Friday 10th December 2021
I am so incredibly proud of how hard all our staff and students have worked this term, and what they have achieved. We have seen our young people grow and develop both personally and academically. Year 12 students have established strong work patterns and have now adapted well to the requirements and commitment needed of their courses. Year 13 tutors have supported students in getting early UCAS applications sent for university places and some students have already undergone interviews and are awaiting decisions including places at Oxford and Cambridge. How fantastic are our young people?
I’m sure you will join me in thanking our staff for their exceptional commitment they give to our students to both challenge and support every young person. A big thank you also has to go to all the staff that have worked tirelessly to maintain the safety of our site through COVID.
We have received updated COVID guidance from the Government for colleges, and I can confirm that staff, students and visitors will continue to be asked to wear masks in communal areas as they have been doing. Our guidance is that it is not advised for students and staff to wear masks during lessons in classrooms, although they are welcome to do so if they wish.
Our last day of term is Wednesday 15th December, finishing at lunchtime. All students will have lessons period 1 and 2. Year 12 students will then leave for their Christmas break whilst Year 13 students have their final Life skills tutorial to tie up discussions about their progression planning before our Christmas break. This session will finish at 12.45pm.
We return to college on Wednesday 5th January 2022, and will write to parents next week once we have confirmed the requirements needed for lateral flow testing before college commences in the new year.
Many of our vocational students have scheduled external exams in January which they have been working hard to prepare for. Lisa Lucas will write to parents and students next week to confirm further examination details.
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe festive season and we look forward to seeing students back in College on Wednesday 5th January 2022.
Best Wishes
Louise
Community Links & Charity Work
Christmas Jumper for Joy
Rebecca Anderson – Pastoral Lead
As mentioned in last week’s Update, this year the Magna Learning Partnership have signed all academies within the trust up to the help support Save the Children and are taking part in a Christmas Jumper day Today (Friday 10th December) to raise money for this great cause. It was lovely to see so many Christmas jumpers and festivities around the building. If you would like to make any additional donations to the charity to support as a community then you can do so by following this link to the Just giving page
Our Christmas Jumper Day (savethechildren.org.uk)
Christmas Wreath
Catherine Pennington – Mental Health Lead & Teacher of Business.
In the last week of term, Catherine Pennington’s A-Level Business Class have been making Christmas Wreaths for Asthma UK. The project was an operation to demonstrate the workings of a real business. There were some executive roles within the group: we appointed an accountant (Hannah Fergusson), a Sales Director (Rachel Hook), Head of Marketing (Liv Bowman) and our website designers (Toby Mortimer and Harry Redshaw). Lily Davis, who has recently joined S6C was quickly promoted to Team Leader on Production. Students were assigned to pre-ordered wreaths, so they were responsible for producing products for customers who were known to them, therefore it was so important quality was of a high standard and passed Catherine’s Q.C. threshold. Training was delivered by Catherine on how to add value to a basic douglas pine wreath. The materials for the products were sourced in a variety of ways to keep the cost down; Peter Hopkins, a retired pensioner from Dorset helped gather holly, rosehip and pine cones from the land he farmed as a young man; the class donated their old christmas decorations from home; pre-loved christmas cards were turned into personalised tags for customers to collect and gift; wreath frames from last year were donated back to the project and, sorry Laurence, we used some gold spray from your art room 🙂 The project linked to the Business A Level Syllabus in many ways, we had so much fun being creative and finishing off the Autumn term with a really worthwhile project. If you feel you could make a donation to Asthma UK.
please visit our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/christmas-wreaths-asthmauk
Catherine would like to thank her class for the enthusiasm and resilience shown by every one of her students during this project. Our young people at S6C really are amazing and they can achieve anything they set out to do in life with the right recipe for success.
A huge thank you to our customers and supporters.
Student Union Message
Angus Archer – SU Events Officer
S6C volunteers have been delivering our donations received so far to the Salisbury Pantry and they are very grateful so please keep the food coming. If you are able to check through cupboards at home or pick up some additional supplies whilst shopping at the weekend, then we would love to receive them please. Please donate tins, dried goods or long lasting foods. We will be able to make a further delivery before the end of term. 
Support at S6C
Mental Health & Wellbeing – Rebecca Anderson, Pastoral Lead
We are pleased that Catherine Pennington has joined the pastoral support team as our S6C Mental Health Lead. Catherine will be promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for staff and students and will introduce herself in the new year. Students can now message or pop in and see her if you’d like support. Rebecca will still be available, as Pastoral Lead; we also have Bridget joining us in the office to help support attendance; and Hazel is always there for you for our students with a smile and a listening ear on the way in or out. First point of contact is still your tutor – Di (our Learning Mentor), the Safeguarding Team, the college counsellors, and external agencies and helplines are all here when needed.
Christmas Support
If students need emotional or mental health support over Christmas, please contact The Mix (who offer experienced professional support to under 25s), The Samaritans (who are there to listen to any concerns 24/7), or take a look at the newly updated Salisbury Camhs website, which has lots of resources and advice for young people and families, details of the local mental health support line (which can be used by young people or their parents), and guidance on what to do in a crisis. Take care of yourselves and each other.
https://www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/camhs/support/
Get support from Oxford Health CAMHS | Oxford Health CAMHSOxford Health CAMHS
Online Safety
Craig Chambers, Assistant Head of College
We want to raise everyone’s attention to the potential threats that online chat sites can bring to our community. Students and parents are familiar with common social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and we hope that everyone uses these safely to communicate with their networks of people.
