Starting at College

Stepping Up

We are all aware that stepping up to College from high school is a big step, so our experienced and friendly staff are ideally placed to help you with the transition. Your first day of term for new students is on Monday 4th September 2023, and this will be your first chance to experience a full College timetable, but you'll also be welcomed and helped to settle in by all of your new teachers, tutors, support staff and fellow new students. This is an exciting time and we're all here to help you with anything you need to make the move as easy as possible.

Support

Unlike high school, you will have an assigned tutor who looks after everything outside of subject lessons. This is a sort of advanced form teacher from high school, but it’s tutors’ full time job, so your teachers can just concentrate on teaching their subjects. The tutors are there to support you make the transition from high school to sixth form, and then prepare you for the next steps in life after College. They are also careers experts, and have a vast amount of experience in supporting young people aged 16 and over to help make College life as successful as possible. You will have weekly group tutorials, termly one-to-ones and their doors are always open for ad-hoc support.

The College also has a team of Learning Support Assistants who are there to support those with any additional needs. The team can be found in the Learning Assistance Base, or the LAB for short, which is a quiet area if any students need some down time or extra support.

Do More, Be More

Alongside your subject learning and tutorial programme, there is a huge range of extracurricular activities for you to get involved with. Our dedicated Student Engagement Officer, Jordyn, oversees a full programme of sports, volunteering, learning new skills and work experience. Not only do these things look great on your CV and future applications for university or work, but they are a great way to make new friends and broaden your horizons with new experiences. If there’s any sort of club or activity that you’d like to take part in, or even run yourself, and you don’t think that we currently offer it, just simply email Jordyn on jla@bsfc.ac.uk with your ideas and she will do everything possible to get it put in place!

Below is just a quick look at some of the clubs, activities and societies that the College is running in the academic year: