

• 7am to 10pm Monday to Friday
• 9am to 6pm Saturday
• 9am to 8pm Sunday

Membership

Membership of the Gym is £10 per month. Additional fee further gives access to:

Full-sized floodlit Astroturf pitch large enough for 11-a-side football and hockey games

• Two smaller all-weather floodlit Astroturf courts  - ideal for 5-a-side team games
• Traditional grass pitches including a football pitch, rugby pitch and training areas
• A great venue for birthdays and sports parties
• Health Connections – fully equipped gym with 35 fitness stations
• Sports Hall with 4 badminton courts, 5-a-side football, volleyball, netball, basketball, tennis, table tennis and viewing gallery
• Wide choice of group exercise classes led by qualified instructors
• Activities Room for yoga, aerobics, dance, keep fit and pilates

The general price of using these facilities are much cheaper than in France.

The Sports activities at Staffordshire University are grouped under the following categories:

·       Dance and cheerleading

·       Extreme sports 

·       Indoor Sports Clubs (Basketball, Cricket)

·       Martial arts (karaté,Boxe,Judo)

·       Racket sports (Tennis)

    ·       Outdoor (Football, Amercian football,Horse riding)
    ·       Water sports

Personal Experiences

I had joined the Basketball team whose level of play was high and significantly different from what I had experienced in France. Practicing with the team allowed me to find and make new friends as well as experience new styles of play different to the ones I have experienced before.

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A trip in Chester part 1 : Grosvenor Museum

     Chester is a small town located 90 km from Stoke-On-Trent. I visited the Grosvenor Museum offering many themes spread on two floors. On the ground floor there is the Roman stones gallery and the Lecture theatre with explaining movies. On the first floor we can find the Silver gallery, The King's arms kitchen, the Art gallery, the Natural History gallery. Finally on the second floor we can find the Period House, the Educative service and the workroom. The access is free but the visitors can give some money. 

The fortress at Chester was the largest of the three legionnary fortresses in the Roman province of Britannia known as Deva, it was the military headquarters for a vast area covering North Wales and the North-West. For more than three centuries Chester was one of the most important military bases in the Roman Empire.

A glimpse of Chester at this time

  The Roman invasion of Britain brought about many changes including an increased emphasis on eating habits. Even if Chester was far from Roma, the city was a typical roman city with all the tools used by the Romans. There were an amphitheatre, barracks for Roman soldiers, toilet instruments and bottles. All of these items enabled to increase the standard of living.

Toilet instruments

Bathing, health and cleanliness were important to the Romans who often visited the public baths. Women used mirrors made from polished silver or bronze.

  At this time, there were some eye doctors who were treating eye problems with ointments. The Romans also used spoons and knives to eat. I was surprised by seeing the system of locking of doors of the Romans.

The second part will be devoted to the Natural history gallery, to the Silver Gallery and to the Art Gallery.


Grosvenor Museum, 27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD, 0124497197

A Trip in Manchester

Hi all !

The last week-end, I went to Manchester with some of my friends. We joined friends who live in Manchester, they welcomed us to their house for 2 days. So, we arrived at 21:00 in Manchester and we ate in a restaurant, it was really good. The next day, we went in the city centre of Manchester and we went around. 

I realized that Manchester and Stoke are really two different cities. Indeed, Manchester has several neighbourhoods, there are people everywhere, there are many different restaurants, a lot of clubs and bars etc. Whereas Stoke is a small city where everybody knows everybody, so it’s really different. On the last day, that is, Sunday, we returned on the city centre because there was an event for the Chinese New Year in the Chinese neighbourhood. It was really nice and I took some pictures of that. On the wall of the Church, there were some illuminations which were really beautiful!

Happy Chinese New year !

Illuminations on the wall

It was a really good trip because we met a lot of people that helped us to improve our English. I hope I’ll return in this city and I planned to go in other cities of England and Wales. 

See you soon !

The regent theatre: a multi-award winning musical

Regent Theater in Hanley

The Regent Theatre is located in the centre of Hanley, more precisely in Piccadilly, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST1 1AP. It is a theatre with an enthralling ambiance which reminds me the 60's.
 I went to see a very well-known musical called Anything Goes directed by Cole Porter. It was played for the first time in Broadway in 1934. This musical  was rewarded several times and was adapted three times to the cinema.  It is a two-act musical  which lasts for about one hour each.

