Friday 4th February 2022
Dear Parents/ Carers
This week we have been hit very hard with staff sickness and a number of classes have been affected. Where staff have been out of college but well enough to teach, lessons were running online in their usual timetabled slot. Where staff had been too unwell to teach students had been set work to be completed in their allocated lesson slot through the Google Classroom. We are hopeful that most of these staff will be able to return at the start of next week and we will ensure that learning activities are revisited to ensure our young people are not affected by this.
You will have seen that we have now been able to release the year 12 and 13 reports which have gone out to students and parents this week. Thank you for your patience on this matter. If you have any concerns or queries you would like to discuss, then please do get in touch with the class teacher or Faculty Leader.
We have recently completed our annual Safeguarding Audit within the College, we are confident from completion of the audit that we are highly effective in our provision. To strengthen this further, we would like to ensure that future iterations of our policies are consulted on with our college community, when reviewing safeguarding policies including our Acceptable usage and ICT policy. In the summer term we will be inviting interested parents to join a Parental Group within the college and one of the tasks of this group will be to be involved in the review cycle of some of our Safeguarding policies and procedures. If you would like to know more please contact Nicky Miller – nmiller@s6c.mlp.college
On Tuesday 7th February we will receive information from the examining bodies to provide clarity on what content will be excluded in the summer examinations across our A Level subjects. Staff will use a training session next Friday to collate this information into a document that will be shared with students.
On Thursday evening I had the pleasure of watching A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream presented at Wyvern St Edmund’s Academy, our sister school in the Trust. The performance was exceptional and delivered with great humour. As part of collaboration with WSE and extending Clubs and Societies next academic year, we hope to encourage our S6C students to take part in such events.
Wishing you a restful weekend.
Best Wishes
Louise
Online Safety
Nicola Miller – SLT, DSL, SENCO & Teacher of Biology
February 8th is safer internet day with the theme ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’. We want to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for our young people, and to get our community including parents to partake in a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively.
The pandemic has seen a significant increase in internet use by young people. 56% of young people surveyed said they had chatted to people they do not know whilst playing games online. Whilst this contact can be a positive experience for some it can leave young people open to abuse. Internet safety is covered throughout the different key stages in education and is covered through our Life Skills programme at S6C. Young people and adults however are still at risk of online abuse.
Recent research by Childnet found that 77% of young people have spent more time playing online games and apps during the pandemic than ever before, so we are very
excited to cover this theme and to give topical and helpful advice for children and young people across the UK.
Within the college we have had recent reports to us where young people have had their Instagram accounts hacked. These accounts can be restored by contacting Instagram directly. Our continued advice to our young people is to be aware of pop up ads that reduce their level of personal account security and ensure that they have different safe and secure passwords for each service they use and these are not shared with others. S6C uses the Google platform which is monitored and ensures our students’ safety. Whilst many students use social media outside of college we ask students to only use the Google platform for communication and work in college.
UK Safer Internet Centre has provided some advice for parents https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022/advice-for-parents-and-carers
Equality and Diversity at S6C
Rebecca Anderson – Pastoral Lead & Teacher of English
February is LGBTQ+ history month – an amazing opportunity to live our values of equality and diversity by listening, learning and supporting. Life Skills this week and next week has a focus on Cultural Capital and LGBTQ+ history. The LGBTQ+ society are going to host a Rainbow Day on the 16th Feb (details to follow). Do take a look at this presentation from LGBT Youth Scotland, with a focus on international issues – lots of interesting info, links, actions, resources and signposting for support.
S6C’s LGBTQ Society
Kirsty White – Faculty Lead for STEM and LGBTQ+ Society Lead
Here at S6C, we have our own LGBTQ+ Society; we meet every Wednesday lunchtime. It provides a safe space for all LGBTQ+ students, as well as other students who wish to join (such as allies to the community). Students like to talk about a range of things – not all are directly related to LGBTQ+ as we are a society that fosters inclusivity. Our meetings look different week to week – before Christmas, we looked at gay penguins who adopted an egg and raised the chick; in other weeks, we have looked at the concept of gender. This week, to mark the first week of LGBT History Month, our students identified key issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community that they wish people knew more about. Keep an eye out for this on our social media (Instagram: @salisbury6thform and @s6cstem)!
Baking Club
Sally Tye – Faculty Lead and Online Baking Club Lead
This week students baked a Giant chocolate chip cookie in their slow cookers – treats on a budget!
Rebecca and Megan Cowdrey’s M&M Cookie
