ASHTON SIXTH FORM COLLEGE
Summer Newsletter Summer
ISSUE 8
15/07/24
Welcome Welcome to our final newsletter of the academic year. As always, it has been a busy year and I know that both staff and students are ready for their summer break. Well done to all our students who have completed their courses this summer. You have pulled out all the stops to submit final pieces of work to the highest standard and prepare for the summer series of examinations. Our sports hall build works have meant that we needed to re-route students into the sports hall via the GH building, but punctuality, readiness and conduct in the exams has been absolutely exemplary and deserves mentioning – we have been delighted with how the exams progressed and now look forward to seeing our completers receive their results in August. It has been a fantastic year in terms of students participating in additional activities. It has been a record year (the highest numbers ever at ASFC) for participation in our Ashton Explore enrichment programme, attending Speaker of the Month, joining trips and visits, completing Duke of Edinburgh and taking on leadership roles. We remind students constantly that these opportunities are there for them and that they should squeeze every bit of value out of their time here, and I am very pleased that they are doing so. We are now one of the biggest sixth form providers of the Extended Project Qualification, with around four times the average number of entries at other similarly sized sixth form colleges. This means that many of our students (almost 200 each year) leave here with three and a half A Level equivalents, as well as developing a vast range of skills in the process. As an EPQ supervisor myself, I am wowed every year by the quality of students’ projects and I look forward to supporting my cohort next year. The end of the academic year has been vibrant, with a leavers’ festival for our A2 completers where even the coolest of young people found themselves bouncing around on a range of inflatables on the back field. Our phenomenal Art show was opened by the Civic Mayor of Tameside, Councillor Betty Affleck and it was especially great to see A1 students being inspired by the year above and for them to see what is possible. We held an A1 awards event to recognise the achievements of many first year students, and many more have been commended by their teachers, standing them in good stead for next year. The year ended with Be Ambitious Week, whereby over 400 students took part in work experience and over 600 engaged in workshops and employer-led tasks. We have had some superb feedback from employers and will hold an awards ceremony for stand-out work in the Autumn term. Our adult and HE completers are also, yet again, set for some fantastic results this summer, and it was lovely to see many of them at our Evening of Celebration at the start of July. Sadly, in March, we lost a member of our college community. Paul Martin was a very gifted member of our MIS department who created many of the systems that make our college work as well as it does. Paul was ‘ASFC to the core’ and made a significant contribution to the college during his 13 years here. He is already missed both personally and professionally. I’d like to finish by saying a huge ‘well done and thank you’ to all our students. They form the biggest part of our community and are the reason we’re all here. They all deserve a wonderful summer. I extend the thanks to college staff for another year’s hard work, commitment and professionalism; they are great! And thank you to parents and carers for their continued support of the college. With my very best wishes for a safe and happy summer Lisa