Dear students, parents and carers

Safer Internet Day 2023 will take place across the UK on Tuesday 7 of February. I would like to think that VI Form students are safe from the risk of: Online bullying, Coerced online abuse, Sexting etc. but if you need advice and support please speak to your Teachers or Student Services, there is also online support available for parents and students:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/ guide-and-resource/parents- and-carers https://saferinternet.org.uk/ guide-and-resource/young- people.

Remember that future employers may check your social media, so be careful what you post. Recruitment firm Reed states that 43% of recruiters check digital profiles, 80% checking online presence. There have been a number of high profile examples of this over the last few years. Again I would like to think that the VI Form community is very tolerant, accepting and caring and would never make sexist, racist or offensive comments in person or on social media. https://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/business-42621920

There has been a letter shared with you about the proposed upcoming strike action, as you may have seen via social media and local news, we will be open. Students should attend as normal and check Google Classroom for information.

One of our new weekly features in this newsletter will be #feelgoodfriday, which will actively promote strategies and practical help to support good mental health and wellbeing across our Federation. Launching today with Five Ways to Wellbeing, please see the details below.

Can I finally remind students (and/or their parents) to let us know if you are not going to be in. We want to treat students like adults, so please communicate with us and let us know if you aren’t in – just like all adults have to with their employer.

Have a safe weekend.

Dear Students, Parents & Carers,

Time is starting to fly at VI Form and the full exam season will be with us very quickly.

UCAS deadline 25.01.23

Art based A level exams (Y13) 17.04.23

Main A level exams start 15.05.23

Exams finished 28.06.23

Year 12 trial exams 29.07.23

Results day 17.08.23 (Remember your ID!)

If you look at this as a number of weeks, the main A levels start in 17 weeks or 14 weeks of school (with holidays removed). The best thing you can do is be prepared, complete revision material creation by Easter, leaving you 6 weeks to repeat, repeat, repeat. It is the repetition that burns it into your long term memory.

There will be a separate letter shared with you about the proposed strike action, as you may have seen via social media and local news, we will be open.

Can I finally remind students (and / or their parents) to let us know if you are not going to be in. We want to treat students like adults, so please communicate with us and let us know if you aren’t in – just like all adults have to with their employer.

Have a safe weekend,

Mr Mumford

Dear Students, Parents & Carers,

Congratulations to the high number of students who have now achieved a grade 4 or higher in the English and Maths GCSE retakes that were sat back in November.

The UCAS deadline for 2023 is 25 January. Over 130 applications have been sent by The Island VI Form, if you are still intending to apply you need to hurry up! This will be your final reminder as it is your application. Applications sent after the deadline may be considered by Universities but their course may be full. Hit the deadline to maximise your options.

Year 12 students are therefore one year away from submitting their applications. Do you need to work on evidence/examples of: Leadership, teamwork, resilience, independent work, initiative etc? If you do, it’s not too late to: sign up for the Duke of Edinburgh award; become a reading mentor; start volunteering; gain some work experience or anything else we offer. All of these opportunities are offered to help you build evidence of how good you are to future universities or employers.

Now is also the time to start looking at University open days and Summer Schools that will be coming up later in the year.

Time goes very quickly at VI Form, students completed their real exams and controlled assessments this week in Criminology, Travel & Tourism, Sport, Health & Social Care and Child Development. The main bulk of exams are only 16 weeks away. Make sure you are well prepared to avoid possible additional stress.

Have a nice weekend.

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

Welcome back and Happy New Year.

Safer Internet Day 2023 will take place across the UK on the 7th of February. I would like to think that VI Form students are safe from the risk of: Online bullying, Coerced online abuse, Sexting etc.

However, due to the world we live in, sadly I doubt that this is true. If you need advice and support please speak to your teachers or student services, there is also online support available for parents and students:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/young-people

Generic, simple advice would be:
Never share your passwords.
Don’t follow links in emails, go to the website directly.
Don’t share your mother’s maiden name, first pet’s name no matter how funny the quiz is.
Never send a photo that would embarrass you if the world saw it.

I have changed the posters around school to #Address your stress. We are now building towards the exam season which can be a stressful time. The best thing you can do is to be as prepared as possible; create a revision timetable, create revision materials by Easter and then read through these materials numerous times. It is the repetition that burns knowledge into your long term memory. If you are struggling with exam technique, please speak to your teachers and complete as many past papers as you can.

Generic stress management advice is to Try; exercise, set time aside for fun, learn a new skill, share how you feel and switch off from distractions. Avoid; overdoing it, overworking, too much screen time, chasing perfection and bottling up your feelings.

Staff are here to support you, please talk to us if you feel that you need to.

Results from the November Maths GCSE retake exams will be available to collect from Reception from 9am on Thursday 12th January.

Dear Parents / Carers & Students

The new Boilers (£100k+) will be fitted and working when the new term starts in January, thank you for your patience and goodwill with the heating during this final week.

Thank you for all of your donations to the food bank, they were delivered today and will hopefully support Island families in need this Christmas.

Congratulations to the students who performed in the Christmas concert, the Drama departments Christmas Cracker performance and the production of Peter & Wendy.

Have a great break and thank you for all of your hard work over the term.

