Returning to College

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Dear Parents

I hope that you have had a safe and happy Christmas and that you have been able to spend some good time with close family members, even if it hasn’t quite been what you would have wished or planned for.

Following the latest government information issued yesterday afternoon, Wiltshire has moved into Tier 3 and we have some families, including staff who are resident in Tier 4 areas. I want to assure you that whether you live in Tier 3 or 4, there is no restriction on travel for educational purposes; staff and children can therefore attend school.

However, whilst primary children will attend school as normal from next week, there is now no immediate return for most secondary and S6C students. The arrangements for secondary schools and S6C are as follows:

From Tuesday 5th January:

Young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan and/or a social worker or others invited to attend school or college in person should do so. Parents whose work is critical to the Covid-19 response should also send their children to school if childcare is necessary.

Students in all year groups will receive remote education including live teaching. The schools and college will run a normal timetable, which means that your son or daughter will start their day at the usual time. This will cover the curriculum in a similar way to normal face to face teaching and our aim is to ensure that all students, particularly our examination year groups, do not lose any ground with their learning

Students with a scheduled examination during the first week of term will attend to sit the examination

Students that are due to take external examinations in January are expected into college for live lessons in those subjects from the 5th January

By Friday 8th January, students in Years 11 and 13 and some Year 12s will have attended school or college to take a lateral flow Covid test in readiness for their return to face to face teaching on 11th January.

From Monday 11th January:

Remote learning continues for all year groups from 7-10

Students in Year 11 and 13 and those in Year 12 with examinations in the next couple of weeks will return to face to face teaching after a second lateral flow Covid test has been taken and results received.

Year 7-10 and most Year 12 students attend school/college at an appointed time to take a lateral flow test in readiness for return to face to face teaching

Please note that Wiltshire transport buses will be operational from Monday 11th January.

Monday 18th January

Year 7-10 and 12 students return to school after second lateral flow test

All secondary and college students receive face to face teaching as normal

After the initial return to school/college testing programme, we will continue mass testing through a responsive approach. This means that if a case is reported to us we will test the close contacts on a daily basis, allowing students to remain in live learning unless they test positive. We will also be testing staff routinely on a weekly basis.

This two week staggered return which will include testing for all students and staff will help reduce the spread of the virus by identifying those who have no symptoms and will also ensure that when we have a positive case we are able to avoid sending whole year groups home to isolate. The best place for our young people – for their education and their well-being – is in school and college. Please help us by consenting to the testing programme and ensuring that we know immediately if your child or another close family member has tested positive.

You will receive a communication from your child’s school providing you details of the testing process and asking you to sign a consent form; please read this information carefully and share it with your son or daughter. Do also feel free to contact your school or college should you have any questions.

There is no doubt that we are in worrying times across the country with regard to the spread of the virus. However, we are confident that the measures now available to us in our secondary schools and college will help us contain the spread and keep families well.  

I wish you a happy and healthy new year. Here’s to a brighter 2021 and a year in which all our children really flourish.

Warm regards

Sarah Busby

Chief Executive Officer

News from the Autumn Term at S6C

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Here is a roundup of news from the College in the Autumn Term.

S6C has capability to run full curriculum online

Last academic year when schools and colleges had to close, we were one of only a small number of colleges that ran our full curriculum online, to timetable, very successfully.

This term some of our teaching and learning has had to move online to support the Government guidelines for social distancing and to keep students and staff safe. 

In November the decision was made for clubs and societies and the Life Skills programme to move online. Pastoral Lead, Rebecca Anderson, kicked off the online programme by asking students to look at some material and send in their views on values that shape this country, and the way these can ensure both protection and freedom, if we all work together as society. This was followed up with feedback to Year 12, having read all their responses – celebrating the strengths in their answers and addressing a few ongoing misconceptions. Pastoral Lead, Rebecca Anderson, said, “It has been so good to read so many insightful, kind, and positive views on acceptance, tolerance and diversity. The future is in safe hands with educated and empowered young people!”

Teaching also moved online for Year 12 during the mock week to reduce the number of students in the building and just have the ‘Year 13 bubble’ on site. This decision was made to support all Year 13 students, including students currently learning from home as a pastoral decision during the national lockdown.

Much like when we had to move online during lockdown last academic year, all lessons for Year 12s ran at the same time as the normal timetable, and self-directed study tasks were set to be completed in between lessons. Staff ran all subject lessons using Google Meet which students accessed through their Google classrooms. Staff were able to have a dialogue with the students at appropriate points in the lesson, so students could respond and share their answers and ideas using their microphones and cameras. Students could choose to change their background on Google Meet before logging in or whilst in Meet so that the privacy of their home is maintained. 