As the internet continues to accelerate in it’s content, it is quickly becoming a significant part of our daily lives. There will be a growing range of video and chat sites available that are uncensored, have low level monitoring and create a risk of exposure of inappropriate material or communication to our young people. One site that has been drawn to our attention is Omegle, and we want to share with you the message we have shared with our students about it in their Google Information Classroom.
“Hello all. Although Omegle seems like a fun way to connect with people in a global community, their own website states that “predators have been known to use Omegle, so please be careful.” It has a spy feature (meaning your chats can be monitored by an unseen viewer), it is poorly moderated, and has recently gained a reputation for exposing young people to unwelcome sexual content, as well as creating a platform for experienced groomers to gain your trust. We are not allowing the use of Omegle in college, when you should be focused on your studies anyway, and we recommend you avoid it. Stay safe and look after yourselves! “
Please can you discuss the importance of safe internet use for communication with your young person. If you have any concerns you would like to raise about ICT acceptable usage and safety then please do get in touch with me at cchambers@s6c.mlp.college
Every student has a copy of our ICT acceptable use policy in their subject classrooms and it is also published on our website under statutory information.
Here is the link to our updated Policy that was ratified by Governors in November 2021.
Creative Faculty Update
Art and Photography
Laurence Rushby & Sophie Bellars, Teachers of Art and Photography
A student perspective – Venturing out to Roche Court on an interesting trip allowed for us all to experience different types of art, as well as develop our photographic research and public speaking skills.
Roche Court is a gallery with a unique layout, giving the whole place a more humble and ‘easy on the eye feel’ than most galleries. Its presentation as a gallery house packs in a lot of artwork from multiple diverse artists. Despite the harsh conditions of Storm Barra, we travelled around to view all of these inspiring pieces outside as well as going around inside different buildings to see sculptures, prints and paintings. These helped us to develop our ‘See, Think, Wonder’ routine, practised in class as a way of thinking critically, which allows us to describe an artwork in depth.
While we went around to see all of these artworks, a series of activities prompted our preparation for our afternoon challenge of speaking publicly. We are taking part in the ARTiculation project, so developing our public speaking skills is an extremely important part of becoming confident to present in front of a larger crowd, a skill that also prepares us for any job interviews for the future. We were split into three groups and given a specific piece of art to analyse and research, then to turn into a presentation for the rest of the class. These pieces were ‘High Wire’ by Allen Jones, ‘Tame Buzzard Line’ by Richard Long and ‘Espaliered Girl’ by Laura Ford.
While public speaking about a subject you only learned about an hour ago can be extremely daunting, every group did exceptionally well. We received constructive feedback on how to improve our script or speaking from our hosts, as well as how we did well. Having background information about the artist and our specific piece was a key factor for our presentations, but the main body was our in depth analysis and further elements such as our initial thoughts, a description of colours and composition and the intentions of the artist. Every group made their presentation extremely engaging and clear, as well as providing a lot of information. Finally, the day ended with sunshine purring through the clouds to allow for a final walk in the park after the storm.
Overall, the trip was an enjoyable experience and extremely useful as we got to develop so many useful skills – not just artistic skills, but ones that can be used in any situation. Seeing artworks in person was a greater experience than just looking online, as we can see so much more through our own eyes.
Reported by Clay Ingram, Isaac Kerley, Liv Bowman
Esports
Nathan David, Teacher of Esports
The Extended Diploma Esports students are thrilled to have their S6C bespoke jerseys for their Salisbury Spitfires Esports team. Each shirt has our logo (designed by S6C alumni Jordan Markham) as well as the S6C logo and our country of birth. The backs have our gaming tags and number. We even managed to persuade Head of College Louise Henderson to wear her Spitfires jersey for the shot as well as Assistant Head Craig Chambers!
You can follow the adventures of the Spitfires at their Instagram and also via our Twitch
Teacher of Esports, Nathan David, has been working with HyperX on a sponsorship deal which we’ll be able to announce very soon. “It’s incredibly exciting to be working with them as we’ll hopefully have some fantastic peripherals for the Esports students.”
The Extended Diploma in Esports is currently in its first year at S6C.
Creative Media Practice
Richard Eno, Teacher of Media & Film
The students are still in production for their music videos but they’ll soon be in post-production. Here’s a picture of our student Cosmin in costume for the Sparks song, ‘So May We Start’, which is also used in the latest film by Leos Carax and starring Adam Drive, Annette.
Second year students are busy developing their Salisbury business project where they are making video promos and social media campaigns for Maul’s Wine and Cheese, Vintage Corner No. 5 and the Rocketship Bookshop.
Clubs and Societies
Pop Up Christmas Craft Club – Rebecca Anderson, Pastoral Lead
Year 12 practicing their open mindsets “I can’t make an origami Christmas star – yet! But I will get better at it if I practice ….” Students had a chance to have another go on a pop up Christmas craft club in the foyer.
Sally Tye, Baking Club
Baking club took on a big challenge this week – pastry making! Some students made last month’s mincemeat into mince pies and some made jam tarts. Here are Tom Stewart’s jam tarts!
S6C Alumni
Nye came to S6C from our MLP feeder school, Trafalgar, studied History, English Literature and Sociology at S6C and secured a competitive place at University College, Oxford, studying History and Politics. He had to sit an entry exam, was invited to online interviews for both subjects in the combined honours degree, and then had to secure A grades in all his subjects – a milestone which he surpassed by getting A* in all three of his subjects. A real achievement, we are very proud!
