Consultation on changes to College Day

Categories: Principal's Blog

We propose to make changes to the Lodge Park Technology College day, which we plan to put into effect from 8th September 2010 to:
 
  • Improve lunchtime arrangements so that less people are trying to get food in the cafeteria at the same time. This will mean more people can have their lunch in college and they will be able to enjoy their lunch in a more relaxed atmosphere.
  • Make room for a weekly session for every student where they meet with their Personal Tutor to discuss their progress and how they can improve it. We believe that all students will get a great deal of benefit from this time.
 
The amount of time spend in lessons will stay the same – at 25 hours per week.
 
College will start 5 minutes later with all students coming in at 8.40am and going directly into lesson 1. There will be no morning registration, as for more than a year now we have been registering all students in every lesson.
 
All students will have a 45 minute lunch break, within a one hour slot. Half of our students will have their form time in the first 15 minutes, and the other half in the last 15 minutes – so everyone will have the same amount of time but there will be less people using the cafeteria at the same time.
 
Lessons will finish at 3pm. One day a week students will have an assembly from 3-3.20pm, and another day they will have their meeting with their personal tutor, again from 3 to 3.20pm.
 
Students who have been punctual, worn their uniform correctly and brought the correct equipment to lessons will be able to leave college early at 3.00pm on three days a week. We will run short “Paybacks” every day from 3 to 3.20pm for any student that has missed a session, been late to lessons, failed to bring the right equipment to lessons or not worn their uniform correctly. 
 
The pattern for every week will be the same so parents will know for the whole year what time their child will finish college.  Every day there will be places in college open so that students can either wait for friends or do homework up until 3.20pm, so there will be no problem where parents prefer their child to stay until then.
After college clubs and activities will start at 3.20pm each day.
 
The proposed timings of the new college day will be:
 
8:40
Students report to lesson 1 – one hour
9:40
Lesson 2 – one hour
10:40
Morning break – 20 minutes
11:00
Lesson 3 – one hour
12:00
Lesson 4– one hour
13:00
Parker and Dickson Houses tutor time (15 minutes)
Berridge and Rumbelow Houses Lunch (45 minutes)
13:15
Parker and Dickson Houses Lunch (45 minutes)
13:45
Berridge and Rumbelow Houses tutor time (15 minutes)
14:00
Lesson 5– one hour
15:00
Personal Tutor Time (20 minutes)
·       One day each week each house will have assembly
·       On another day each student will have a small group mentoring session with their tutor
·       Students who have failed to attend the earlier tutor sessions or been late, or who have incurred another related sanction will have House “Payback” time.
·       Students who have none of the above can either attend a free end of school supervised activity or go home
 
15:20
End of student’s normal working day on-site. Clubs and after-college activities begin.
 
The decision to adopt this proposal will be put to Governors on Monday 19th July 2010.  A letter to parents sent out this week includes details of two public meetings to discuss the changes.  If you would like to give written comments please follow this link to an online survey.
 
[Update
 
Thank you already to the people who have taken the time to add comments - they are much appreciated.  Several point out how late lunch is at the college.  The late lunch was introduced a number of years ago due to the experience that four lessons in the morning and one in the afternoon was much more productive than three and two - the feedback I've had from staff and students face to face is that they prefer it this way - but we will make sure governors have access to everything that is sent in - GS]