OSFC Parents Newsletter 2013

7/28/2019 OSFC Parents Newsletter 2013

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July 2013

Dear Parents and Carers

This leer accompanies our new style nal report of the academic year. We have put a great deal

of work into providing you with more detail at this stage and we hope you nd the report helpfuland accessible. Wed welcome your feedback on the report or any other maers, as ever, [email protected]

This leer is the rst to be sent out under our newlyrefreshed logo. Since our previous College logo

had been the same for over 20 years we have takenthe decision to refresh the look, giving it a modernfeel which is more appropriate for use with todays

electronic markeng materials and social media as welook to the future. We hope you like the new logo and

are sure it will soon come to be idened as closelywith OSFC as the previous version. Please feel free

to give us your feedback on it. To coincide with itslaunch, there are some adverts for the College on localbuses at the moment, so look out for our successful

former students around and about on the buses!

Id like to correct an error in my previous leer

home, regarding the return date for current Year12 students moving into Year 13. Lessons restartfor Year 12 progressing into Year 13 on Tuesday 3

September, not Monday 2 as I previously stated.New students and any current student who has been

given permission to re-start Year 12 will start on theMonday. Prior to this, AS level and BTEC results aredistributed to your sons and daughters by email

from 12 noon on Thursday 15 August and we havea Year 13 enrolment day on Wednesday 21 August

for all current Year 12 students to conrm theirprogrammes of study for the next academic year.

PARENTS LETTER


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Your son or daughter will have already completed a Y13 enrolment process via their tutorials, butunl results are known, this cannot be conrmed and there are occasions where students change

their minds about their programmes in light of their results, hence our introducon of a daydedicated to this process, with all subject sta in college and available to help ensure the right

decisions are taken. Full details of this process have already been sent out to students covering bothresults day and Year 13 enrolment day, including conrmaon of their appointment me, room and

interviewer for 21 August and details of what to do if there is any problem with this. We are alsoopen on results day for students to come in and see sta about any concerns regarding results andappointment slots will be available by phone.

Our Chair of Governors, Steve Lowe, is stepping down from the Board this

summer. Having been involved with the College since its incepon, Stevehas devoted countless hours and enormous eorts to the College over thelast 21 years. Amongst many other things, he helped establish the College,

played a role in bringing Higher Educaon to the town, helped secure theScience Centre and has championed the work of the College in numerous

contexts, all ulmately to the advantage of our students. We are a stronger

college as a result of Steves involvement with the Board. We will miss hisinvolvement and are enormously grateful for everything he has done to

support the College.

A new chair of Governors will be conrmed at the next Board meeng, taking place later this week,so I will be able to conrm who has taken on this role in my rst leer next term. There have been

a number of new appointments to the Board of Governors this year as other terms of oce haveended. New Governors in the last few months are Naila Akhtar, a lawyer working with Pla Halpernsolicitors in Oldham, Cllr Shoab Akhtar, Deputy Leader of Oldham Council and Great Communies

Manager at Great Places Housing Group, Peter Dunlop, Director of Development at InnovaveTechnology and Mike Gibbons, Director of Student Recruitment and Internaonal Development at

the University of Manchester. We are very pleased to welcome these new Governors to the Board.Governors play a very important role for the College, providing vital challenge and support, all ona voluntary basis. Should you be interested in geng involved, we currently have a vacancy for a

Parent Governor. To nd out more about the role, please contact the Clerk to Governors, Mrs JanJones, either by telephone or [email protected]

Id like to publicly thank all the sta and students who have worked so hard to ensure students

went into the exam season as well-prepared as possible. There have been many addional revision

sessions within and beyond the College day, and we hope all has gone well for all concerned. Inaddion to all the exam-focused hard work, there have also been a huge number of addional

events and acvies taking place since my last leer, including some that are new this year.


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In terms of trips and visits, Business studentshave visited Chester Zoo and the Naonal

Mining Museum to support their studies ofBusiness Markeng. In the nal week of term,

a group of Accounng students will aenda masterclass at PricewaterhouseCoopers inManchester. Language students have seen

Aprs Mai in French at the Cornerhousecinema, in preparaon for their A2 studies and

a group visited Manchester University to ndout more about the Language degrees on oerthere. From the Humanies department, History

students aended the Discover History day at Manchester University, Archaeology studentsvisited Arbor Low and Stanton Moor stone circles in the Peak

District to pracce the eld survey techniques that they willuse as part of their individual coursework projects into a rangeof sites in the region. These visits took place on 20 and 21

June, coinciding with the summer solsce, a me of majorsignicance to the Bronze Age builders of the monuments.

