Bolton Sixth Form College Parents Portal

 

This term

 

All students are currently in the last few weeks of completing essential coursework or curriculum work in preparation for the summer examination series. AS examinations begin in the middle of May and will largely be complete by the spring bank holiday. For the A2 students, examinations, especially resits will begin in late May but continue into June. It is essential that full and careful preparation for these examinations takes place. Students should be revising for approximately 3 hours per day on top of their college day and at weekends or holiday periods for 6 – 9 hours per day. Revision should be organised with students logging the time they have spent on key topics and subjects to ensure they are revising in a balanced way. We also encourage them to test themselves, complete past paper questions and discuss and explain key concepts with yourselves or study buddies. The main difference of A level work compared with GCSE is the students ability to understand the question and then apply their knowledge to questions asked, evaluating and justifying the points made. These are higher order skills and so need higher order revision beyond reading through their notes. Many subjects have already begun revision sessions so please encourage your son/daughter to attend them. With regard to B Tec courses, it is essential for level 1 and 2 students to be working at merit standards in order for them to progress next year. If they are also resitting English or maths they must also pass this course and also their foundation or higher level project which forms part of the course. This group of students will be being interviewed for places on new courses next year over the next two weeks.

If you have any concerns about your son/daughter’s progress then please get in touch with their tutor.

Please note, there is no specific ‘study leave’ period for AS students, they remain in lessons for each subject until they sit each examination. Their teaching recommences on Monday 11th June. In order to progress to the second year of A level, students will need to pass all their first year subjects. We will also not be offering restart programmes on A level for those students who are unsuccessful this summer, so it essential that students put the work in now and there is no reason for any of our students not to pass. A2 teaching continues until the spring bank break commencing 4th June but may be requested to attend some sessions after the holiday by staff who have late papers. First year B Tec students have no breaks in lesson delivery and continue in lessons until the term ends on 28th June ( to be confirmed). Level 1, 2 and second year level 3 B Tec students will receive dates from teaching staff for final submission for their coursework.

 

Progress to higher education

 

Thank you to all the parents who attended our recent Higher education evening and for the very positive feedback that you provided. You may have noticed that there is a new tab on the parent page for higher education and we hope to continue to post relevant information here to support your research into suitable universities and the minefield that is student finance. We have recently added a new Student finance special from Manchester metropolitan university which has some useful information on bursaries and good links to other useful sites. We hope that you find this useful.
Because we had such a appositive response regarding the HE parents evening, we hope to offer a second part early in the new academic year, likely around the end of September. We hope you will be able to attend and will inform all parents of specific details nearer the time.
Students had a great experience on the careers and HE day and we hope to move forward from this by offering visits out to specific universities for specific courses during the week commencing the 25th June. We would also encourage you and your son/daughter to attend as may open days as you are able to look at courses and facilities over the summer term and the link here will detail the main ones http://www.open days.com/calendar/