Fantastic new courses at S6C!

S6C is excited to present our new courses for September 2021 entry: we will be the only college in Salisbury offering Esports for 2021 entry which is an exciting new course that will help you navigate a career within the Esports industry or help you progress to university to either study Esports or subjects like marketing, video game development, computer programming, sports management and coaching and so much more. 

S6C will also be offering two accelerated pathway programmes which have been developed to support those students who may not have quite reached the grades to study a full A Level programme and will enable them to leave S6C with a level 3 qualification and a route to their next stage, whether that be employment, apprenticeship or university. As well as this, S6C will be offering new courses in Environmental Science (A Level), Core Maths and, following the success of our Extended Certificate in Applied Science, we can now also offer the Extended Diploma in Applied Science.

S6C students enjoy covid-safe trips to art galleries

Back in term 1 our art students enjoyed covid-safe trips to local art galleries – Messums Gallery in Tisbury and Sarum Studio in Salisbury – where they met artists who gave them a tour and presented their work.

At Messums Gallery, students had the opportunity to sketch, inspired by what they saw, and also recreate a piece from the studio replication of the original Elisabeth Frink’s Studio. Students looked at Frink’s work and watched a video about her life, and life’s work, before they began the task. Art student Amy Patterson said, “at the end of the task, each of us came up with a completely different style and view of what we were creating, as everyone has a different interpretation of art, which is what makes it so great.”

At Sarum Studio, students met Nick Beer who welcomed them and gave them a tour and presentation of techniques used by the Italian traditional school of painting.

Year 12 student Amy said that the trips helped her to “better understand art and sculpture. It showed me that I don’t always have to rely on accuracy and detail, and can instead concentrate more on form, tones and structures. I think that my time there really helped me to further understand the way in which Frink works.”

Student recruitment goes online

We have had to adapt the way we enable students to research their course choices at the College and apply to join us. In September, October and November we held online Open Evenings, where prospective students joined our teachers and some current students in live virtual video chats to hear about the courses and ask questions. 

Teachers tried to give an experience close to a real Open Evening here at the College and the feedback from participants was positive with one visitor saying that the evening was “very good. Technology worked brilliantly, we were able to ask direct questions to tutors and discuss questions.”

We have also begun our interviews for applicants wishing to join in September 2021. These are also taking place virtually using telephone calls and video calls to “meet” our prospective students. Video calls gives the applicants an opportunity to share work with the interviewer and enables our teachers to really see the students’ passion.

Mental Health Development Day

On Wednesday 6th October S6C held our annual mental health development day – full of positive messaging, resources and activities to promote mental and emotional wellbeing, so students are empowered to look after themselves and others.

Activities included outdoor sport, playing with clay, mindfulness, yoga, relaxing colouring, an interview on coping skills with a local doctor, an illustration of mental health using a backpack, a video on kindness provided by the Student Union, and making lists of unhelpful and helpful strategies. The newly created MHST (mental health service team) – which we are linked to as part of a national trailblazer test programme – delivered a talk on exam stress, how to manage panic attacks, strategies for minimising anxiety and tips on healthy sleep. It was so good to be able to facilitate the day for students in a Covid secure way and know they have what they need to be able to get advice, information and help, 24/7, whenever they or a friend may need it, now or in the future.

We all need a little help sometimes and being able to discuss mental health issues calmly, positively and practically is healthy and helpful. More information on the extensive pastoral support systems in college can be found on our website or by contacting the Pastoral Lead.

S6C Reverse Advent Calendar and Christmas Jumper Day

At the beginning of December, Rebecca Anderson, Pastoral Lead, launched a reverse advent calendar in the College. Usually advent calendars mean you take an item each day, with a reverse advent calendar, you give an item. Throughout December students and staff have donated unopened food basics, food treats, toiletries, Christmas decorations or novelties, small gifts, seasonal food items, sanitary products, pet food, pet treats and other items that could be spared or bought and donated.

Pastoral Lead, Rebecca Anderson says “Acts of kindness help our own mental health as well as helping those around us, so it’s a win win project!”

Donations have been placed in a box at S6C Reception and will be shared out across food banks and homeless projects in the local area at the end of term.

Vice-Principal, Louise Henderson, says “This year, we are facing a very different Christmas. Covid might deny some of us the family feasts of years past, but it won’t stop us spreading comfort and joy in the Salisbury community with our reverse advent calendar.  Covid-19 has put record numbers of families at risk of going hungry and we recognise the importance of service to our community and some festive cheer – to those in need.”