Religious Studies students have visited the local CatholicChurch, St. Patricks.

Possibly our most excing new trip this half-term was the Physicstrip to CERN, Geneva, which involved 23 AS and A2 Physics &

Electronics students spending a day at CERN which houses thelargest Physics experiment in the world. They took the ocial

tour in the morning including a trip to the Magnet TesngFacility and the AMS control centre (a parcle-physics detectorthat looks for dark maer, anmaer and missing maer

from a module aached to theoutside of the Internaonal

Space Staon). They then hada very rare opportunity togo 100m underground to the

ATLAS experiment. ATLAS isone of two general-purpose

detectors at the Large HadronCollider (LHC). It invesgates a wide range of Physics, from

the search for the Higgs boson to extra dimensions and parclesthat could make up dark maer. It was only possible to godown to this amazing machine because Ana Soldner-Rembold

(who formerly worked at CERN and now teaches Physics andElectronics at the College) was able to organise this for us. An

unforgeable, inspiring trip for all involved.

Other Science department trips and events included Biology students eld trips to Ainsdale

Sands, Chemistry students vising the School for Environmental Sciences at Salford University,GCSE Science students vising Fiddlers Ferry, to study the generaon of electricity and a taster

day visit to Lancaster University for students interested in studying STEM subjects. In addion


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to these o-site visits, Science students have aended various lectures and masterclasses heldin the Science Centre and at other local venues, including Dr Jim Wilde from Lancaster Universitywho gave a lecture on the solar system, a lecture on parcle physics by a leading professor in

this eld from Manchester University, a lecture by Prof. Fred Loebinger on Quantum Mechanics,hosted by Hulme Grammar School and an insight into studying Material Physics at Oxford

University which was hosted by Blue Coat School. Finally for Science, Biology students have beenengaging in an e-mentoring scheme with the University of Hudderseld.

To complete the very long list, Leisure Studies and Travel and Tourism students have visitedBlackpool Pleasure Beach to gather informaon for their case study assignments, Law students

have had a taster day with the Law department at Hudderseld University, Health and SocialCare students have visited Oldham Library to conduct some research and pracce referencing

skills and in the nal week of term Sport students will visit Traord Watersports Centre andTexles students will visit Gallery Oldham to see the Born to be Wild fashion exhibion andcollate research for their praccal project in the autumn.

Cross-college events include expedions to the Lake District

for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme students, students fromthe Oxbridge Group vising Oxford University and the girls

football team watching

England senior womensfootball team vs. Japan

at Burton Albion FC. OurSports Leaders award

students hosted the verysuccessful Junior Super Athlete event for a fantasc 260 local

primary school pupils and our in-house Olympathon

ran just last week, involving 60 students and the PEdepartment sta compleng 26.2 hours of sport, raising

money for Chrises in the process. The students startedo the event early on Thursday 27 June and took part in26 acvies such as Goalball, Bocchia and Kabaddi and

more tradional sports of volleyball, hockey and football.The Olympathon nished on Friday morning with a well-

deserved relaxing yoga session, followed by a dance-obetween the various teams of students as part of the

closing ceremony. Their stamina and team spirit throughout was really impressive and I knowthis will be an event they remember for years to come.


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We were delighted to be able to oer the GMPNatural Born Leaders scheme for a secondme this year. This enabled sixteen students to

complete a week-long programme run by GreaterManchester Police. The carefully selected group

spent the week building teamwork, leadershipand communicaon skills, vising GMP training

centres and taking part in exercises designedto test the skills and leadership capabilies ofGMP sta. The week nished with the team

presenng a Dragons Den style pitch to a panelof guests and a talk from Sir Peter Fahy, the

Chief Constable of GMP, who also presented thestudents with their cercates of achievement.

