Introduction
The College Library, including IT facilities, will be open for students to use every day from 9am to 4pm during Half Term (15 - 19 February) and also on a number of specified days within the Easter Vacation (Tuesday 6 April - Friday 16 April). Further details will be made available to students from the Library Bulletin posted on Moodle. If individual students wish to use specialist equipment, eg Graphics or Media Studies facilities, at specific times on vacation days, requests must be made in advance to the relevant teaching staff who will liaise with senior staff to make firm arrangements.
Snapshot Newsletter
This term’s Newsletter is accompanied by a new colour supplement, which showcases some of the extremely wide array of student activities that have occurred, in and out of college, over the past few months. Included are photos of Nepalese Dancing, various musical performances, field trips, fashion shows and a range of other events. A pdf version of the supplement can be downloaded using the link below.
Download PDF 1.9 MB
Parents had the opportunity in December to attend subject-based Consultation Evenings where they were able to meet with relevant subject staff. A process of progress reviews, including report preparation, will take place for all students in March. Reports will then be posted home to parents by 30 March. Students will review their overall progress with their Personal Tutors during the morning of either 17 or 18 March. If there are issues regarding progress which parents wish to raise, please contact your son’s or daughter’s Personal Tutor, Senior Tutor or other senior staff as appropriate. Looking further ahead a Parents Consultation Evening is scheduled for Year 1 students on Tuesday 13 July.
Summer Examination and Study Leave periods for Year 2 IB students will begin on Wednesday 28 April at 4.05pm and for Year 1 AS Level and GCSE students on Friday 14 May at 4.05pm. Year 1 IB Internal Examinations and Study leave begins on Wednesday 19 May at 4.05pm to allow IB students time to prepare for their Internal Examinations in the week 24 May. Year 2 A Level students begin their Exam and Study leave at 4.05pm Tuesday 25 May. In general the national timetable for the summer period 2010 has scheduled the majority of AS Level modular examinations within the period from 17 May to 11 June and the main programme of A2 examinations will be held in the period between early and late June. The International Baccalaureate examinations for Year 2 students will be between Tuesday 4 May and the end of May. GCSE examinations take place from 10 May until the end of June.
All Year 1 AS Level students will return from Examination and Study leave on Monday 14 June. Teaching in all subjects for the first A2 Level module then begins. Year 1 IB teaching also continues from Monday 14 June. Teaching classes for all Year 1 students will continue until the end of Summer Term (last day of timetabled teaching classes is Tuesday 20 July).
Parents are advised to visit the College website regularly to keep in contact with College arrangements, activities and important communications. Students are advised to also check Moodle and their College emails on a twice daily basis.
Ian MacNaughton
Principal
January 2010
Year 2 Students - Higher Education and Employment
Nearly 1000 of our current year 2 students, and over 100 former students, have now applied to UCAS for future entry to universities. Many students who applied before Christmas have now had responses from the universities to which they have applied. However, a few admissions tutors wait until all applications have been received by the UCAS January ‘deadline,’ and/or their programmes of interviews are completed, before they make any ‘offers’. Students who have not heard from a specific university course should therefore remain patient – responses are likely to be received over the next few weeks.
Following interviews held in December, 9 College students now hold firm offers from Oxford or Cambridge Universities and we are generally very pleased with the range of university offers that students have received to date - despite the fact that at national level UCAS applications are significantly ‘up’ while the number of university places available will be relatively similar to last year. Where students have received more than two ‘offers’, they are generally advised that their ‘insurance offer’ should be lower and realistically achievable. The universities are unlikely to be very flexible this year if students do not achieve the required ‘offer’ grades – and only a very limited number of places, mainly for very specific courses, is likely to be available through the ‘August Clearing’ process.
Any students who need HE-related or wider careers guidance and advice should contact the College Careers Department or their Senior Tutor for help. Please remember that support and guidance will also be available in the late Summer period following the release of A and AS Level results and the university notification of admissions decisions on Thursday 19 August. Help and guidance will be available more widely through the Summer, including the period immediately after the release of results on Monday 5 July for IB students.
A Higher Education and Careers Convention will be held at the College on Wednesday 17 March. This should prove particularly useful for those Year 2 students who have not yet finalised their plans for next year or beyond. Students will be able to meet with representatives from a range of higher education institutions and/or representatives from a number of employment areas who have accepted invitations.
A HE ‘refresher’ briefing, including a summary of 2010 HE financial arrangements, designed for parents of Year 2 students, has been scheduled for the evening of Thursday 13 May. The briefing will also outline information relevant for the Summer period and will give guidelines as to how to proceed in August following the release of examination results. Invitation letters will be sent out to Parents in April.
