Keeping our college safe

The student experience at Ashton Sixth Form College is different in many ways to High School. Your sons and daughters would have been supervised at all times during the day, whether in classes or during break times. As they move into post 16 education, some of these arrangements change. Students at the college have study periods in the week, and are encouraged to become more responsible for their own learning through the development of independent learning skills. This is also reflected in our arrangements when a teacher is absent.

From time to time, a member of staff may be away from college for training purposes, the internal verification of BTEC qualifications or illness; they may be involved in a trip or visit for other students in the department. In these instances, teachers will set independent work for students to complete. This may be in the form of work given to students, or may be through access to resources held on the college VLE, Canvas. Lessons are not covered in the same way as they were at high school; there are reasons for this:

• Part of our remit at the college is to prepare students for the next stage in their educational journey. This may be to university, a higher level apprenticeship or into a job with training. It is important that we support students in the development of those skills required in these settings; being independent and taking responsibility for your own learning and two of these. By setting independent work, we are encouraging students to improve, to become more independent and understand that they have ultimate responsibility for themselves.
• As all of our teachers are specialists in their subject areas and at level three, it would be inappropriate to ask a teacher to deliver a class in an unfamiliar area; it is much more productive to use resources written or sourced by the subject specialist to support student learning during the time the lesson would have taken place.

We feel that the Continual Professional Development of teaching staff is very important in ensuring that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is as good as it can be. The skills and expertise of a teacher are acknowledged as key factors in the success of students; we encourage our teachers to attend examination board updates, apply to become examiners and senior examiners, and to attend training to further develop their subject knowledge. Each aspect of this training and teacher development supports the work our teachers do with your sons and daughters in the classroom.

In addition, trips and visits are an integral part of any curriculum programme. Another aspect of our role as teachers is to further develop the cultural capital of all student through exposure to a wide range of experiences. These include field trips both at home and abroad, university visits, work place experiences and sporting events. Teaching staff are required to accompany students on trips and visits which may lead to the setting of work whilst the teacher is away.