St Brendan's News Bulletin 12.01.24 | St Brendan's Sixth Form College

12th January 2024

Dear Students and Parents/Carers,

We trust that our students have settled into their second week back at College.

We would like to congratulate our students who received their English and Maths GCSE results yesterday. We understand the tremendous effort and dedication you put into your results, and we firmly believe that these qualifications will be useful in shaping your future aspirations and progression.

Next week we begin our internal mock exams for our Year 13 and GCSE students. These exams are scheduled to take place from Monday 15th January to Wednesday 24th January. For our Year 13 students and Access To Level 3 students, these assessments represent a crucial step towards their final exams. We encourage all students to take advantage of the support available at College to help them succeed on this journey. We offer various avenues of support, starting with our teachers and personal progress tutors. In addition, our wellbeing team is available to provide additional assistance to students in need. We strongly encourage students to utilize these resources to ensure their success. Students should already have their timetables specifying the dates and locations of their internal exams. Please ensure you are well prepared for these important assessments.

From Wednesday 24th January to Friday 26th January Year 13 students will have digital learning days, which will be conducted remotely. We have organized these days to provide students with a valuable opportunity to focus on their studies in preparation for their upcoming exams.

We wish all our students the very best of luck in their examinations next week. Remember that your hard work and determination will undoubtedly pay off in achieving your academic goals.

Marian Curran

Principal

EMERGENCY REPAIR WORKS

Following an electrical outage over the Christmas holiday period, a previous repair on our incoming mains supply has failed and is currently operating via a temporary fix.

National Grid will be replacing the existing cabling with a new cable and this involves digging a channel the full length of the footpath from the new sports pavilion up to the crossing opposite the main College entrance. Work is underway and it is anticipated this may take up to two weeks to complete.

The works will be contained behind barriers but the width of the footpath will be compromised during this time. Please take care when walking up/down the footpath and allow additional time at peak hours due to congestion. You should still remain on the pavement at all times and not be walking on the drive.

Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your co-operation.

YEAR 13 - TUTORIAL SESSIONS

This is the last term of tutorials for Year 13s and we’re covering some really useful topics, such as:

- Budgeting whilst on an apprenticeship wage (or whilst at uni)
- Cooking on a budget
- Borrowing (credit cards, mortgages and student loans)

It would be great if students can ensure they attend all of these sessions so that they don’t miss out on key information!

UCAS APPLICATIONS

If a student has applied to UCAS and not heard anything from universities or College, we would like to remind students to check the email they used on their UCAS application. This will not be their College email address.

If a student has started a UCAS application but has not submitted it, the College is sending out a text communication asking students to confirm if they are intending to complete their application. Students must reply to this message as the UCAS deadline is 31st January 2024. Our careers team need enough time to quality check applications and send it in good time before the deadline. Any student wishing to submit an application after the deadline may do so and it will be treated as a late application. Please note, not all universities accept late applications.

SAFEGUARDING STUDENT VOICE - SIGN UP

As part of our review of student support, we are holding some student voice groups to get feedback about safeguarding. The groups will involve discussing and sharing feedback on:

How effective your safeguarding induction in College was
How well you feel you know how to report concerns and who to report them to
What issues you are facing in your day to day experiences and what support you think College can offer
Ideas for improving safeguarding support in College and what is working well

Your feedback is really important and so if you’d like to take part, we are running three groups in D2 on the 30th, 31st January and 1st February at 13:00.

Treats will be provided as a thank you for taking part and you will be signed out of your lesson if needed.

As this is a forum about safeguarding, we will be discussing sensitive topics (harmful sexual behaviour, self-harm, unhealthy relationships) so please consider this and your own wellbeing before signing up.

Please sign up for your preferred group here by 19th January:

INFO FOR ATL3 PARENTS AND CARERS

Information for Access To Level 3 parents and carers about Level 3 applications

Here are some key dates and events for this term for Access To Level 3, and important actions for students.

If students have passed their English and/or Maths, these subjects will automatically be taken off their timetable. If a Grade 4 isn’t achieved, they will be entered to resit again in June.

Friday 9th February 16:00 is the deadline for Level 3 applications for St Brendan’s. Progress tutors will show students the form to use to apply for Level 3. Students will need to have 90% attendance, predictions of Merits in applied courses and predictions of Grade 4s in GCSEs in order to return. Students will also write a personal statement to support their application; students’ progress tutors will talk to them about how to write this and where to upload it. Students will need to attend tutorials this term so that they are aware of everything they need to do in preparation for next year.

Students and parents are also invited to attend a talk on the application process and our open evening on Tuesday 6th February. The talk will begin at 17:00 in D2/3 and will be followed by an opportunity to speak to subject specialists for Level 3 courses and the careers team about apprenticeships and other career options.

Please contact Helen Urbanowicz if you have any questions.

LIFEGUARDING & SURF COACH COURSES AT THE WAVE

Trainee Lifeguard & Trainee Surf Coach course vacancies have just gone live!

This is an in-house course that The Wave run, with a view to hiring all Lifeguards for their summer 2024 season and, if interested, giving those who can surf a chance to become a surf coach.

All training is paid for upfront by The Wave and equipment provided.

PROGRESS REPORTS

Reports for parents/carers detailing your young person's progress are now available on our parents' portal.

We believe that parental involvement is key to student success, and these reports are an excellent tool for staying informed and engaged with your young person’s educational journey.

If you have any queries please contact E Learning Support.

YOUTHTALKS APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!

We are excited to open up the application form for this year's Youth Talks campaign. Clicking on THIS LINK will take you to the sign up form which will provide you with more details.

Our first year of Youth Talks was hugely successful and we cannot wait to build on this and hear from our students about topics / areas of interest.

Deadline for sign up is Friday 26th January with a maximum of 10 spaces available.

You can also watch the videos of our three YouthTalk students at the recent BEP YouthTalks event below:

- Kaz Pomerance-Trifts

- Ryan Nzolameso

- Jeff Bird

We hope you enjoy and are as inspired by these talks as much as we are.

ATTENDANCE

Students have requested a reminder of the processes we have in place for following up on attendance.

We have created some FAQs so students and parents/carers know what communications are followed regarding attendance.

Please click here to read important information regarding attendance.

DEBATING SOCIETY

This week the house proposed that they would make the study of Maths and English compulsory to age 18.

The proposition asserted that this extended study would help people acquire basic skills, which is something desperately needed when 15% of adults have literacy skills equal to that of a 9 year old.

The opposition contended however, that this would divert people from their passions and rather advocated for an improvement in GCSEs over 2 additional mandatory years of Maths and English.

Both sides had exceptional delivery and convincing points, however it was the propositions knowledge and persuasive reasoning that swayed the decision their way. This is despite the members personal opinions that Maths and English should not be made compulsory post-16. — Charis Taylor, motions officer