Students intending to enter employment after leaving College should now be involved in research and planning and can seek advice and support by contacting the College Careers Department, if they have not already done so. Information is also available from Colchester Connexions Centre, in Manor Road (phone 01206 717100) or from Connexions Suffolk (phone 01473 341800).
Year 1 Students - Course Choices for Year 2, Higher Education and Employment
Year 1 AS Level students have now started the process of considering their course choices for Year 2. Students were given written information which outlined the likely AS/A level and other course options available for next academic year and were also briefed by their Personal Tutors. The briefing notes are ‘posted’ on the College website. Each student should have now completed and returned pro-formas to their Personal Tutors with their ‘indicative course choices’ for next academic year. There will be opportunities to review these choices after the completion of AS examinations in June and again, if necessary, after AS results are published on Thursday 19 August.
In considering their course choices for Year 2, AS Level students have been strongly advised to consider the likely or possible HE and/or career progression routes they wish to keep open beyond A Level. Specific qualification requirements for particular degree courses or employment areas may exert influence on choosing subjects and courses for Year 2.
An ‘HE Introductory Evening’ has been scheduled for all Year 1 students and parents who would like to attend on the evening of Tuesday 16 March. Briefings will take place at 6.15pm or alternatively at 7.45pm in the Performance Studio. Invitation letters will be distributed to parents via students after half term. Relevant College staff will be in attendance, as well as an Admissions Officer from the University of Essex, who will outline on a general basis the procedures and issues involved with university application and entry. This will be followed by a Higher Education and Careers Convention for students, to be held at the College on the following morning and lunchtime (17 March). A busy programme of higher education information, guidance and advice specifically designed for Year 1 AS Level and IB students will also be provided during the Summer Term and in particular in the June/July period following completion of examinations. There will be a UCAS Higher Education Convention, designed for those students considering future university applications which will be held at the University of Essex on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 June. These are ‘normal teaching days’ in College but year 1 students without timetabled commitments may wish to attend. Further details will be made available in the Summer term.
A Parents’ Consultation Evening has been arranged for Tuesday 13 July and an evening briefing for parents of students considering applying to Oxford or Cambridge Universities will be held on Thursday 15 July. The College ‘Oxbridge’ programme will start with an initial briefing meeting for all students potentially interested in applying at lunchtime on Friday 19 March and there will be opportunities to visit Oxford or Cambridge early in the Summer term.
Examinations and Assessments - All Students
Entries for Summer examinations are now being finalised for submission to the examination boards. Departments have also been involved in collecting information from those Year 2 students wishing to re-sit AS modular examinations this Summer. Students will be asked to check all provisional entries later this month. A2 and AS modular exam results from the January examinations taken by Year 2 students are due to be released on Thursday 11 March. Any ‘late’ decisions in March regarding AS or A2 Level re-sit entries for the Summer, arising from the receipt of results from the January examinations, will have to be made very quickly as the entry deadline is set a few days later. Students must therefore, be prepared to discuss any proposed ‘late’ modular re-sit entry decisions for the summer, with their teaching staff and/or Personal Tutor very quickly after the release of results.
Most A/AS/GCSE students have important practical assessments, assessed work or project work requirements during the February-May period, for at least some of their courses and well before the programme of written examinations in May and June.
Year 2 IB students will be given their individual timetables for their May examinations at the start of the Summer term and the overall timetable for the Summer AS/A2 and GCSE examinations will be published in the ‘Examinations Section’ of the College website in late April or early May. Students are urged to check all their details very carefully when the confirmation of entries is distributed to them. If there are any errors or changes, or if ‘clashes’ are identified, they should inform the College Examinations Office immediately. More generally if students wish to look at the detail of the Summer exam programme to identify when their specific examinations will be taking place, they can use the general timetable on the notice board outside the Examinations Office or information posted on Moodle.
In line with Government policy students are reminded that, if they choose to withdraw from a subject or fail to complete assessed coursework or practical assessments, or do not attend examination sittings, they will be charged the relevant qualification entry fees. It is not possible for the College or the Government to gain reimbursement from the examination boards for ‘withdrawals’, non-completion or non-attendance once the final date for submission of entries has passed.
The College advises that students allow adequate time to prepare effectively for external public examinations, projects, coursework and practical assessments and plan their use of time very carefully. Each student will have an individual schedule of coursework and practical arrangements specific to them. This should be carefully logged and appropriate planning undertaken.
Year 2 IB students taking external examinations in May will receive their results from IBO on Monday 5 July. There will be an on-line facility made available by IBO for distribution of results this year. AS/A Level results are released on Thursday 19 August and GCSE results on Tuesday 24 August.
To ensure that students achieve their full potential in public examinations, we strongly recommend that all students involved in public examinations arrange to discontinue any part-time employment for the period from early April at the very latest (IB students a little earlier) until the end of their Summer examination programme.
