Cornonavirus/Covid-19 Update & New Directions College Closure

The safety and wellbeing of our staff and learners are our priorities and we are following the national guidance from the government, Public Health England (PHE) and the Department for Education (DfE). The College and all its delivery locations are closed until further notice.

We have contacted all students, staff and volunteers.  Our amazing tutors are working on home learning packs and helping learners to continue their studies remotely and will be keeping in touch.

The best places for you to get information about coronavirus are the Public Health England (PHE) website and the NHS website.  The BBC is a good source of news.  Beware of fake news or misleading information for example in internet chat rooms – refer to official sources for accurate information.  The latest guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-people/guidance-on-social-distancing-for-everyone-in-the-uk-and-protecting-older-people-and-vulnerable-adults

We will continue to post updates both here and on our facebook page.  If you need to get in touch with us please send us a message using our online enquiry form here.

Stay safe and well

Traineeships for 19-24 year olds

Are you aged 19-24? Is a lack of work experience and skills holding you back? Then our Traineeship Programme could be for you!
Traineeships provide you with real work experience within Reading Borough Council or another local employer whilst gaining nationally accredited qualifications that will improve your skills and knowledge. You can access more information here.

A note for our GCSE Learners from our Curriculum Manager

I understand how unsettling the past weeks have been for you, since the announcement that GCSE exams have been cancelled this summer, and that you are urgently waiting for news. I wanted to let you know what we are doing to provide you with grades. Our over-riding aim in this is to be fair to students this summer and to make sure you are not disadvantaged.

We will be sending to the Exam Board the grade we believe you were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned. We will consider a range of things like your classwork and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your general progress during your course. I would like to re-assure you that we have followed a rigorous process to make sure that results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged.

You are not required to complete any additional mock exams or homework and you will not be disadvantaged if you were not set, or were unable to complete, any work given out after the college was closed. You will receive your result on the GCSE published results day on 20^th August.

Please be reassured that the grades you get this summer will look exactly the same as in previous years, and they will have equal status with universities, colleges and employers, to help you move forward in your life as planned.

Apprenticeships and End Point Assessment

Government are working with providers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance organisations to mitigate the impacts of this disruption and maintain the integrity of apprenticeships. They are working to ensure that wherever possible apprentices can continue and complete their apprenticeship, despite any break they need to take as a result of COVID-19. They are implementing new measures to make it easier for apprenticeships to continue and complete in a different way if they need to or to break and resume an apprenticeship later when that becomes possible.

As soon as we know more, we will update you further.

New Free Online Learning Platform To Boost Workplace Skills

A new online learning platform to help boost the nation’s skills while people are staying at home, has been launched today (28 April) by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Free courses are available through a new online platform hosted on the gov.uk website, called The Skills Toolkit. The new platform, www.gov.uk/theskillstoolkit, gives people access to free, high-quality digital and numeracy courses to help build up their skills, progress in work and boost their job prospects.

Courses on offer cover a range of levels, from everyday maths and tools for using email and social media more effectively at work to more advanced training. Individuals will be able to access courses helping them to create great online content developed by the University of Leeds and the Institute of Coding, to understand the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing from Google Digital Garage and to learn how to code for data analysis from the Open University. All courses are online and flexible, so people can work through them at their own pace.

Online Learning Resources - during COVID-19 recess

We understand and stress the importance of isolation and being home bound during this difficult time. To help ensure continuity in our education and training activities, we have collected and compiled a range of online learning materials.

Visit our Facebook page for access to digital learning content.