Friday 18th February 2022
Dear Parents/ Carers
Wednesday was unfortunate to leave us with a power outage that lasted over 2 hours, impacting on all our services in the college, primarily the loss of water pumping which impacted sanitation, and leading to the decision to close the college on health and safety grounds. The students were fantastic and continued to try and work where IT was being used, despite the lack of internet services available. The outage affected the Eastern side of the city and power was restored in the afternoon. All our students left the site safely to go home, and we can only apologise that we were not able to send messages out to parents until a staff member was able to do so off site.
Today, we have faced another closure due to Storm Eunice, and made the decision yesterday as a Trust to keep our community safe.
If we were in need to close the building early again in the event of an emergency, as Head of College, I will make a decision early each morning as to whether the college will remain open. If the decision is to close, parents will be informed via email. We will also publish updates via our website and social media platforms. Please inform the college if email addresses or mobile numbers have recently changed.
In the event of an emergency occurring during the college day, we will contact parents/carers in the same way. If this was to be another power outage we would use the support from one of our partner MLP schools to access our systems to ensure the communications could be sent.
The mock exam timetable has now been sent home to parents and carers and has been distributed through a Year 13 assembly and the Student Information Classroom. We have made a late change to how the second week of mocks are conducted – moving from the classroom to the Theatre to mirror the first week experience. When we reviewed the overview of the second paper, it had created some inconsistencies particularly due to timings of lessons and papers having to be split. The student experience is the most important factor here, to allow students to experience as close to the summer exams as possible in their preparations. Therefore the 8 day timetable in the exam halls has been scheduled to support our young people and make sure all students including those with access arrangements feel fully supported.
I hope you have a restful weekend.
Best Wishes
Louise
Absence Reporting
Bridget Siddle, Pastoral Assistant – Attendance
A reminder that if your young person is going to be absent from college, we require a parent/carer to contact the college each day they are going to be absent either by phone: 01722 597970 or email: office@s6c.mlp.college.
If their absence is due to Covid, we only require one call/email from a parent/guardian on the first day they become aware that they have Covid. As per government guidelines, if students test negative on days 5 and 6, students may return to college, however, if they continue to test positive after this point a daily call or email is required.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your young person’s attendance, please contact Bridget Siddle, Pastoral Assistant – Attendance, either by phone: 01722597970 or email: bsiddle@s6c.mlp.college.
English Literature – Partnership working with Alumni and supporting Initial teacher training
Rebecca Anderson
We have been very pleased to have the expertise and enthusiasm of trainee teachers Holly and Clare in Year 12 classes. Holly is an S6C alumni student and so had studied the course she was now teaching – she has built on her A* performance with us by attaining a first class degree from Exeter University, and working for a year as a teaching assistant in a local secondary school, prior to embarking on her postgraduate training. Holly has been a regular visitor to S6C to promote the wonders and realities of university study on careers days, and it was wonderful to welcome her back to the front of the classroom. In our last session Clare shared her experience of twenty five years in the PR and journalism industry and gave students some practical labour market information and tips for careers in this field, including the importance of safe and savvy use of social media to build a platform. She also encouraged students to take opportunities, be daring, and be willing to make changes in their careers so that they keep their hopes and dreams in sight.
In Year 12 and 13 we are complementing our mainstream studies with a celebration of LGBTQ+ history month. We are exploring the poetry of WH Auden and Danez Smith, comparing the experience of LGBTQ+ poets living in an era where they needed to hide their identity, due to prejudice and the threat of the law, and those able to live their identity openly, whilst , sadly, still navigating some of that same prejudice. Both poets present a vision of the hope and beauty of freedom and acceptance.
Psychology trip to Marwell Zoo – 15th February
Kirsty White, STEM Faculty Lead
On Tuesday, Polly and I took a group of Psychology students to Marwell Zoo to attend their Animal Behaviour conference. Students were given the opportunity to see how concepts we cover in lessons apply to the zoo and how psychology contributes to the conservation efforts made by Marwell. Students then had the opportunity to apply their research method skills to designing and conducting a comparative study on two species of their choice. They then presented their findings to one another and considered the limitations of their studies. Despite the wet weather, our students were amazing all day and enjoyed their time exploring the zoo independently (and the gift shop!). Check out our STEM instagram account for more pictures (@s6cstem) and some students’ views below:
“Whilst we were there, they talked about how the keepers use classical and operant conditioning to help calm the animals for things like injections by using food and porcupine needles. This was really interesting as we were actually able to see what we have learnt being used in a real environment.” – Thomas, Year 12
Creative Media
Rich Eno, Creative Faculty Lead
Year 12 Creative Media students have completed their Sparks Music Video Project and submitted all their work. It’s been such a fun experience and so we’re thrilled to present a selection of the work for your viewing pleasure! Click on the images.
