6th Form Blog

February 2012

I wanted to use this blog to share some of the excellent work the Sixth form at OSCA have been doing to help others and make a difference in their community. 

A number of students have taken part in 'That reading thing' scheme. The scheme trains young adults to support younger students with their reading skills. The students involved have given up their time, both to train in the techniques used to help young people improve their reading as well as giving up time to actually hear the lower school students reading. The results have been very promising, and some of the readers have improved their reading ages by a number of months, one young reader has even progressed by eighteen months! We are very proud of the Sixth formers involved, and the impact they are having. 

The second piece of charity work involves a Sixth-form-led collection of Christmas boxes of food and toiletries that OSCA students and parents had donated. The collected items were sent to the Black Country Food Bank, who distributed the donations to homeless people in the area over the Christmas period.  This has been followed up by a student visit this week. Students saw the distribution unit and met the Food Bank organisers, to gain insight into what happened to the donations once they left school. 

The students met Wendy Fryatt, founder of the Food Bank and they have received a certificate for the school, thanking them for their community contributions. Wendy said that the food received from OSCA weighed 83.5kg, which would provide around 80 meals for people in need of their support. Again, we are really proud of all of the Sixth formers who have led this initiative and made a real difference to their local community. 

D. McQuillan

September 2011

Firstly, a big welcome to all of our Y12 students!  A number of teachers have commented on how positive they have been and they are really keen to do well. So a good, positive start.

It's 'all change' for OSCA's Sixth form. We have become part of a Sixth Form consortium with two other local schools - George Salter Academy and Bristnall Hall Technology College. This means we can now offer our students a wider range of courses and opportunities than ever before.

We will be getting a new logo and identity as we move forward as part of the consortium; this will include a new name for the OSCA Sixth-form. Look out for this; we hope it will reflect our enthusiasm to turn our Sixth-Form into ‘the’ place to study Post-16.

The Sixth form centre has been re-painted and re-furbished over the summer and is now looking much more inviting. We are going to be putting a number of pieces of student artwork and photographs to make the space feel like an art gallery. This will show off the excellent work being produced in the Sixth form lessons and ensure that the vibrancy and creativity of our students shines through.

It feels like it is going to be a good year!

July 2011

Welcome to the Sixth-Form blog!

It has been a very busy half-term. The students have been working hard to meet their final coursework deadlines. The Art moderator has been in and was very impressed by the quality of work. The ICT moderator is due in next week, and the ICT department are running lots of extra support sessions to help students maximise their grades.

Last week the Year 12 students attended the annual Higher Education conference at Aston University. It was a great opportunity for them to find out about the different courses available at Universities and Higher Education colleges across the UK. There were also seminars about student life, finance and applying to University, which were informative and helpful.

This week we had our annual ‘Goodbye to Y13’ celebration. Prizes were awarded to students for their role in Sixth-form and Academy life and Ms. Farrell spoke to the students about the exciting futures that they have ahead of them. Mrs. Mills made a lovely cake for the occasion, and this was very tasty! We concluded the day with a Sixth-form meal at a local restaurant.

Changes to the courses we offer in the Sixth-form are progressing well, and we now have a link with another local Ormiston Academy, so we are able to offer access to more courses than ever before. A significant investment is also being made into new computer study rooms, brighter and more inviting teaching areas, and a complete refurbishment of the Sixth-form communal areas. It is a really exciting time for the Sixth-form here at OSCA, so watch this space!