Update: 26.05.20

Dear students and parents/carers,

I hope you and your families continue to remain safe and well.

I am writing to provide you with an update on the potential phased reopening of Blackpool Sixth during the summer term.

For now, our position remains the same as it has since we moved to on-line learning back in March. However, we are currently working towards a potential phased reopening from Monday 15th June, at the very earliest.  Obviously, this will depend on the national Covid-19 situation as well as the progress made in securing a safe learning and working environment.  I can assure you that the health and wellbeing of our students and staff continue to be of the utmost priority and therefore we will only consider reopening the college when we are confident it is safe to do so.

When we do return, the offer will be very different from the normal way of working. It is likely to involve a very limited number of students, different start and end times, and small group and one-to-one work with teachers, pastoral mentors, and support staff. We plan to limit the need to travel to and from the college, we will enforce rigorous social distancing across the college at all times and ensure a rigorous cleaning regime. Over time, we will extend our offer in a safe and phased way.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming our students and staff back to Blackpool Sixth but only when the time is right. In the meantime, please take care, stay safe and look after each other.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kind regards,

Jill Gray

Principal

Update: 12.05.20

Dear students and parents/carers,

I hope you and your families remain safe and well.

Following the government announcement yesterday, the college is preparing its plans in response. This may include some year 12 (lower sixth) students accessing face-to-face support at the college from 1st June, at the earliest, where this is appropriate and possible. Where available, this support will supplement (not replace) their current on-line learning. How this will look is still being determined and further information will be shared once the plans have been finalised; it is likely that this will be early next week. 

Please note that students will not be returning to college full time for the remainder of this academic year, i.e. before the summer break. 

In the meantime, please be assured that the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students continue to be of the utmost priority and, therefore, stringent social distancing measures will be fully implemented before anyone is welcomed back to the college, even if this means starting later than the suggested date of June 1st.

The updated guidance, which can be found here, provides further government information on the plans for the phased re-opening of educational settings.  You can also still access the government’s guidance for parents and carers, here.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

Kind regards,

Jill Gray

Principal

Important information for current Blackpool Sixth students

Updated 23rd April

Please scroll down to the section relevant to you based on your study programme

Route3 students

Students on the Route3 programme studying Level 2 BTEC or finance are no longer required to complete any work for their courses.

If they have a very small amount of work to complete for a resubmission and/or retake and doing this will mean a unit is fully completed and can be securely graded, we are happy for them to complete and submit this for marking should they choose to. They should only do this if they are confident that this can be done to their normal standard. This is not a requirement, and no student will be disadvantaged by not doing this.

Students on the Route3 programme studying GCSE courses should continue to complete the work set by their teachers, if they are able to.

GCSEs are essential qualifications that will be needed when applying for jobs in the future. All students are required to continue studying them until they achieve at least a grade 4. 

Although we hope students will achieve grade 4 this year some may not and will, therefore, need to continue studying this next year. It’s important that they keep learning and developing skills and don’t lose what they have learned this year.

GCSE teachers will be setting some work/activities to complete and it would be very helpful if students could complete this and keep learning.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch.

Lower Sixth Combined Programme Students

Students studying BTECs in lower sixth (L6) need to continue learning and completing work until the end of the year. The focus will be on learning content, study skills including revision for external assessment (where relevant) and completing practice assignments.

Students studying A levels in L6 need to continue learning and completing work until the end of the year. The focus will be on learning content, developing study and revision skills, completing any key assessments set and working towards preparing for external exams at the end of the second year of study.

Students in L6 studying a GCSE also need to continue learning and completing work.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch. 

Lower Sixth Vocational Programme students

Students studying BTECs in L6 need to continue learning and completing work until the end of the year. The focus will be on learning content, study skills including revision for external assessment (where relevant) and completing practice assignments.

Students also studying a GCSE need to continue learning and completing work for this too.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch. 

Lower Sixth A Level Programme students

Students studying A levels in L6 need to continue learning and completing work until the end of the year. The focus will be on learning content, developing study and revision skills, completing any key assessments set and working towards preparing for external exams at the end of the second year of study.

Students also studying a GCSE need to continue learning and completing work for this too.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch. 

Upper Sixth Combined Programme students

Upper sixth (U6) students are no longer required to complete any work for their A level, finance or GCSE subjects. 

They are no longer required to complete any work for BTEC or CTEC subjects either. If they have a very small amount of work to complete for a resubmission and/or retake and doing this will mean a unit is fully completed and can be securely graded, we are happy for them to complete and submit this for marking should they choose to. They should only do this if they are confident that this can be done to their normal standard. This is not a requirement, and no student will be disadvantaged by not doing this.

Students should now focus on preparing for their next steps, which may be attending university or moving into employment.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch. 

Upper Sixth Vocational Programme students

Upper sixth students are no longer required to complete any work for their BTEC, CTEC, finance or GCSE courses. If they have a very small amount of work to complete for a resubmission and/or retake and doing this will mean a unit is fully completed and can be securely graded, we are happy for them to complete and submit this for marking should they choose to. They should only do this if they are confident that this can be done to their normal standard. This is not a requirement, and no student will be disadvantaged by not doing this.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch. 

Upper Sixth A Level students

Upper sixth (U6) students are no longer required to complete any work for their A level or GCSE subjects. 

Students should now focus on preparing for their next steps, which may be attending university or moving into employment.

If any student needs support we are here to help. 

Look after yourselves, make sure you follow the government advice – ‘stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ – and keep in touch.

