St Brendan's News Bulletin 13.10.23 | St Brendan's Sixth Form College

13th October 2023

Dear Students and Parents/Carers,

Last Saturday we had our first Open event for prospective students and parents/carers who are interested in joining us next September. We welcomed over a 1,000 students to St Brendan’s. We received extremely positive feedback on this event and it was great to meet so many young people who were enthusiastic about wanting to come to St Brendan’s College.

This wouldn’t have been possible without our lovely student ambassadors who were absolutely amazing on the day and were a friendly face to our potential new students. A huge thank you for those students who gave up their Saturday. Our next Open Evening is on Wednesday 18th October.

Our enrichment is now fully under way. This month we have various activities to celebrate Black History month, including an LRC book review competition and focused tutorials as part of our pastoral programme.

Next week our students will finish their first term with us on Wednesday 18th October. This is the perfect time to consolidate notes and review your learning from the first term.

For parents/carers we have our Settling in Review day on Thursday 19th October. Information regarding booking appointments has already been sent out via the bulletin and to your email. If you have any questions or queries please email our team here.

We were also excited to see the Oracy Pioneers programme launch this week, you will find more information and details for applying within this bulletin. The closing date is the 19th October for any year 12 student who wishes to be considered.

Best wishes,

Marian Curran

Principal

UPCOMING EVENTS

GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY RAFFLE: Monday 16th October we will be holding a soap raffle to raise money for CAFOD! More info below.
SETTLING IN REVIEW: Thursday 19th October 9:00-16:00, find out more information below.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: The LRC and Student Union are running BHM Reading Challenges, find out more information below.

Global Handwashing Day

Next Monday (16th October) we are celebrating Global Handwashing Day ! We have over 100 soaps that have been donated by LUSH and The Bristol Soap company. CAFOD work with some of the most hard-to-reach communities across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, helping the poorest and most marginalised people. Tickets are being sold today (Friday 13th October) and Monday for 50p each. Winners will be announced on 17th October.

Black History Month

This month the LRC is running a series of reading challenges linked to Black History Month.

The LRC wants to raise awareness of BHM, as well as promote literacy and reading for pleasure.

There are 3 challenges and you have until 3rd November to get involved!

Get involved here.

The Student Union has organised a Black History Month Quiz!

If you would like to join in, the quiz will be taking place on Wednesday 18th October starting at 12:15 in Cafe Min.

Oracy Pioneers

We have an amazing opportunity for some of our students to become Oracy Pioneers! Click here for the full details.

Unique Voice will be working with our students to train them to deliver engaging workshops to younger students in other schools.

If you would like to help younger students build their confidence and oracy skills, you can sign up here.

The deadline for applying is Thursday 19th October.

Settling in Review: 19th October

Settling in Review will be held on Thursday 19^th October from 9:00 – 16:00 and is open to parents/carers of ALL STUDENTS.

Here you can find all the information and contacts from all the previous week about the Settling in Review.

*NEW IMPORTANT MESSAGE*

As covered in last weeks bulletin, we were due to publish the report to parent/carers for this term today. This report contains details of your young persons Key Assessment/Overall Progress Grade (A-Level/Applied) and some details on teacher feedback re their personal development.

Unfortunately, due to unplanned illness, we have some teachers who need a little longer to input the information in order that we can run the reports and provide you with as complete a picture as possible. On this basis, we have delayed the publishing of reports until Monday, they should be accessible on the portal by Tuesday morning at the latest.

We will send an email to you to confirm when they have been published.

Community Languages A-Level

Those who have fluency in Polish, Arabic, Greek, Russian, Italian, Portuguese can gain an extra A-level grade!

If there is an A-level available and the student is willing to prepare themselves for the A-level they could gain an extra grade.

If anyone is interested please get in touch with the Community Languages Team for more guidance.

Please contact, Colette Morris, by email here, or visit her in A15, for more information.

Non-Examination (Coursework) Appeals policy

For many year 13 students you will currently be in the process of completing some non-examination work as part of your course, typically known as coursework.

As per JCQ guidelines we must inform you of the process to review marks once they have been published, should you wish to. It is very unusual for a student to do this as often, having spoken to their teacher, the marks awarded are understood. However, there is a process should you need it.

All of the details of the policy and process, including deadlines for marks release and review/appeal dates, can be found by clicking on this link.

Please note that the dates published on the last page are the final dates for publication of marks onto your mark book. In some courses, your marks will be published ahead of this deadline and you will be informed sooner.

Research Project: Understanding Colourism Among Young People in the UK

We are happy to share that we will be working with Kings College London on their research project: Understanding Colourism Among Young People in the UK.

