Task 5

This task is a collection of all the research that I have done concerning the sixth form college Solihull, it contains information on the background of the college Courses offered by SSFC, The organisational structure, Student bodies/committees, Additional facilities.

Background information
The sixth form college Solihull was founded in 1974. It is a further education college for students aged 16 to and draws students 19. It is situated on the outskirts of Solihull in the west midlands from across Solihull and Birmingham. It recruits approximately 2,200 students which a third come from south Birmingham, the vast majority of students are aged from 16 to 18 and are enrolled full time on advanced level courses which all are academic subjects such as Maths Science and English. Also a big proportion of all students achieve 3 or more A-levels at A* to C grade, to be more precise there is a 97% pass rate at the college which is well above the national average. Also the largest group of ethnic minorities in the college come from Pakistani heritage. Famous people that have attended the college and have gone on to do great things are, Stefali Chowdhury who acted in the harry potter films, Justin King who is the CEO of Sainsburys and Simon Fowler who is the lead singer from Ocean.

Courses Offered By the Sixth Form College, Solihull

As any college would the Sixth Form offer the 3 main core subjects, Maths, Science and English. They also have a wide range of languages that are taught such as Spanish, French, Russian and Italian. There are also other academic subjects such as history, religious studies and geography. As well as all these there are some non-academic courses such as IT, Music, Media and art. They are also re introducing photography. At the college students take 4 AS-levels in their first year and then in the second year they carry on 3 of them or in some cases continue all 4 on to A2. The college also offer 6 BTEC Diploma Courses, these courses count as 3 A-Levels so a student only has to take one normal A-Level alongside them, these are in Applied Science, Art & Design, Business, Health and Social, IT Practitioners and Sport. Also along side these subjects students may take an enrichment course such as General studies, Extended Project and Critical Thinking.

Structure of the Organisation Here is a diagram that presents the structure of the college.

The Board
Principal Paul Ashdown
Vice Principal Janice Hamilton
Assistant Principal (Division A) Mike Padbury Director of Teaching & Learning (Division A) Trevor Irving Assistant Principal (Division B) Elizabeth Baker Director of Teaching & Learning (Division B) Margaret Harrison

Vice Principal Martin Sullivan

Assistant Principal (Division C) Andy Poulton Associate Principal (Division C) Sonia Wood

Director of Teaching & Learning/Student Support Bob Beaumont

Director of Teaching & Learning (Quality)/Sharing Good Practice Project Leader Janis Evans

This diagram shows that the college is run by a board; this can be made up of teachers, business men, parents and people in the community. The board then employs the principal to actually run the college from within, he employs 2 vice principals to help him do so. Then under them there are the separate divisions for academic purposes, these are run by assistant principals and directors of teaching and learning.

Student bodies/Committees A student body in the sixth form college is the student council, this is made up of a selective number of students from each coaching group. The student council represents the voice of all the students in the college; it is a way of getting the views and wishes of the students across. Out of the student council an executive body is chosen, it is made up of a Chair, Treasurer, students events officer, charities officer and a student voice officer.

Facilities The Sixth Form College Solihull has an excellent library and learning centre with more than 30,000 resources, including books DVDs, computers and scanners. It also has a food court that sells hot and cold food; there is also a costa coffee and internet caf. As well as all these students can benefit from dedicated study areas for lessons such as science and media as they have specialist laboratorys and media have Apple Macs. Also there is a modern dance studio, a gym and newly refurbished drama studios. Then for the sports there is a vast playing field which includes rugby posts.

Conclusion From doing this research I have learnt more about The Sixth Form College, Solihull. The background information I researched will help me when deciding on how the magazine should look as I can get it to relate to the college more than I could do before starting this task. Also learning about all the facilities and the courses that the sixth form college offers could help when doing the parent zone article so I can include all of the facilities and sell the college to the parents of students that want to come here so they see it is a top sixth form.