Student Support
Learning Support
Bede students are fortunate to have an excellent Learner Services team in the Learning Resource Centre. There are three managers with different specialist skills to help with support and advice. Students who use the service report huge gains and success at the end of their course. You can drop in at any time or your teacher might suggest that you go if you are having a particular problem in part of a subject. This is your chance to increase your target grades by using the excellent advice available. This is highly recommended extra support for students – and it’s FREE!
Learning Mentor
Our learning mentor is here to help anybody with a study problem, whether it be time management, coursework, study techniques or just a good old pep talk. The learning mentor knows what it is like to have to organise your work and is able to offer assistance and advice on a range of issues that may be barriers to learning. If you want to come with a friend and sort out your work related difficulties in pairs you are welcome to do so.
All your teachers have time allocated outside lessons to give you one to one or small group support in your main subjects. Help is always available from somebody. All you have to do is ask.
Teaching and Learning
This is the core of our business and an undoubted strength, as our results and now the inspection report 2010 prove. Dr Richard Spencer has twice won the top national STAR award, once as the best FE teacher in England and once as best subject learning coach. In 2008 he won the international prize for best interdisciplinary teacher at the Science on Stage Awards in Berlin and in 2010 he was granted the MBE by the Queen for services to science communication. But he is not the only famous person on Bede sixth form staff. Dr Ed Anderson was the highly commended runner up STAR in 2008-9 and Janice Ronsano, the Senior Tutor was in the finals once again in 2009-10. And we have more experts ready and waiting to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with you and with their colleagues particularly in the exciting world of e-learning and use of the online VLE materials and resources.
Support and Guidance
There is a massive amount of support available at Bede to help you succeed. We expect you to take more responsibility for your own success but we do require full attendance because experience shows that missing lessons is the speediest route to underachievement.
As a specialist advanced level sixth form we have a weekly tutor system which is planned to help you adjust to independent study but we also want you to be good citizens so the tutorials look at environmental and social issues concerning young people across the world. Your tutor is usually your first point of contact, helping you to set realistic and aspirational targets and writing your references when the time comes. Wherever possible, your tutor will also teach you and so gets to know you well.
The Senior Tutor plans all the tutorials. She makes sure they cover things like part-time employment and personal finance. She will also make the decision whether to involve your parents or carers about any issues of concern. She will deal with course changes and will liaise with your tutor to monitor your attendance and progress.
Tutorial includes a system of regular reviews so that you can meet one-to-one with your subject teachers and your tutor to review targets, suggest improvements and develop an action plan for the next stage in your success. Your GCSE grades will give an indication of your potential but we are well aware that young people develop at different rates. We will encourage you to strive beyond your existing grades and to squeeze every drop of inspiration out of your amazing individual talent. That means you! When you first join us at Bede you will find our support mechanisms provide a safety net while you are adjusting to being a more independent learner. As your time with us passes you will be eager to take greater ownership of your own learning. The whole support system is designed to encourage this independence.
Diversity and Respect
We encourage everybody in college to develop skills, knowledge and confidence. We want you to show respect for the views of others and tolerance of all differences of age, faith, race, gender, disability or sexual orientation so that there is equality of opportunity for all. The new building is a wonderful environment for all to work or study with ease. There is a quiet room for individual prayer and contemplation for all faiths and for groups to meet and discuss the important philosophical questions in life. Everything we stand for can be summed up by that word: Respect.