Also confirmed for Staff Wellbeing Fest on Thursday 3 July are
- Aromotherapy sessions
- Make up tutorials
- Visit by Health Assured to give you all the information on the EAP and Wisdom app
- Escape room
- Yoga
Do you want to learn the principles of training fruit trees, including when and how to prune?
Orchard Project are holding a practice pruning session on 4 young espalier trees on the beautiful grounds of Hill House.
The session is taking place on Wednesday 11 June at 16:00 – 17:30 and to book a place, please visit the Wellbeing Booking System.
GCS took part in the fourth FE Multisport Duathlon at Pembrey Country Park on 14 May. The event is part of the Colleges Wales FE Multisport initiative, offering an opportunity for learners and staff in further education to participate in competitive and active events at a range of levels.
Participants range from Independent Learning Skills (ILS) learners enjoying a group activity challenge for the first time through to learners and staff competing at elite level. With over 40% of participants having additional learning needs, the Duathlon provides a fully inclusive approach to further education sport.
This year 36 staff entered the Duathlon, and in the afternoon competitive event, Sion Cairns, Sport & Public Services, took 2nd place with Gerard Morgan, Engineering, in 3rd place. The first lady to cross the line was Laura Borelli, Lecturer, who came out of maternity leave to enter, and Sherelle Jermin, Work Placement Officer, in 2nd place.
The weather was great with lots of sunshine, and feedback from staff was very positive including “Absolutely fantastic day” “Thank you, I loved it” “Awesome day, my tutor group had an epic time too”. Congratulations to all who entered or cheered on and hope to see even more staff and learners at next year’s event.
The College recently delivered a presentation to the Built environment highlighting the crisis in men’s health, particularly in mental health.
Men are less likely to seek help for health and mental health issues and 75% – 80% of all deaths by suicide are male.
ManHealth is a voluntary sector organisation that was established to address the crisis in men’s health and enable men to find or change direction in their lives by providing them with tools to thrive in their lives and become the best version of themselves. They do this using a proactive approach through support, collaboration, education, advocacy and accountability.
In 2024 ManHealth supported over 5,100 men and provided over 10,200 hours of free peer support. Whilst the organisation is primarily focused on supporting men and their health, the attached presentation contains information and advice that can be applied to everyone, regardless of gender.
Kev is back to deliver a 90 minute interactive online session to help us experience a greater sense of calm, clarity and resilience in our daily lives.
The session will include
- Teaching – how we experience stres and why quieting the mind is simpler than we think
- Guided visualisation – help to reconnnect with a natural state of calm and clarity
- Q&A & Discussion
The session will take place on Wednesday 14 May 18:30 – 20:0 and you can book through the Wellbeing Booking system HERE
The College Summer Wellbeing Fest will be taking place on Thursday 3 July. This year we have an extensive range of wellbeing activities on offer for staff to enjoy including surfing, pet therapy, massages, arts and crafts, hypnotherapy and our infamous pickleball tournament to round the day off. More details on how to book on a session will be shared shortly….
The results are in!
220 GCS staff have over the month of March formed 42 teams and collectively walked an incredible 65 million steps as part of the March the Month team step challengeto help raise awareness of Prostate Cancer.
The initiative was also to encourage staff to become more active, and saw departments across the college uniting in a shared mission to move more, feel better, and support an important cause. What started as a friendly bit of competition quickly turned into a powerful display of community and determination.
Teams tracked their steps daily via the big challenge app, with the aim of walking from Swansea to Edinburgh a distance of 425 miles. The enthusiasm was contagious, with walking meetings, lunchtime strolls, and post-work power walks becoming the new norm around the campuses.
And with over 65,532,732 steps walked, ran and crawled we stepped ourselves to Edinburgh over 60 times. We also run the equivalent of 1,236 marathons or walked the entire Welsh Costal Path 37 times.
The first teams to reach Edinburgh were the Finance Department and Cleaning Team Gor, and the individual who did the most steps in the quickest time was Sue Parsons, so a huge congratulations to all involved.
The real win, though, is the awareness raised around prostate cancer—one of the most common cancers among men in the UK. Approximately 1 in 8 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and early detection is important to making a good recovery. The College has offered all staff, regardless of age, a free PSA test on campus. To date 63 male staff have had a check and 4 men were later diagnosed with prostate cancer. We are pleased to say that we will be offering more checks at Jubilee Court and Llwyn y Bryn in June, more details on when these will be taking place will be released shortly.
One step at a time, GCS is making a difference.