Expeditions, Field Trips, Visits and Conferences
A number of successful trips and residential visits took place last term including a Modern Languages trip to Berlin, Geography fieldwork in Manchester and an Archaeology visit to Stonehenge. Over the Christmas and New Year period a group of Philosophy students and staff undertook a successful expedition to the Russ Foundation Community in Southern India.
In February half term Sociology students will undertake fieldwork in New York, Geography students will visit Hawaii/San Francisco, and a Ski group will be visiting Austria. Modern Languages students will travel to Sicily. In April some students of History will be in Brussels and others will be in Paris. IB Geography students will undertake fieldwork in Dorset and Geology students will visit Iceland. Modern Language students will take part in a Spanish Exchange to Salamanca; whilst a group of successful sports students have qualified for the British Colleges National Finals at Loughborough University. Biology students will be taking part in fieldwork at Colchester Zoo. Year 1 IB students will be involved in a number of foreign visits scheduled through the period from February half term through to early June (Essen, Normandy, Sicily, Paris and Spain). In July AS Geology students will be visiting the Isle of Arran for their annual fieldtrip.
The Sociology Department is again organising a Sociology Conference to be held at the University of Essex in March and a group of 50 students drawn from a range of Social Science students will be invited to a Festival of Social Science Day in the Summer at the University of Essex in the Summer Term.
The Arts
During the 2009-10, 20 students have successfully completed the RADA Shakespeare certificate. The examination takes place at RADA in London. Each student performed a sonnet and a speech from a Shakespeare play providing experience for those students intending to go on to apply to Drama Schools and/or Degree courses which include Drama. The College Shakespeare Group also takes part in the Schools Shakespeare Festival each year. Productions so far have included The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet and this year the group presents The Winter’s Tale in October 2010 at The Mercury Theatre. A very successful Battle of the (rock) Bands has recently been held. ‘Heats’ were held and five very high quality bands performed in the final at Colchester Arts Centre. The winning band, ‘Hyper Theory’, will now compete at the Colchester Schools Rock Prom.
Forthcoming Arts Activities Planned include:
- Essex Book Festival
The Sixth Form College is very pleased to be part of the Essex Book Festival this year and Rose Tremain, eminent author, will be appearing on Tuesday 16 March at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £6.50/£4.50 and available from the Mercury Theatre box office on 01206 573948
- Colchester Schools Rock Prom
7.30pm on Thursday 25 February.
Tickets for both these events (£5.00) are available from the Arts Centre, Church Street (01206 500900)
- Spring Music Concert
7.30pm, Tuesday 9 March
Items from the Band, Choir, Orchestra and solo and smaller ensembles. Tickets £4.00 and £2.00 (students) available in advance or on the door.
- Colchester Schools Prom Concert
7pm, Thursday 18 March
Tickets £7.00 (£3.00 for students) available from the Charter Hall Box Office (01206 282020)
- College Arts Festival
In July the College will once again be organising an Arts Festival over an eight day period which will offer a range of excellent activities and opportunities for students interested in the visual, creative and performing arts. Details will be published in the Summer term and there will be an excellent range of opportunities for all students to get involved.
Science Week
College activities are currently being planned for Science Week around the theme of Earth this year. A large number of students will have the opportunity to engage with the theme, for example, our student Environmental Committee will run activities for an Earth Day on Friday 12 March , Archaeology students will take part in a dig, a visiting speaker will talk about sustainability and the food packaging industry a ‘Rock’ Unplugged will take place Friday 19 March.
Sport
The Sport and Physical Education Department continues to operate a busy schedule of sports fixtures, with some notable successes. Information about these is available in the weekly sports bulletin distributed within College and from time to time also posted on the College website.
A number of students have already qualified for the British Colleges National Finals, to be held at Loughborough in April. Success in individual events has dominated this year including trampolining with a novice trampolining team; and a male and female representative for the regional trampolining team – Shan Bendall and Luke Wilkinson. Two students have qualified for cross country and Jasmine Johnson has qualified for the Golf finals. In May the sporting achievements of College students over this year will be recognised at the annual Sports Awards Evening.
The Sports Committee are organising a series of events this term, including a team sports quiz and an Ultimate Frisbee Competition, open to all College students.
College Association
The Association is pleased to have supported a number of students this year with funds to offset the costs of travel to interviews and also to support the costs of upgrading Storm Radio, our College radio that is broadcast by teams of students. Forthcoming fund-raising events include a Quiz Evening on Friday 5 March and a Summer Ball on Friday 25 June. Details of both these events are enclosed and we look forward to welcoming a number of parents and friends to what are always enjoyable evenings.
Top of Page