Mr Mumford

Dear Parents, Carers and Students

The heating in our main buildings will be disrupted during the last week of school. The current boiler is at the end of its life and is being replaced by 4 new boilers; one to run the hot water and the other three to heat the buildings. This should mean that we have reliable heating and we won’t have to run the heating to have hot water in the summer! This represents a further £100K of investment into our facilities. However it does mean that during the last 5 days of term, the main building will be heated by individual heaters in rooms. This will not be as efficient or effective as the central heating, so please dress warmly and get the Christmas jumpers out! Remember that the Reception block and Upper common room areas, classroom S5 and Art are on different heating systems, so these areas will be warm as usual.

Please find below information about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, this is an excellent opportunity to boost your ‘career capital’ (resilience, leadership, teamwork ….) so that you can show off how amazing you are to future universities or employers. Participating in a DofE award, might be one of the reasons why you could be shortlisted for a university place or an interview in the future. 

Thank you for your donations to our collection for the local food bank, we will be making a delivery to them on Thursday, so you still have time to donate if you can.

Finally, thank you to our former student Isaac Lethbridge, who is currently reading history at the University of Oxford and has come back to visit us today to speak with students who may be considering applying to Oxbridge in the future. Whilst arranging the visit Isaac said “I feel particularly passionate about this in terms of ensuring that every student has the encouragement to aspire to their very best.” We are very grateful that Isaac has given up his time to share his experience of applying to and studying at Oxford. Any students who feel that they would like to discuss opportunities like this further, should contact Miss Linsell.

Keep warm and have a safe weekend,

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

As is now our Chrtistmas tradition, we are asking for donations for the local food bank over the remaining two weeks of term. If you are able to contribute, please could you bring in items to Reception. We will be delivering all contributions to the food bank before the end of term.

We are holding a Christmas dinner for students and staff on Thursday 15 December, a two course meal for £2.50!. We will be selling tickets in advance for this event and this will be the only food available at lunchtime on the day. Normal snack food will be available at breaktime only. If you qualify for free school meals, you will automatically get a ticket and I will be delivering these to students next week. The deadline for ticket sales is midday on Thursday 8 December. Student voice will also be fundraising and encouraging staff and students to wear Christmas jumpers on the last two days of term.

GCSE certificates for students from Medina and Carisbrooke will be available from VI Form Reception on Thursday 8 December during break and lunch. They will then be returned to Medina and Carisbrooke, so make sure you pick them up on Thursday. Certificates should be kept safely stored at home as you will need them for future jobs and University admissions and they are very expensive to replace from the exam boards. All secondary schools will be distributing certificates, so you need to contact your previous school to make arrangements to collect. A Level certificates are also available from Reception for former students to collect – we don’t keep them forever, so please pick them up ASAP.

Stay warm and have a safe weekend,

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

On Friday the 25th November we held taster lessons for current Year 11 students, next year’s Year 12. Students from Medina College, Carisbrooke College, The Bay and The Island Free School attended, over 300 in total. It was really nice to see so many having a positive experience and enjoying what we had to offer. I asked them to remember to get their applications in by Easter, so that we can make decisions based on their subject choices. Applications can still come in after Easter and by then we will have finalised our subject offer and options grid.

Thank you to Year 12 for making our guest students feel welcome, and for your understanding for the slight disruption to the odd Year 12 lesson.

Year 13 exams are still on going but you will get the Upper common room and Library back before the end of the week.

Gym inductions have started and training for Year 12 Reading mentors for Medina and Carisbrooke will be held on December 2nd. If you’re interested in either of these opportunities, you can sign up in Student Services.

In December we will be collecting items for the local food bank. If you are able to support, donations can be handed in at our Main Reception.

Have a great weekend.

Dear Students, Parents & Carers

Best of luck to Year 13 with their trial exams next week. I’m sure all of your hard work and preparation will pay off. I have seen students improve four grades between practice exams and the real thing, so don’t panic if you don’t get the grades you hoped for – they are called practice exams for a reason.

During the exam period the library and the upper common room will be out of use for Year 12 students, sorry for any inconvenience.

On Friday the 25th November we are holding taster lessons for current Year 11 students, next year’s Year 12. Students from Medina, Carisbrooke, The Bay and The Free School will be on site. Please make them feel welcome, there might be some slight disruption to the odd Year 12 lesson – apologies for this and we will let you know in advance. Work for these lessons will be set on Google Classroom.

Have a nice weekend.

Remembrance day is always a proud day for us as today, staff and students walked to St Thomas’ Square in Newport to attend the public Act of Remembrance and lay a wreath. Student Voice representatives Mollie Scriver and Cleo Williams carried the wreath and lead the way through Newport town. The impact of so many young people participating and standing in total silence is always appreciated and commented on by members of the public.

The Year 13 Trial exams will start on Monday 21 November and conclude on Thursday 1 December. These need to be treated in the same way as real exams would be. Individual timetables giving details of times, rooms and seat numbers are available for students to collect from Student Services.

Whilst the examinations are taking place, students will be released on study leave, if the subjects that they study are being assessed. Some subjects, such as BTEC’s and the creative arts, will not be released on study leave. Students should confirm with their individual teachers regarding their lessons. Study leave will finish on Tuesday 29 November and normal teaching will resume on Wednesday 30 November (Art, Graphics and Photography exams are scheduled for 30 November and 1 December).

Click here and you will find a document giving Examinations Guidance for candidates and parents. This is an important source of information relating to the upcoming trial exams and the real examinations in the Summer season.