Bringing Festive Joy and Mischief
To help get BGU into the festive spirit, the PGCE Primary Education team organised a selection of unusual and tricky challenges for their colleagues across the University. Have a look below at what was set and how our staff got on
Challenge 1 - Christmas Kitchen Construction
For their first challenge staff had to construct something that represents Christmas, using only items from their kitchen. Clare Lawrence was the winner with her Kale Christmas tree, you can see it and all the entries below
Challenge 2 - Seeing yourself without seeing
For their second challenge contestants had to draw a self-portrait of themselves and send it in. Sounds easy but the catch was that they must be blindfolded and use more than one colour. Caroline Illingworth was the winner but you can see how they all got on below:
Challenge 3 - Presenting Perfect Poems
For their third challenge contestants had to compose poems about BGU. Given the high quality there was no outright winner and you can read them all below:
There stands a place called BGU
Whose students are fabulous, if few
‘Cause teaching ain’t easy
And teens make me queasy
So all the more power to you!
Sometimes a whisper is louder than a shout
But when the rest of the world views you with doubt
A chance arises and you take a shot
It turns out to be one of the best things you’ve got
At times being a grown-up can be hard
Some weeks you want to hand in your card
But this place, and the people, will take your hand
Even if they don’t quite understand
They give you time, if you need, the space
If there’s anything you find hard to face
BGU have got your back
And do what they can to get you on track
There’s just something can’t be defined
A place that really sticks in the mind
So give it a go, as you never know
What could happen if you let yourself grow
BGU is named for Bishop Bob
Who had lots of fun with light*
There’s lions on the proper badge
But Jonty wins the catfight.
We are at the top of a great steep hill
The Mad Hatter’s at home indeed
Skinner’s got a tonne of stairs
But none of them go where you need!
But by far the jewels in the crown
Are the people at BGU
They never ever let you down;
They are a very special crew.
*I don’t know if he actually had fun, but rainbows are nice, aren’t they.
Can I get this off my chest?
It’s truly not that I’m oppressed
Or that I’m feeling fearful, lest
My place of work is held in jest,
It’s just, responding to request
As to my Uni, I’m distressed
When that location, when expressed
So seldom brings a look impressed
But rather, tends to one perplexed
And puzzled looks tend to suggest
That north or south or east or west
No soul has heard of Grosseteste!
[Chorus]
So, who are we?
We’re Bishop G
Say, we are who?
We’re BGU
And, you know what?
We’re Bishop Grot
So, can’t you see?
We are BG!
And even when I have announced it
The next thing is, they can’t pronounce it!
It’s not that I would now denounce it
But ‘Grossly Tess’? I cannot stand it!
‘Grow Testes’ gives wish the ground it
Swallow me would – I mean, confound it –
Called ‘Big balls?!’ (And yes, I know it
Really means his head but still it
Makes me blush, I’ll not deny it.)
[Chorus]
So, who are we?
We’re Bishop G
Say, we are who?
We’re BGU
And, you know what?
We’re Bishop Grot
So, can’t you see?
We are BG!
So, finishing off this little rhyme
I’ll give myself a little time
To make it clear: I’m in my prime
And being so, it were no crime
To hope my research might align
With top professors’, and could climb
(who knows?) one day to somewhere fine
Might even rise to heights sublime…
But (and this brings tingles down my spine):
There is no point to seek a ‘chair’
If everyone will just ask, ‘…. WHERE?!’
And so, Grows Testy, do your worst
(and yes, you might feel I’m perverse)
But my ambition has dispersed
And, doing so, becomes diverse
And so, I plead you, unrehearsed
To grant me, in no sense coerced
(And really, yes, you could do worse):
A Readership – in doggerel verse!
This poem of Bishop Grosseteste
Is written at Aimee’s behest,
Teaching’s what we do
Since 1862
Producing the brightest and best.
Final Challenge: Messages in Disguise
For their final challenges contestants had to record a Christmas message for their colleagues, in disguise!
See if you can work out who created each video: