On Thursday 2 July, Salisbury 6th Form College held their first ever Virtual Freshers Day for applicants who have been made offers to study at S6C in September.
The day started with a video message from the Principal, Simon Firth, and a video tour of the College with images and videos from trips, visits and enrichment activities. The video also gave applicants an opportunity to hear from current and alumni students from S6C who all shared why they love S6C and what student life is like.
Following the pre-recorded video students then had the opportunity to meet with each of their teachers through live online Q&A sessions. The live sessions were run through Google Meet giving applicants an insight into how S6C’s current students have been keeping in touch with their teachers and how live online teaching has continued at the College throughout lockdown. Applicants also had access to information about starting College such as travel, IT and the enrolment process.
Vice-Principal, Louise Henderson, said, “The teaching staff were incredibly impressed with the level of engagement and maturity of the year 11 students in the online sessions. Students were thoughtful and were prepared with a range of questions to find out more about what they are going to study in the courses. Staff are really excited to teach our new year 12’s in September and are looking forward to having the students in the college where they will form their new teaching groups and friendships.”
As part of the online event, applicants and their parents could also learn more about the Aspire to Excellence programme at S6C. The Aspire to Excellence programme introduces Year 12s to excellent study habits, extension material, super curricular engagement, debating and higher level thinking skills, and gain early insights into job markets, higher education pathways and how to prepare for competitive degree, apprenticeship and employment applications. It also involves trips and visits and inspiring speakers. Applicants could hear from Rebecca Anderson who leads the programme at S6C and also from current students in Year 13 who have participated in the programme and are now progressing onto competitive courses and top universities.
S6C current students also participated in the day in order to share their experience of the College and why they love S6C. Year 12 students, Ruben, shared a film montage about his course which he created for S6C’s exhibition at the Salisbury Library February this year. Art teacher, Laurence Rushby, said “Ruben was great at expressing how much fun he had in the course. The session had a good vibe.” Another current student said “We gave an overview of the course and an opportunity to ask any questions. Psychology will most likely be a new thing for most going in as it’s not normally offered at GCSE so to get a little bit of background and to be told what they’ll be studying so they could maybe prepare themselves a bit over the summer was good”. Another student shared their own personal experience and said “I really found myself at college”