Inside the theater 

During the show 

Anything Goes takes place on a ship in which Billy is a stowaway who wants to win the heart of the beautiful Hope and prevent her from getting  married to the powerful Sir Evelyn, while Hope’s mother wants to see her daughter getting married to him to become rich. Billy was the wanted man on that ship but he was friendly surrounded by everybody when the crew discovered that he was the public enemy number one. After that crew member put him in jail along with his friend Moonface. Finally the wedding between Hope and Sir Evelyn is cancelled, and then he got married to Reno the singer while on the other hand Billy finds Hope.

Prices range from 12.5 to 40 pounds. Even though  I had the least expensive seat I found myself well placed. The sound was astonishing, the lights was varied and with very high quality. I did not understand all the dialogues but the movements of comedians allowed me to understand almost all scenes.

 The orchestra and the voices of comedians especially of Reno were amazing. It is a musical  that I will recommend to all with a blend of rhythm and energy throughout the two hours. I was so excited that almost I was about to jump on the stage to sing and dance with them. All in all it was one of my best moments in Stoke. 

NB : it was prohibited to take pictures during the show but the staff enabled to me to take few pictures and a short video.

The Potteries Museum

Hello everyone! 

 

With some of my friends, we went at one of the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, because there is another one named Gladstone Potteries Museum. So this museum is located in Hanley, the centre of Stoke-on-Trent and is about 20 min by walk from the University. 

 

The entrance of the museum

There are several floors, the lower ground floor is the Temporary Exhibition Gallery and it shows a series of changing exhibitions. We saw the first pharmacies, the first breweries and also the old fire trucks, it was really interesting and I took a lot of pictures.

Old pharmacy

Old fire truck

After, on the ground floor, it’s about the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia and we saw how local Anglo-Saxons lived and admired their greatest treasure, the Staffordshire Hoard which is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. At this floor you can also dress like an Anglo-Saxon, indeed, there are typical clothes hanged on the wall and you can try the clothes and take a picture if you want to keep a souvenir. On the same floor there are also the Natural History where you can see local wildfire, plants, geology and the Local History. Finally on the same floor there is the Spitfire Gallery featuring Reginald Mitchell’s MK 16 Spitfire (fighter plane).

Finally, on the first floor, there are the Art Gallery, the Craft Gallery and the Ceramics.

The spitfire

Ceramics

So we enjoyed visiting this museum and we’re looking forward to visiting another one.

Céline de La Bunelaye

A warm welcome

Hello everyone ! 

Picture of all the international students

I’m going to write an article about a very good surprise we had one week ago.
Indeed, we’ve been invited by the University to a dinner for international students. So the dinner started at 6:00 pm, we were at a table where there were different international students and in the room there were so many nationalities! India, Pakistan, Germany, Norway…etc. It was great because we could talk a little with these people to improve our English.

Then, about the food, there was such different food. French food for example (it was the typical beef bourguignon), rice (Chinese food), spicy food (Indian food), and other kind of food. For the dessert it was two types of cake. It was a really good meal!
After the dinner, we took good time talking with people, they’re really pleasant and really understanding, they help me to feel in confidence and so I can speak English with them, even if I have some difficulties to speak. We’ve met also people coming from the ESAIP Angers at this party. 

Dining room

All these parties can help our circle of friends to grow and we thank the University for this great party, it’s really a good idea, it allowed us to met the other people of different nationalities living on the Campus. 

See you !

The UK is not France

The UK is not France 

We were surprised to see so many differences between these two countries while only tens of kilometres separate them. Firstly the language but we already knew it. In the UK, people drive on the right-hand side of the road and we also know this habit. But we ignored that it will be troublesome to cross roads because we have to forget our habits and look before on the left side then the right. During one of the first days, we were astonished to see a child driving a big car, before understanding he was on the passenger seat.

At home, the differences still are visible. The switches fall from the ceiling whereas in France are fixed on the wall. The first day I used the toilet in the dark. It’s all about the bathroom. There are two taps on each sink, one for hot water and the other for the cold. So to use it we open both taps and we try to get water from the both to get lukewarm water , no jealous !! The flush is different but is easy to use. Moreover the sockets are different from ours. To use it, it's not finger in the nose like french say because there are three metal rods. To load our laptop or our mobiles we use an adapter which enables us to plug our appliances directly in the socket.  

At the Uni, it was funny to call our teachers by their forename. In France it's just impossible. Our timetable is very light compare to our in France. We learned that in the UK, the students spend a lot of time in the library and they can get access to their lectures from the Uni website and from what they call BLACKBOARD. The library closes at 02 am !! It’s great for a student like me who likes to study during the night.