Young architects, city planners and engineers are showcasing their dynamic artwork as part of a schools’ art showcase at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Students from the innovative West Midlands Construction University College (MCUTC), a new school specialising in construction and the Application of IT in the Built Environment, are exhibiting etchings, pen and ink drawings and photography at the Lichfield Street gallery.

Among images on show are two copies of pen and ink drawings of the college’s Springfield Brewery site campus created by Year 10 students. The detailed drawings were presented to the HRH Duke of Gloucester and Lord Baker at the campus’ recent opening.

Other pieces include highly detailed and photorealistic hand drawn pencil portraits and a large photography pieces on display, the work of Year 10 photography students, records the sense of place with shots of at the listed Springfield Brewery Campus.

The exhibition is part of the gallery’s Young Artists programme, which celebrates the work of students from various schools across the city.

Councillor John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: “The standard of work in this showcase is extremely high and well worth celebrating. Well done to all the students taking part and good luck in their future endeavours.”

The runs until May 23 in the Sense and Sculpture gallery located on the first floor of the gallery.

WMCUTC is a new school, which specialises in Construction and the Application of IT in the Built Environment providing a high quality technical education for 14-19 year olds.

Students can follow three pathways in the school comprising Design, Build and Innovate. Design strand students look to careers such as architecture, interior design, town planning and landscape design, although all students, whether aiming to become civil engineers or software developers study a core curriculum including a design element.

After 18 months of conservation and structural repair works, Guernsey's 'Little Chapel' is fully open to the public as of Saturday 8 April 2017.

Thought to be the smallest chapel in the world and one of Guernsey's key tourist attractions, the Little Chapel has been hiding behind scaffolding since October 2015 while it has undergone re-stabilisation works, reinforcement of retaining walls, and roof and spire repairs.  The work has included using historic photographs from Guernsey archives to re-apply original decoration, repair damaged crosses, and restore the chapel's eminent mosaic finish.

The chapel, which measures just nine feet long by five feet wide, can only accommodate a few people at a time and its walls are unusually made up of thousands of fragments of china, seashells and pebbles. Nestled in Guernsey's inland parish of St. Andrews, the current chapel is over 90 years old, built by Brother Deodat, an exiled French monk, to emulate the sacred grotto at Lourdes. It had survived 90 years with virtually no damage, even during the WWII German occupation.

The project has so far cost £180,000, while the overall anticipated investment will be around half a million pounds once new flooring and lighting have been installed. A re-ordering of the beautiful landscape around the chapel will also take place to provide better access and viewpoints, as well as more extensive planting of trees and shrubs. A small interpretation building set within the landscaping will tell the story of the Little Chapel, its construction and restoration, and provide toilets for visitors. Guernsey's CCD Chartered Architects and Interior Design donated their time and expertise for the repair and restoration of the Little Chapel at no charge.

The full opening of the chapel aptly coincides with the first day of the Channel Islands Heritage Festival, which celebrates the history of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm with a series of events, activities, tours and exclusive openings over five weeks from 8 April 2017. The chapel is free to visit, however donations are essential for its continued repairs and horticultural enhancement.

Green Lane Masjid, a mosque and community centre in Birmingham, has donated £1.2million to Human Appeal, a leading humanitarian aid charity in the UK. The money will go to providing flour for starving people inside Syria and to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon during the winter.

Human Appeal’s flour distribution project is renowned throughout the international aid community as one of the best in the world, it feeds 200,000 Syrians a month. Intentional organisations like the UN have worked with Human Appeal on this project.

The total donated is £1,234,000, mainly by members of Birmingham’s Muslim community, this was raised through regular collections in the mosque, through fundraising dinners, organised street collections and many other methods of raising money.

Othman Moqbel, Human Appeal’s Chief Executive, says of Green Lane Masjid’s support for Human Appeal “We are very grateful for Green Lane Mosque’s support. £1.2million is the equivalent of 4,113 tonnes of flour, which could feed up to 832,000 Syrians.

“This week has seen the plight of Syrians recapture international attention, so money to alleviate their suffering is needed more than ever – especially such a staggering amount”.

“We can’t emphasis enough on the importance of distributing flour to the bakeries of Syria. 9.8 million Syrians are classed as food insecure, with 6.8 million severely food insecure. Food production in Syria has also hit a record low with the 2015/2016 cropping season at the lowest ever. The wheat harvest estimate is approximately 1.5 million tonnes which, 55% lower than the pre-conflict average.

“Bread constitutes a major part of the Syrian diet, however, poor harvest, price hikes in agricultural inputs and loss of agricultural infrastructure has increased the price of bread by 87% in public bakeries. Shares of household expenditure on food has increased tremendously with families spending more than half of their incomes on food.

“Human Appeal began delivering flour to hard-to-reach and besieged areas of Syrian from 2011, today we have reached 3.7million people with our flour and the feedback we get is always positive and they are grateful to receive the food because most of them don’t have the 300 Syrian Pounds needed to buy a bag of bread. Human Appeal currently provides the bread for about 208,000 beneficiaries every month. For an average of 17 bakeries each month, we provide the flour to keep them in operation, giving their staff a regular income and liberating them from being dependant on humanitarian aid.”

Faculty of Science & Engineering students at the University of Wolverhampton have joined forces to raise money for charity after attending a teambuilding residential recently.