The project seeks to answer three main research questions:

How do young people in the UK experience colourism?
How does its extent and impact vary according to characteristics such as skin shade, ethnicity and gender?
How is colourism understood and negotiated?

More details about the project can be found here.

As part of the research they are looking to conduct focus groups and interviews with students, parents and teachers. If you are interested in taking part please email our Director of Faculty, Sophie Preece who is co-ordinating St Brendan’s input into this project.

As a thank you to the college for taking part the researchers will be working with the college to deliver a series of talks including one on the topic of colourism and why it matters, another to present their findings and another on careers and research methods.

CAREERS

Careers News

APPRENTICESHIP INFORMATION FOR PARENTS & CARERS

Head over to the Careers News for lots more useful resources and opportunities: click here.

UCAS APPLICATIONS

UCAS deadlines are coming up, so the careers team at St Brendan’s want to highlight the key deadline and application support.

Here you can find the list of deadlines.

Thatchers Talent Programme

Thatchers Parents/Carers Apprenticeship Information Evening 2023

Apprenticeships are now a fantastic opportunity/ next step for young people, when leaving school or college. At Thatchers, we invite you to an informal evening at The Railway Inn, to meet with Apprenticeship partners and the Thatchers Apprentices & Talent team, to inform, support and help navigate future options with apprenticeships, as well as discover opportunities within the Thatchers Talent Programme.

Date: Monday 4th December

Time: 18:00-20:00

Location: The Railway Inn, Sandford, BS25 5RA

Find out more information here and register today!

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES TIMETABLE

You can find the timetable for this year's clubs and societies here!

If you have any questions please get in touch with Beth Wilson, Student Enrichment Officer (SU Office, Cafe Max).

SPORTS CLUBS AND ENRICHMENT

There are loads of sporting activities to take part in throughout the week HOWEVER it is important you stay up to date with your college academic work and do not miss lessons for these. If you have a clash with a course and sports club please speak to your tutor first and then contact Timetabling (B122 open Monday to Friday 15:00-16:00). We will do all we can to help you take part, but your courses and future career choices will take priority.

There will be other activities and events throughout the year. Keep checking your emails to stay up to date and not miss out.

If you have any questions or ideas for sports enrichment contact Paul (pr@stbrn.ac.uk).

Sports Qualifications

Over the course of the year there will be opportunities to gain qualifications in a number of sports. See below for the current courses available

BASKETBALL:

The following courses are FREE (Once completed we can hire you for our home games!) Click on the links for more details about these courses. To apply contact Paul (pr@stbrn.ac.uk) DEADLINE TO APPLY IS WEDNESDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER 16:00.

Lunch Time Activities

For the rest of this term please see below the activities taking place. If you'd like to run a sports activity at lunch time please come and speak to Paul in the sports office.

Tuesdays 12:10-12:55 - VOLLEYBALL

Thursday 12:10-12:55 - BADMINTON

Friday 12:10-12:55 - GIRL'S BASKETBALL / STUDENT SOCIAL BASKETBALL

GYM

Our college gym is open to students Monday - Friday 9:00-16:00. An annual fee of £10 and completion of on-line health screening form and induction is required before use. Please pay via the college STORE. Check you emails for the link to the health form.

Elite Athletes

Do you compete at a high level - nationally or internationally? Now is a chance to join our college Elite Athlete Group. We want to hear from you. Contact Paul (pr@Stbrn.ac.uk) to have a chat about how we can help.

NETBALL

Netball will continue every Tuesday 13:00-14:30. This is open to all students and fixtures will be every Wednesday. We have one league team and also run a social team who will play friendly games against local schools throughout the year.

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Training takes place on the college astro pitch every Tuesday 13:00-14:30. All players invited. Fixtures are every Wednesday.

WOMEN'S RUGBY

Training for women's rugby is on Friday mornings 9:00-10:25. We have a new coach starting the end of September. Training is on the astro. Festivals will take place at various times throughout the year. If you are unable to make training but would like to take part in our fixtures please let me know.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Training for the college team takes place on Friday mornings 9:00-10:25. Fixtures will be on Wednesdays. If you are interested in playing for the college please come and speak to the basketball coach for a try out.

MEN'S RUGBY

Rugby training takes place every Friday morning 9:00-10:30 on the college astro pitch. Fixtures are Wednesdays. New players welcome.

MEN'S FOOTBALL

We have 2 men's football teams competing in the AoC league and a social team. Training for all takes place on Tuesdays 14:30-16:00.

Mental & Physical Health and well-being

At St Brendan’s we fully embrace our role in supporting students mental and physical health and well-being. We understand that many students have been through an unsettling time since the pandemic.

It may take some time to adjust to St Brendan’s, but we are here to listen and support students as we work together as a College community.

You can find information about key ways to support your well-being here!