One to one mentoring is key to college’s 100% success rate on university places.
Students stand out from the crowd with mix of academic and vocational skills.
One-to-one academic mentoring and a focus on high quality pastoral care has enabled a Peterlee sixth form college to achieve a 100% success rate when it comes to students gaining a place at their first choice of university.
Byron Sixth Form College in Peterlee – the further education college at St Bede’s Catholic School, part of Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust, offers one to one support for its pupils, who can study a mix of BTEC courses and A-levels if they wish.
Tracey Robinson, assistant headteacher at St Bede’s and Byron believes the ability to study for a mix of vocational and academic qualifications makes students who are applying to university stand out from the crowd.
Speaking ahead of an open evening for the sixth form college on Thursday (10 November 2022) she said: “Students are able to mix their studies between A-level subjects and vocational subjects – and the universities often like to see students developing the different skills needed for both, which help them prepare for life at University.
“As a college, we are very successful with our vocational results, specifically BTEC courses, where there is a lot of report writing and you are continuously having to meet deadlines and be assessed on an ongoing basis.
“With studying for A-Levels, you are working towards final exams and developing revision skills, so those students who opt to do both A-level and vocational courses develop a mix of skills, which the universities do like.”
Tracey says the college takes into account pupils’ unique academic abilities and aspirations to provide tailor-made support to “get them to where they want to be” by the age of 18, when they progress onto higher education or employment.
Unlike other colleges which require students to have a GCSE Level 6 in a subject before they can study it at A-level, a Level 5 is required at Byron Sixth Form College – although Level 6s are preferred when it comes to Maths and Science subjects.
However, even with Maths and Science, exceptions can be made for the right students who are willing to work hard.
“We don’t want to limit the life choices of our students,” Tracey said.
The college has been highly successful in getting its students places at Russell Group Universities, which represent 24 world-class, research-intensive educational establishments such as Durham University, Oxford and Cambridge.
This is largely achieved through the college’s Ambitions Programme, which sees every student receive tailor-made one-to-one support every week, to ensure they produce outstanding applications.
Last year, one student gained a place studying medicine at St Andrew’s University to study medicine and another was offered a place on Oxford University’s history degree.
This year, 13 out of 30 students at the college are applying to Oxford or Cambridge Universities.
“Our students this year are doing really well,” says Tracey, who says students also benefit from doing two enrichments per week, ranging from football and art to coding and fun fitness.
All year 12 students undertake work experience and the attachment to St Bede’s sees some work with younger pupils, for example those who want to go on to do teacher training.
“They don’t have to wait until they are at university to get some experience in the classroom,” Tracey explains.
Byron College is also one of only a handful of further education colleges that offers Computer Science and Spanish.
Tracey says: “We know that computer science as a subject is going to become more and more important in the future.
“We are particularly keen to encourage more girls to study this.”
In fact, girls excel at Byron Sixth Form college, with 43.55% of girls achieving A-stars to As at A-level, surpassing the national average of 39%.
“As a caring college, we enable all our students to gain a place at their first choice of university by offering whatever support they need on an individual basis,” Tracey says.
“Some pupils might need help gaining more work experience to document in their applications, while others might need academic support.
“Because we are a small college, we are able to offer this bespoke support – we also have small class sizes which the students benefit from.
“We are looking forward to welcoming more ambitious young people to our college this week to see what we have to offer.”