Eaten By The Monster Of Love – Sparks – This edit is from Liv Bowman who also completed all the animations for the group.
Next we have Ash Capon’s edit of Sparks’ My Baby’s Taking Me Home
Here is Ewan Bond’s edit of his group’s production of Sparks’ song, I Like Girls.
And finally here is Harry Palmer’s edit of his group’s video interpretation of their recent song, ‘So May We Start’ which also features Adam Driver on vocals.
*WARNING* CONTAINS PUPPETS.
With that project now behind us we have moved on to the next one which is called, Tiny Horror Stories. Stay tuned.
LBGTQ+
Kirsty White – Faculty Lead for STEM and LGBTQ+ Society Lead
The LGBTQ+ Society here at S6C decided to use LGBT history month as an opportunity to fundraise for an LGBTQ+ charity. We settled on MindOut, a mental health charity that offers support for the community.
Their mission statement is to “provide advice & information, advocacy, a peer support group programme, wellbeing activities and events, a peer mentoring service, an out of hours online chat service and more”. Between our students and staff, we raised an amazing £119 for the charity, including £49 in cash contributions. Unfortunately, the power outage on Wednesday did cut the day short!
If you would like to contribute to the cause, you can continue to donate to our JustGiving Page on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/s6clgbthistoryday – Thank you.
Football Match Report S6C 0-3 Bishops – 16/02/2022
Match report written by Lewis Elshaw
The S6C football team was up against a tricky physical Bishops side but after winning their first 2 games 3-0 and 2-1, they were going into the game with high hopes. However, 10 minutes in, a good cross from the Bishops winger found the head of the determined striker who found the back of the net to give the Bishops an early lead. The S6C players fought hard though and created a few chances which was the most promising they looked in the first half. S6C kept their spirits high with good defending but 35 minutes in with a scrappy piece of play it broke to the Bishops’ attacker who turned well and made the finish look easy to score his second and made it 2-0 to the Grammar School.
At the break Bishops lead 2-0 and S6C needed something big to have a chance in the game. As the game went on, S6C created chances and worked it well into nice areas but loose touches and good defending from Bishops kept it at 2-0. Bishops made a lot of subs and changed it up alot. S6C kept going and started to look stronger, George Donohue collected the ball from 40 yards out and felt confident, he took a powerful and high shot that the keeper misjudged but managed to tip it over after George’s great effort rattled the crossbar. Lewis Elshaw took the corner with his favoured left foot which he delivered in well but went through a crowded group of bodies where no one from S6C could get the end of it. With 15 minutes to go it was a very open game and Bishops started threatening again which had William Davis pulling off some brilliant saves including a fantastic double save which denied the Bishop’s attacker his hat-trick.
With a few minutes left, Bishops’ counter attacked from an S6C set piece which left no defenders back and the Bishops’ winger carried the ball and calmly slotted in the goal to give them a 3-0 lead and secured the away win in the poor conditions at Bishopdown Sports Field. This was S6C’s first loss in 4 years as a team, the pick of our players on the day were George Allen and debutant Harvey Wilman who worked hard and put their bodies on the line despite the result. Debutant right back Harvey Wilman came away as MOTM. Our next game sees us go away to South Wilts with a place in the Wiltshire Schools Cup semi final on the line.
Lineup: W. Davis, H. Wilman, J. Price, B. Hayward ©, G. Goff, S. Osmond, G. Allen, L. Cartwright, G. Donohue, H. Roberts, L. Elshaw
Subs: A. Ford, I. Samuel-Obong, H. Arnold Drewett
Baking Club
Dr Sally Tye – Faculty Lead for Humanities and Lead for Baking Club
Baking club celebrated half term with a carrot cake! We also learnt to be flexible with cup cake and loaf versions
MLP Trust wide Trading Standards announcement
Wiltshire Council Trading Standards have received a report from a parent of a 13 year old student stating that her daughter had been able to purchase e-cigarettes, vaping products or puff bars at a market stall on Salisbury market, mostly on Saturdays. It seems that she has been able to make these purchases on multiple occasions. No ID check has been made by the trader.
The trader has been advised and spoken to by an officer from Trading Standards, however, we would ask that all parents/carers check with their young person to see if any purchases have been made at all. This trader has potentially committed a criminal offence by selling these items to persons under 18 years of age. Parents are free to contact tradingstandards@wiltshire.gov.uk or telephone the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.
