Support available to you

Achieve the best assessment outcome this summer.

We have outlined all the things that you can do, and the support that you can access to make the best possible progress between now and June.

We hope that you have enjoyed returning to college and that you are settling into a routine again. We want you to take positive steps and so we suggest that you start by doing the following things:

Access ProPortal and remind yourself of your target grade, review your assessments in Markbook to understand where you are currently working at. Remember, you will have set targets with your tutor in your February Progress Review so that you can take steps to achieve the grades you are capable of. Remind yourself of your targets in ProPortal. Every day is a day you make an impact on your ability to achieve these targeted grades.

If you are working towards a qualification with summer external exams that have been cancelled, teachers will begin reviewing your assessment evidence over the next few weeks and will discuss any evidence gaps up to and during your next Progress Review meeting in May. After that, you will have time—in most cases until June—to make a difference to your final assessed grades.

For those of you on more practical courses, where you haven't completed practical assessments due to lockdown, our college teams are working hard to make sure you have time to get things done.

Please watch the short video on this page that discusses how you can get the best from your learning this year.

We want to make sure that you are fully aware of all the services and resources we are offering to ensure you make the best progress possible and achieve the best grades you are capable of this summer. The information below outlines what is available between now and June and we encourage you to plan how to make the most of this support.

Don’t worry if you haven’t done as much as you could have done or if that last piece of work doesn’t reflect what you feel you could do. There is still plenty of time to catch up and push ahead. The more work you do between now and June, the easier it will be for your teacher to award you a grade that better reflects your ability.

Remember you have a programme tutor and a whole network of support services. Some of you might have a Progress Coach. Reach out to us and together let’s make the next couple of months really count.

You will know from your conversations with your tutor during your progress reviews and the targets on ProPortal what you must do to achieve the grade you are aiming for. To help, your faculty may invite you to extra learning sessions during the Easter break or may have set additional work for you to do. Don’t forget the Learning Environments are also open at certain times during the Easter break and are great spaces for you to work individually or in small groups.

Immediately after the Easter break, we will enter a progress review period starting 3 May. We will invite you to a one-to-one progress review where you will have the opportunity to discuss your progress with your tutor, identify where you are at, and plan what you might to do to keep developing and working on your grades. We will make sure you have the right support available.

Please also consider signing up for free English and maths tutoring sessions through our Upgrade one-to-one tuition programme. Work with a coach who will help you if you're not quite working at grade 4 level yet and need an extra boost to get you up to that level. If you are interested, please email Kristen Cole, she’ll show you how to sign up. A brief introduction to our Upgrade tutoring service can be found here.

It is also recommended that you spend time as much time as you can working on Century (our online learning system) to develop your English and maths skills. On Century you can work at your own pace, and at a level which is right for you. A small amount of practice every day tends to bring the best results. If you do good work on Century, that will be considered when we work out your grade in the summer. If you need any help getting started on Century, please contact your teacher.

Extra help is also available from the Group Learning Support team, including drop-in sessions, as well as the Student Support team. Please email or visit the Study Support or Skill Centre on your campus.

We acknowledge that this is a difficult time, we are all feeling a variety of emotions and these are affecting each one of us differently. We have a range of support services available including: Free, confidential Counselling, mental wellness, mentoring, transition support, access to advice, guidance and resources. For further information please call 01865 550401 or email support.

For some, you may be feeling that too much learning time has been gone and you have lost the confidence to engage with your programme. We want you to gain your confidence back and stay in learning so that you can begin again with new motivation. We have a specialist team of coaches ready to work with you and help you to get back on track, whatever that means to you, and to see that there are opportunities and ways forward. If you are interested in using this service, please email Adele Scott and she will set you up to meet a coach who will help you.