Another project new to the College this year is the Bright Futures scheme, which oers innovavereal job placements to students during their second year at college. We are trialling this scheme

next year and so far have secured 15 placementswith Barclays Bank, Odeon Cinemas and MC2,a markeng company, all of which are based in

central Manchester. Students apply for posts andcomplete a selecon process involving sta from

the companies and then will spend one day a weekfrom late September to Easter next year working

in administrave posts based with the companiesinvolved, alongside connuing their studies atCollege. This promises to be an excellent scheme

for the selected students, providing a wide rangeof employability skills that should enhance their

future prospects tremendously.

We have recently appointed our new Student Ambassadors for the next academic year and once

again had a fantasc eld of applicants from which to choose. Id like to pass on my congratulaons

and thanks to the new team, because they have already been working hard at the various schoolpartnership events that have taken place in the last couple of weeks. We try to involve students

as much as possible in our various events for schools and we are consistently told how valuable

having student input is and what excellent role models our student ambassadors are. The newcohort is already living up to this strong reputaon.

You may be aware of the recent industrial acon by two of the main teacher unions. We were

able to keep the college open on the day of acon (27 June), though there was some disrupon tolessons. We noed students about our posion in advance of the day via email and reminders

through Twier. We also noed those parents for whom we have details via our parent portaland through a noce on our website, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind parentswho havent yet done so that you can sll sign up for the parent portal. This has undergone

substanal development during this year and we hope to make even more use of it next year

so if you havent yet signed up, please do, either by phoning in for a registraon code or byrequesng one by email, using the [email protected] address. Similarly, if you useTwier, please follow us on OSFC_Info as this is a very handy and quick way for us to pass on key

messages.


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Moving on to nancial maers, you may recall at the me your son or daughter enrolled with us

last summer, our request for a donaon to the College Fund. This is an annual request to parents

and it is made to supplement reducing Government funding in order that we can connue to

enhance each students learning experience and improve college resources. We are extremely

grateful to parents for their ongoing support via these donaons which, in recent years have

enabled us to refurbish the learning resource centre and mulgym, to the benet of all students.

We are now able to receive payments for 2013-14 and would prefer payments where possible

to be made using our online system (ParentPay). Payments can be made any me from now to

September. Alternavely there will be a nance desk available during the Y13 enrolment day on

the 21 August if you would prefer to pay by cash or cheque. Many thanks again for your generous

support.

Students who have been in receipt of the College bursary this year will have received an email to

reapply for next year. If your circumstances have changed or you are applying for the rst me

you should read the informaon booklet on the College website and download the applicaon

form. This should be handed back in with a photocopy of your supporng evidence on 21 August

2013.

I hope all students (and parents!) enjoy a resul yet producve summer break. Regardless of

students future plans, using the break to enhance their experience and develop new skills will

be helpful when it comes to compleng applicaon forms. Whether this be volunteering, part-

me work or informal work experience with family and friends, it can all be very useful. We held

oponal masterclasses for year 12 students who are keen to apply for Primary Teaching, NHS

courses, Denstry and Medicine over a three week period this half term. Students were given

extra support for preparing to apply for these parcularly compeve courses.

All Year 12 students are being encouraged to connue to research their ideas for progression aer

college over the summer and those planning to apply to university can now begin their applicaon

forms online. Full details are on the careers blog hp://blog.osfc.ac.uk/careers/

Thanks to everyone involved with the College for their support and hard work this academic year.

We are looking forward to some strong results in the summer and have seen further improvements

in our retenon (staying on) rates this year, all of which bodes very well for students progression

next year.

With very best wishes,

Jayne Clarke

Principal

Highly Commended 2010-2011

Principal: Jayne Clarke, BA(Hons), MA (Ed)Oldham Sixth Form College Union Street West Oldham OL8 1XU

Tel:0161 287 8000 Fax:0161 650 1100 E-mail:[email protected] Website:www.osfc.ac.uk


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GALLERY 2012 - 2013


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Datesfordiaries

Thursday15August

ASresultsemailedat12noon.

Supportavailableincollege9am-2pm.

Wednesday21AugustY13enrolmentday(for

currentY12students)

Appointmentsslotshavebeenemailedto

students

Thursday22AugustGCSEresultsday

Tuesday3September

LessonsstartforY13students(currentY12)

Documents

OSFC Parents Newsletter 2013