Friday 26th February 2021
The days are getting longer and the weather a little warmer and hope is in the air of enjoying our summer holidays this year.
Lessons have resumed online as normal this week, after what I hope has been a restful half term for you and your families. Year 13 students have been hard at work doing their subject mocks remotely.
Many students may be feeling anxious at this time due to government announcements about the impending return to college life and the media frenzy that has followed. Let me assure you, we are looking at all the guidance and formulating a plan to ensure the safe return of students to the S6C campus.
We will also be analysing the formal reports from OFQUAL and the Department of Education that have been released regarding how Teacher Accessed Grades (TAGs) will work in the summer. The role of a teacher is to inspire, motivate, encourage and educate learners and to ensure progression to the next stage of a young person’s career and while TAGs are not the norm for teachers; assessment and fair grades are part of everyday life and our teachers are well equipped to carry out any requirements.
We will write to you with further information about how S6C will proceed later in the year. For now, please do not worry about stories or scaremongering in the press.
Best regards,
Craig
Assistant Principal
Pastoral Update – Rebecca Anderson, Pastoral Lead
We are aware that the easing of lockdown to allow for onsite education will be received in different ways – some students, and their families, will be relieved, others anxious, some with mixed feelings. We are here to make sure this transition is as safe and as smooth as possible for all, but we are also here to support individuals. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions or concerns – we can listen, advise, encourage, and work with students to make sure they are able to access a full education in a safe and settled way. We are aware from the press, and from our S6C students, that this second lockdown has been very hard for some young people, with a number struggling with anxiety, low mood, bereavement, disrupted sleep and other issues, including a rise in self harm, eating issues, and unhelpful coping strategies. We can offer self help resources in all these areas, with support sessions from the pastoral lead, and we can refer to our qualified counselling team, and external agencies as needed. Tutors are on hand to listen and support. We want our students, and their families, to feel fully cared for at this time and will do all we can to help.
Life Skills Programme
Having covered a number of covid related topics in recent weeks – online safety, managing lockdown, physical/emotional/mental wellbeing, and bereavement – and having previously celebrated Black History month, LGBTQ+ History month, British Values, and the wealth of documentaries and online resources available to us as cultural capital – as well as initial study skills advice and the science behind how we learn – this week’s resources aim to develop personal skills moving forwards. Students have all been asked to cook a meal during the week, using the tips and recipes for Cooking On A Budget. We have shared recipes for £1 meals, and for Eat for £1 A Day, for meals made in mugs, batch cooked dinners to freeze (or for large families), an adaptable curry and chilli, and lots of hints and tips for eating well at low cost. Do ask them to share the recipes and tips with you – and get them cooking! Here is just one of the links we shared: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/budget
Humanities Faculty Update – Sally Tye, Faculty Lead for Humanities
This week the Humanities Faculty has been delighted to welcome Taisha Picking, a trainee teacher currently working at the Trafalgar School. She has been observing lessons from RS, History, Business, English and Film and will finish the week by teaching a year 12 RS lesson on religious experience and Emmanual Kant’s central argument ‘that the finite cannot experience the infinite!’
S6C is all about learning and that includes teachers as much as students.
STEM Faculty Update – Kirsty White, Faculty Lead for STEM
As part of LGBT history month, Psychology students talked about the importance of acceptance, tolerance and rule of law as part of our Fundamental British Values and examined both the positive and negative impacts that psychology has had on the LGBTQ+ community and associated views and legislation. Students have explored this as part of their course, such as looking at the changing view of homosexuality as a mental illness in Psychopathology (in Year 12) and how psychological theories like classical conditioning have been used in harmful ways to create ‘conversion therapy’ in Issues and Debates (in Year 13). This activity enabled students to go beyond this and allowed students to produce a huge range of content; the mental effects of coming out, the mental effects of homophobia, the removal of homosexuality from mental health diagnostic manuals, the work of Evelyn Hooker, the neuroscience of LGBT, animal studies of homosexuality, psychological ‘therapies’ and much more. During lessons, students presented their findings to each other, demonstrating excellent communication and employability skills.
Careers – Rosie Roberts, Careers Lead
We are actively encouraging our students to use Careerpilot to support their Career Education and help them become managers of their own careers. Careerpilot have a dedicated Parent Zone where you can watch videos and find all you need to on your young person’s Career choices. You can also take-a-look around the Careerpilot website and encourage your young person to take part in the many free to use activities. We encourage parents to explore Careerpilot and the other websites listed above to look at all post-18 options and see up to date labour market information on career options. You can read more about what labour market information is on the careers page of our website https://www.salisbury6c.ac.uk/students/careers/ If you would like any further advice directly, please contact rroberts@salisbury6c.ac.uk