Further update on grading of A levels and GCSEs 

20th April 2020

Dear students and parent/carers,

I hope you had a peaceful Easter.

In line with the government guidance on 2020 summer grading, we are now commencing the process of calculating students’ grades for A level and GCSE qualifications; we will also do this for our vocational subjects once the full government guidance has been issued. 

Please note that we have until 29 May (at the earliest) to carry out the grading exercise.

Please could I politely request that students and/or their parents/carers do not contact individual members of staff requesting information about grades as we are not able to provide this under any circumstance. Making these requests puts unnecessary pressure on our staff and could also hinder the process.

Please be assured that we have rigorous quality assurance processes in place to ensure the process is fair and robust.

Please note that students who were due to complete their studies this summer are not required to complete any further work towards their current qualification/s unless the work is directed towards their next steps, e.g. to support progression onto university. Lower sixth students should, however, continue to complete the work set by their teachers as this is critical to their success next year.

Although Upper Sixth students are no longer required to complete any further work towards their current qualifications, they will remain as Blackpool Sixth students until the end of the summer term to allow them access to all the teaching, learning and support services e.g. pastoral support, careers guidance, progression advice. We acknowledge that this support is likely to be given remotely but, nevertheless, we believe students will feel reassured to know we are still here if they need us.  This will also apply to any Route3 students who are not intending on continuing their studies with us next year.

The Department for Education has now confirmed that the 2020 results days will remain as originally planned, therefore students will find out their results on the following dates:

• Thursday 13 August – A level and vocational qualifications
• Thursday 20 August – GCSE

Further details of how we will celebrate results days at Blackpool Sixth will be issued in due course.

Thank you for your support and understanding during these unprecedented times.

Kind regards

Jill Gray

Principal

Update on grading arrangements for students and parents /carers

7th April 2020

We have had a few queries about whether we will still be sending out progress review grades as originally planned after the Easter holidays.  In line with the government announcement last Friday whereby it states, “It is important schools and colleges do not share provisional grades, nor rank orders, with students or parents and carers before final results have been issued’, the progress review grades will no longer be made available.  Please read the full government guidance detailed below if you haven’t already as this reinforces this message and also explains how grades will be allocated for A levels and GCSEs this summer. As yet, there has not been any guidance provided relating to the grading of BTEC or other vocational qualifications. We will, of course, share this information as soon as we receive it.

We hope you are all safe and well and that you have a restful Easter break!

Best wishes,

Jill Gray

Principal

Important information on the grading of A levels and GCSEs in summer 2020

Updated 3rd April 2020

Last month the Secretary of State for Education announced that the 2020 exam series in England would be cancelled to help fight the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).  You will find in the links below further information from the government about how GCSE and A level grades will be awarded this summer.  There is a guidance document for students, parents, carers and teachers and an open letter to students.  Please do take the time to read this information.

Guidance for students, parents, carers and teachers

Letter to students

Online and Home Learning – Important Information

Dear Blackpool Sixth students and parents/carers,

Following the government’s announcement yesterday, Blackpool Sixth will close to all students (except vulnerable students and those whose parents/carers are key workers who need to be in college) at the end of the day on Friday 20th March to support the fight against the coronavirus.  We will be moving to on-line and home learning on all of our subjects from Monday 23rd March until further notice.  

Students (other than those identified above) should not attend college premises but are required to continue their studies from home after the end of the day tomorrow (Friday 20th March). Students with planned work placement will not be required to attend.

Students who are children of key workers should let us know via this link if they feel they need to be in college to work by Friday 20th March at 1pm.  Parents and carers need to check how their son/daughter/ward has responded.  We will contact vulnerable students directly. Please note that there will be no face-to-face classes; this is simply so that those students can work on their online studies here at college.

Online learning will take place through Google Classroom.  Students can access Google Classroom through https://classroom.google.com and providing they are logged into their Google account they will be directed to their subject “classrooms”. If students find themselves locked out of their Google account they should email passwordreset@blackpoolsixth.ac.uk from an alternative email account and you will receive further instructions.

We will communicate with students and parents/carers via email.  It is essential that students check their college emails each day.  We have most parents’ emails, however, if you have not yet provided this or any contact details have changed students are able to update/add further information through the student portal.  

Log into student portal. On the opening screen click ‘update my details’ (left), this opens ‘basic details’ which includes contact details. Click on the pen to add or update, then click the green button (bottom) to submit changes.

Please also regularly check the college website messages, because this is where we will post any significant new information relevant to all students.

Our staff will, of course, do their best to continue to teach students during the coming weeks, but, understandably, it is unlikely that they will be able to provide the same levels of service as usual.

The government has also announced that exams and assessments will not take place this summer. This announcement will cause many of you concern. We are, as yet, unclear on what this means for our students so we will provide you with further information once the government has provided some clarification.  In the meantime, students on all courses (GCSEs, BTECs/CTECs and A levels) must continue with their online learning as teacher assessments may be one of the methods used in order to award qualifications to students.

We realise that the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus will be making some of you anxious. If you are feeling unwell, either mentally or physically, you should seek medical advice via NHS 111 or your GP.

The health, wellbeing and safety of all of our students and staff continues to be our key concern, so please do follow the government advice provided during the days/weeks ahead. And please find ways of staying in touch with your friends and family, even if you are required to self-isolate.

We look forward to welcoming all our Blackpool Sixth students and staff back to college once this situation has passed. In the meantime, let’s support each other to remain safe and well.

Yours sincerely

Jill Gray

Principal