The fifteen students, studying for a range of courses including Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying, Construction, Civil Engineering, Genetics and Molecular Biology and Biomedical Science, attended a three day teambuilding residential at Open-door Adventure at Dolben Hall, St. Asaph in North Wales as part of the University’s successful Career Development Week and decided that collectively they wanted to make a difference.

The students, who call themselves ‘Selfless Spirits’ have raised nearly £700 for the YMCA Sleep Easy fundraising initiative that was held at the University recently.  Sleep Easy raises money to help change the lives of vulnerable young people.  The ‘Selfless Spirits’ spent the night sleeping rough in the grounds of the University to highlight the plight of the homeless.

Angela Nash, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and the Built Environment in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, said:  “Following a very impactful teambuilding trip which included night-time caving, raft building, assault courses and a campfire for some social and team-bonding activities this fairly disparate group ranging from first year degree students through to PhD students have taken their teambuilding further than we could have imagined.”

Hannah Wildwood, one of the students, said:  “We were really impressed with the residential during Career Development Week and were inspired to create a group which focuses on raising money for the YMCA.  So far we have held an end of event party, have taken a hottest curry challenge and are planning more group events.”

Anyone wanting to donate to the ‘Selfless Spirits’ can find their fundraising page here.

Meet four of the runners proudly representing their home nations as part of this year’s Simplyhealth Great Birmingham 10K featuring the Commonwealth Run.

Organisers of the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham 10k have created a distinctly Commonwealth theme at the event to raise the profile of the city’s bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

And runners representing Canada, Jamaica, England and Wales, gathered at Birmingham’s Council House in Victoria Square to meet each other for the first time.

Taking place on Sunday, 30th April, the popular city centre run is now less than a month away and will feature elite teams from as many Commonwealth nations as possible, with 20 countries now signed up.

Meeting for the first time were runners Alison Fox (Canada), from Nottingham, Thomas Glave (Jamaica), from Birmingham, Graham Williams (Wales), from Smethwick and Adam Guy (England), from Birmingham.

They were joined by Birmingham-born Ian Stewart, one of the world’s leading distance runners between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, who flew the flag for Scotland.

Admin worker Alison, who hails from Ontario but now lives in Nottingham, has lost a remarkable 11 stone in weight since she started running following a family bereavement.

Alison’s grandfather was born in Scotland and after completing a study-abroad year in Leeds in 2011 she applied for a UK ancestry visa to allow her to live and work in the UK.

“I only started running two years ago when I was trying to lose weight,” said the 29-year-old. “I discovered I really enjoyed it. Before, I couldn’t run five-feet, let alone 10K!

“I’ve now lost just under 11 stone and I recently completed my first marathon.

“I’m really excited to be representing Canada at the Great Birmingham 10K,” she added.

“One of my running heroes is the Canadian marathon record holder Lanni Marchant and I asked her for some advice before my first full marathon and she even congratulated me after I finished it.”

Liz McColgan, one of Britain's most distinguished athletes, will be jetting into Birmingham from her Qatar base to take part in the Commonwealth Run as she captains the Scotland team.

A two-time gold medallist over 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986 and Auckland in 1990, as well as winning the 1991 World Championships and silver at the 1988 Olympic Games, she achieved further gold medal glory at the 1992 World Half Marathon Championships, 1991 New York City Marathon, 1992 Tokyo Marathon and 1996 London Marathon.

Liz will be among the 7,000 people running, jogging or walking this year’s Simplyhealth Great Birmingham 10K on Sunday, April 30.

“With a population of over a million people in the city and an array of Commonwealth nationalities, we’re looking forward to a spectacular day in Birmingham,” said Great Run Communications Director, David Hart.

Walsall College Construction student, Grace Morgan has been shortlisted for a national 2017 BTEC Award.

The BTEC Awards, now in their seventh year, aim to recognise individuals for exceptional achievements while working towards their BTEC qualifications.

BTECs are career-based qualifications designed to give students the skills they need to move on to higher education or go straight into employment.

Grace is in the second year of her BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Construction and The Built Environment and has been offered a scholarship by Northumbria University to study a degree in Building Surveying.

Construction Lecturer at Walsall College, Andrew Stubbs, said: “From day one Grace has shown a real passion for learning and a clear desire to develop her skills and knowledge of the sector.

“She completed her work experience placement with Turner and Townsend, an international project management firm based in Birmingham and received excellent feedback from a senior quantity surveyor.

“She is also keen to promote the sector and has volunteered her time at school career days to talk to youngsters considering following the same path as her.

“We are delighted that she has been shortlisted as it is testament to the dedication she has displayed as well as her hard work and efforts on all her assignments.”

Curriculum Manager for Construction at Walsall College, Barry Hill said: “We have some exceptionally talented students at Walsall College so we are very proud when they receive external recognition. Grace has worked hard and I’m confident she will be successful in her chosen career path when she completes her studies.”

Studying BTEC qualifications help students to develop a range of practical knowledge and skills to prepare for and progress in their chosen career.

Classroom style teaching combined with project work and practical, work-related activities help to develop students' behavioural skills, which can include teamwork, creative thinking and presentation skills.

More employers and Higher Education institutions than ever before are choosing BTEC-qualified candidates for their academic and practical knowledge and skills.