COLLEGE PLANS ‘PHASED RETURN OF BOTH STAFF AND LEARNERS...’
‘Safe’ reopening of both campuses in June
STUDENTS will start returning to Staffordshire’s biggest college next month as part of a phased reopening plan.
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group will be contacting ‘selected’ Year 12 students to invite them back to its two campuses on a part-time basis.
It follows Government guidance that schools and colleges should have ‘face-to-face contact’ with teenagers who are preparing to start their main GCSE or A-level exam years. The advice says, from June 15, up to a quarter of these students could be on site at any one time, although most learning would still be done remotely.
Karen Dobson, right, principal of the group that runs Newcastle College, said: “The senior management team has been working on comprehensive plans to allow us to reopen both campuses safely in June, with a gradual phased return of both staff and learners.”
Steps to ensure safety when the first students return on June 15 will include:
■ A one-way system around the corridors and stairways;
■ Re-laying brightly coloured carpet tiles at two-metre intervals;
■ Getting students to attend on a rota basis.
College staff today praised students for coping with the alternative arrangements since March. Feedback has shown 96 per cent of them have been engaging with staff in online learning.
Those in Year 13 – including young people getting A-level or BTEC results this summer – are unlikely to return to college before the end of term.
The exception will be students who need to have a skills assessment to complete their course. They will be ‘invited in to college as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.’
Mrs Dobson added: “We are really disappointed not to be able to send progressing students off with the usual fanfare at the end of the summer term, but do plan to uphold the traditional end of term sports awards and celebration awards in a virtual manner. We hope that many students will be able to tune in to these events online.
“At this stage, it is too early to confirm plans for results days.”
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group has more than 5,000 teenage students, along with 800 adult learners and almost 600 apprentices. Apprentices who’ve been able to continue working during the coronavirus lockdown are doing virtual assessments through college.
Mrs Dobson said: “Our current plans are based on a partial return for selected students in June and a full return to learning in September. However, we are also working on contingency plans in the eventuality that this will not be possible. Clearly, much uncertainty remains.”
For school leavers hoping to join in September, the college has been arranging virtual open days, online
Q&AS and setting work linked to subjects they hope to study.
Meanwhile, Stoke-on-trent Sixth
Form College has yet to confirm its reopening arrangements.
Both colleges have kept their buildings open for a small number of vulnerable students throughout the lockdown.