Friday 1st October 2021
We had a great Virtual Welcome Evening for parents of year 12 students this week. It involved a talk from myself and Rebecca Anderson, Pastoral Lead, to provide further guidance and information about the college processes. Parents had the opportunity to split off into separate groups to meet with their young person’s tutor. This gave parents the opportunity to ask any questions about college life. If you were not able to attend or would like the opportunity to follow up on any further questions then please do get in touch.
Today, the first year 12 reports have been sent home to parents, this will give an indication to students and parents on the transition they have made in subjects from GCSE to A-level or their Level 3 BTEC/CTEC courses. Staff will support students where early indications show the student has not performed well. Some students may find the transition after a difficult year hard to manage. What is critical, is the students’ commitment to working with us to make improvements, and this comes about from showing positive attitudes to their learning not just in the classroom but in the Independent Study work required to support their progress outside of lessons. Our expectations will always be high, so students not fully engaged will have subject conversations with teachers to work out what barriers are getting in the way.
Next week is year 13 Assessment week, the first for this academic year. Some assessments have taken place already in some subjects but the majority of students will be sitting a past paper to measure their progress. Students are working really hard and have returned to college very focused and determined to fulfil their potential.
This afternoon, our vocational classes have been closed period 3 to ensure that staff have the time together all afternoon to complete moderation and sign off of unit grades we are awarding in vocational courses. Students in year 13 have completed a number of course units and these will be submitted to the exam boards next week. This process has to be rigorous and we need to ensure we provide the staff team with the time needed to decide on the right outcomes for all our students.
Please see below further updates from this week.
Wishing you all a great weekend, let’s hope the weather improves quickly.
Louise
Dyslexia Week – Nicola Miller, SENDCo and DSL
Next week is National Dyslexia week. The theme for this year is invisible dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that shows no visible signs. For a person with dyslexia they can feel that they are isolated and unsupported. At S6C we work hard to make sure that our students with dyslexia and any SpLD (specific learning difficulties) are well supported by inclusive classroom practice. To support learning in the classroom and during independent study we subscribe to Read Write for Google. This is an assistive technology package that can support any student with their learning. Students just need to be logged into their college Google accounts to access this package. This means our students can use it to support their learning anywhere! Read Write will read Google docs, PDF, web pages and other sources. They can use it to dictate their work or apply screen colours that suit their learning. For a full list of tools that are available please follow the link below. If you or your young person would like to know more about Read Write please speak to Nicky the college SENDCo or Diane the college learning mentor.
Link to Read Write for Google instructions
Psychology Talk – Kirsty White, Faculty Lead for STEM and Teacher of Psychology
On Wednesday, Dr Alex Corcoran delivered a hands-on session focusing on roles and careers in the NHS to Year 13 students. They heard about the huge variety of options (over 350 roles!) and the different routes into them. Students then had the opportunity to try out some real equipment on themselves and each other – a stethoscope, a pulse oximeter, an otoscope and a blood pressure cuff. The session was engaging and will benefit the students who attended, giving them access to a professional in the healthcare field and helping them to add vital experience to personal statements and applications. We will be running the same session for Year 12s in November.
“The practical sessions were fun and educational. Letting students help with sessions also helped our confidence. I was helping with the pulse oximeter station and quickly learnt it was easier for me to time everyone at the same time and it created a smoother process. I would like to become a paramedic and this immersive talk really helped, especially the fact that it was in person.” – Rosie McAllister, applying for paramedic science.
“The session provided a range of useful information about working for the NHS including the diversity of jobs available, the different pathways of entering and the variety of opportunities such as working abroad. It helped me to think about the different qualities needed to be an NHS worker which will help me whilst writing my personal statement.” – Ed Smith, applying for Physiotherapy
Health and Social Care – Jo Mason, Teacher of Health & Social Care
Today (Friday) Health and Social Care students arranged a cake sale to raise money for Macmillan Cancer. The total raised will be confirmed in next week’s update. Thank you to our community students for supporting this and to Abby Currie and Paige Withell for their hard work in arranging
Baking Club – Sally Tye, Faculty Lead for Humanities and Baking Club Lead
This week on the menu for the online baking club was chocolate brownies. Below are some photos of the wonder creations students have made, in particular those made by Madaline Wood.
