TERM 1 VALUE:

Justice & Service

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

We hope that all of our students are settling in well. As we progress into the term, many will now have become familiar with their timetables, teachers, subjects, and the support available here at St Brendan’s. Alongside their studies, lots of students are already engaging with our wide range of lunchtime enrichment opportunities, including our exciting new sports offer.

For our Year 13 students, this week has seen the submission of the first draft of their personal statements for feedback. This is a key step in their progression journey, and we are proud of the hard work they are putting in. A reminder to our Year 12 students that the course change window closes on Wednesday 24th September. We encourage students to now fully commit to their chosen subjects and take advantage of all the support on offer.

We also want to draw your attention to upcoming deadlines:

• UCAS early applications: Friday 26th September
• Music Conservatoire applications: Monday 29th

Supporting Students at St Brendan’s

At St Brendan’s, our role is to fully support the mental health, physical health, and overall wellbeing of every student. We are here to listen and work together as a College community to ensure students can flourish.

Here are just some of the ways we provide support:

• Personal Tutor System – Every student is allocated a Personal Tutor, who is the first point of contact for questions or concerns. Tutors have extensive knowledge of the support available and will guide students through challenges, whether academic or personal. Tutorials also cover strategies for resilience and good emotional health.
• Safety and Safeguarding – The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority. Students must wear their lanyard and ID card at all times on campus. Temporary lanyards are available from Reception if needed. For any safeguarding concerns, please contact the relevant Personal Tutor or the College’s safeguarding team by calling 07471823522 (Safeguarding Hotline) or by emailing Stbrendans.safeguarding@stbrn.ac.uk
• Learning Resource Centre – Our College Library offers a wide range of resources and dedicated support. Students can approach their teachers, Tutors, or Learning Support staff directly, some of our academic coaches are also based here to support our students further.
• Welfare Support – Students can self-refer or be referred via their Personal Tutor to see one a member of our welfare support, who are available for one-to-one support.

Buses

The College is aware that a number of students, whom travel by public transport, have experienced difficulties at the start of term:

• Inbound buses full before they reach bus-stops on the latter end of the route (particularly in Hanham)
• Outbound buses full at the end of the College day

The College acknowledges this results in students having to find alternative means of travel, which in turn can affect attendance and ultimately learning, as well as extending overall home/College and return journeys.

The College and First Bus had already made route and capacity adjustments to reflect the anticipated demand for the new academic year and registered the routes with WECA accordingly, Furthermore, there continue to be ‘second runs’ on the SB1, SB2 and SB7 routes.

However, the demand at the start of term has on certain days (usually Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) exceeded the available increased capacity of the buses. Although First Bus are unable to change the existing WECA-registered routes they have already replaced some vehicles with others with greater capacity and this has helped.

We are currently in discussion with First Bus on whether there are any other options to further mitigate the issues and appreciate your patience and understanding whilst we conclude this process.

Expectations for Success

As students settle into their studies, we want to highlight three key areas that support excellent outcomes at St Brendan’s:

1. Attendance and Punctuality
   Students should attend all lessons on time and ready to learn. Tutors closely monitor attendance and will intervene where there are unexplained absences, ensuring support is in place to help students succeed.
2. Active Engagement in Lessons
   The pace of work at college is much faster than at GCSE. Students are encouraged to listen attentively, ask questions, and take thorough notes. Teachers will continue to support students in building effective focus and study habits.
3. Independent and Extended Learning
   Success goes beyond the classroom. Students should complete homework to a high standard, submit work on time, and engage in wider reading and extension tasks. Participation in enrichment and extracurricular activities is also strongly encouraged – these not only provide balance alongside academic study but also offer opportunities to make new friends and develop valuable skills.

We are proud of how well our students are adapting in these early weeks, and we look forward to supporting them throughout their journey at St Brendan’s.

With best wishes,

Marian Curran

Principal

Attendance is crucial for success, particularly during these initial weeks. For our Year 12, ATL3 and Year 13 students, please be aware that we will be closely monitoring attendance. Maintaining regular attendance is important, as it impacts your ability to remain enrolled on your courses. Should there be concerns about your attendance falling below our threshold during the first three weeks, it may affect your place at St Brendan’s.

We are here to support you through these transitions and ensure that your time at St Brendan's is both successful and enjoyable. Our staff, including teachers, progress tutors, inclusive learning team, careers team, mental health team and the senior team, are here to help with any concerns or queries that you may have.

St Brendan's is a cashless campus so please make sure you have a card and/or contactless payment on your phone.

If you need to purchase print credit you can do this on the College “Store” which you can access on our website or by using this link St Brendan's Sixth Form College Store

When prompted to login, click on the “Sign in with Microsoft” option, where you can use your College email and password. Your print credit account will automatically update after payment has been approved.

The College takes the safety of students and staff very seriously. Students should not invite friends who do not attend St Brendan’s onto the site and must wear their student lanyard and ID at all times on campus. (Students should obtain a temporary student lanyard from the main reception if they do not have their ID card with them.) Our campus personal , Frank and Blessing, patrol the site and can be approached if any student is concerned about their own safety or the safety of others.

As is normally the case at the beginning of the academic year, our car parks can get very busy at peak lesson change over times during the day with students being dropped off/collected. This is especially the case at the end of the College day when we also have our college buses arriving to pick up students at the same time.

There is limited capacity in our car park so we ask that all parents/carers please adhere to the following:

• Please utilise all available parking bays in the car park to your left as you enter College. Please drive into, rather than reversing into parking bays as this makes it easier when pulling out to follow the one way system and ensures vehicles aren’t parked over multiple parking bays.
• If parking bays are full, please queue alongside the left side of the car park (this leaves space on the right for cars to exit as required). Unfortunately, this means anyone parked in a bay on this side may need to wait for cars in the queue to move before they can depart.
• Once you are in the queue for the car park, you must complete the one way exit route. Please do not attempt to turn around on the drive as it is very busy with other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.
• Please do not be offended if the car park is full and you are advised to pick up your child off-site. Find a safe place to wait further up Broomhill Road but please do not park/wait directly opposite the College entrance.
• All vehicles departing between 15:50 – 16:20, or later if College buses are delayed, must turn right to ease congestion at the main gate (please see ‘turning right’ information above with directions back to the A4 if required)
• Please pass this information on to anyone else who may be collecting students from College on your behalf.

We thank you in advance for your co-operation in keeping our campus as safe as possible.

A reminder to all students, parents and carers to please turn right only, when exiting the College between 15:50 – 16:20 at the end of the College day.