LAST CHANCE TO VISIT THE COLLEGE

Choosing what you do after your GCSEs is an important decision and certainly if you live in Birmingham or Solihull, the choices open to you are wide and varied.

Continuing with your education is an investment into your future and in the not too distant future it will become compulsory for young people to remain in education until they are 18. For now, it’s a choice and for young people in Birmingham and Solihull, The Sixth Form College, Solihull is one of the options open to them.

 

We advise young people to go to as many open events as possible before they make their final choice. After all, how can you really know what school or college is right for you if you haven’t set foot inside it?

Back in October, we held an Open Day at the College, with a record-breaking attendance of prospective students and parents coming through the doors to see what the College offers and talk to teachers. In February, we have our final event of the year, and while not the same as Open Day, it is still a great opportunity to learn more about us and decide if we are the right place for you.

This event is called Information Evening and takes place on Thursday 7 February from 5.00pm – 8.00pm (with last entry at 7.30pm). The emphasis of this event is providing information to those who have yet to make an application, while also offering a second chance to those that have applied to ask any other questions they may have. We won’t be opening up the entire campus for this event; instead the emphasis is on giving you the chance to talk to our staff, as well as some existing students.

The College has some building work going on at the moment, which means this event will be held in our Sports Centre. The Principal Paul Ashdown will be giving presentations at 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 7.30pm in the Dance Studio, while subjects will be set up in the Sports Hall. While, we would like to be able to show you the rest of the campus, that is just not feasible on this occasion and we know that the new resources being built at the moment (a new lecture theatre, for example), will make this short-term disruption well worthwhile.

The deadline for making an application for September 2013 entry is the end of March 2013, so this event really is the last chance for you to visit us and find out more about us. Provided you apply before the deadline and you meet our entry criteria, we guarantee you will get an interview. Applications received from April onwards may still be successful, but we cannot guarantee that; it will depend on whether there are spaces left.

If this all sounds interesting to you, come and visit us on Thursday 7 February. For travelling directions, click here. You can also find out more on our Events page of the website and link to information about our Entry Requirements and our Online Application Form.

 
We look forward to welcoming you into College.

Designing our new Prospectus

September 2013 is a long way off, but already we are starting preparations for next academic year by appointing a marketing agency to design a new prospectus for us.

Coming up with a design in the really fun part, but before we get to that stage, we have to pick which marketing agency to use. We are doing this by inviting four companies in to present their ideas to us. As Marketing Co-ordinator, I am a part of this process, but there are other staff involved too, including the Principal and Vice Principal and even one of the College governors too!

We want to make sure that whichever company we pick, they are going to do a good job and come up with a design that speaks to students and parents alike. Now, I might like to think I’m still in touch with 16 year olds, but the sad truth is that my sixth form years were quite some time ago! Because of this unwelcome fact, we are asking some younger people to be part of this process, involving current students in our decision making process.

A small group of students are meeting with each of the four marketing agencies we have invited in and will participate in a focus group. In these meetings, students will talk through what they like and what they don’t like about the designs and ideas that these companies have come up with. Staff will be in the meeting too, but only to observe and we will take the students’ views into account when we make our decisions. The meetings take place today and next week.

It’s an exciting process, but we are only just at the start of our quest for a new prospectus. Once we pick an agency, we will get started on creating the final design. This usually involves several versions, until we are happy with how it looks and what it says and then over the summer the prospectus will be printed so it is ready for September.

So, if you are currently in Year 10 and starting to think about your post-16 options for September 2014, make sure you get a copy of our prospectus this autumn, and just remember that we didn’t knock it up in five minutes; we started the process nine months earlier!