The College has also been supporting Save the Children by participating in the Christmas Jumper day on Friday 11th December. Staff and students were invited to wear their best Christmas jumper and donate to the charity.

Online Open Evenings – book now!

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**THE PROGRAMME AND LINKS TO LIVE SESSIONS HAVE NOW BEEN SENT OUT TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BOOKED – if you have not received it yet please check your spam/junk email folder and if it is not there then please contact the College prior to the Open Evening** If you have not booked yet, there’s still time, please complete the booking form by 3:30pm on Wednesday 25th November.

Following the success of our online Open Evenings in September, we are offering two further virtual Open Evenings on Wednesday 21st October 2020 and Wednesday 25th November 2020 from 4-7pm.

Booking is essential for these events in order for us to send joining instructions to those wishing to attend. The booking form is short and will take no more than a minute to complete: https://www.salisbury6c.ac.uk/study-with-us/open-evenings/

The feedback from the previous online open evenings was overwhelmingly positive, including the following comments:

“Staff answered questions well, were friendly and nice. Booking and joining was simple and easy to understand.”

“Booking the sessions was really easy as well as joining them. Teachers were really enthusiastic and their sessions went into a lot of depth.”

Booking for online Open Evenings now open!

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Booking is essential in order to attend the online Open Evenings and takes just a minute to complete. We require contact details in order to send joining instructions for the evening which will only be sent to those who have booked.

Bookings can be made on our website here: salisbury6c.ac.uk/study-with-us/open-evenings/

The dates of the Open Evenings are as follows

Creative faculty – Tuesday 22nd September 2020 – 5-7pm
STEM faculty – Wednesday 23rd September 2020 – 5-7pm
Humanities faculty – Thursday 24th September 2020 – 5-7pm

Each evening will cover a different faculty to give students the opportunity to sample as many subjects as possible and get a flavour of what S6C has to offer. Programmes for each evening will be published next week.

Students will have the opportunity to talk to subject teachers to find out more about our courses. Our current students will be on hand to talk about their experiences of life at S6C, and there will be a Q&A session with our principal and an information session from our SENCO and Pastoral Lead.

Transport Services Update 4th September 2020

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Please see below a message from the Salisbury Reds team regarding the changes to bus timetables:

“The changes are designed to help ensure there is sufficient capacity on the bus network for scholars. Full details, including timetables, are here:

https://www.salisburyreds.co.uk/school-bus-timetable-changes-september-2020

Many of the changes feature the provision of new scholars-only services. These routes are not required to have the covid-19 capacity restrictions that remain in place on the general network.

These changes have been made with assistance from Wiltshire Council, using funding provided by the DfE.

Given the level of uncertainty this year, issues in the first week or two are perhaps inevitable as scholars become used to the new arrangements and as new travel patterns become established. Please be assured that we will be closely monitoring loads and will endeavour to react as quickly as possible to any problems.

If you have any queries please, contact our Customer Services team: https://www.salisburyreds.co.uk/contact.”

S6C ready for face-to-face teaching

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Salisbury 6th Form College is ready for a full return for all students for the new academic year. As a small sixth sixth form college, S6C is able to resume face-to-face teaching for all students safely due to lower numbers of students on site at any one time. Safety precautions have also been implemented to ensure students and staff can follow the current government guidelines to keep our college community safe. 

Teaching will resume in the College building on Tuesday 8th September for current students starting Year 13 and the day will begin with an assembly to welcome them back and confirm any changes to procedures in the building in order to adhere to guidelines. Following the assembly, lessons will resume in classrooms. New students joining the College will be welcomed on Thursday 3rd September and they will have a day of induction to the College before lessons commence in classrooms on Friday 4th September.

As a Google College, all new students will be shown the online Google Classroom and how to use Google Meet for live video sessions, this will ensure that, should the need arise for live online teaching to recommence, all students will be confident to access online learning.

When on site, students will follow a one-way system around the building in order to adhere to social distancing rules and keep students and staff safe. Hand gel dispensers are also available around the College and students and staff will be reminded to use these when moving around the building. The College has also been deep-cleaned and is ready to welcome our students back!

Enrolment for 2020 is now open!

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Enrolment for 2020/21 applicants is now open! If you have not yet applied for 2020/21 but would like to, please contact us on the phone number or email below.

Please use the link below to begin your enrolment. You will need to upload a picture of yourself for your Student ID along with a digital copy of your results. A photo of your results is acceptable if you do not have a digital copy.

If your BTEC results are delayed, just change your predicted grade to achieved and place a note in the notes box below your results.

If you have any problems, please call or email us on 01722597970 or admissions@salisbury6c.ac.uk.

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