Sixth Form
Sixth Form Exam Information

Below you can find information guides, hints, tips, and Exam Timetables when they become available.

Sixth Form Exam Standards

Attendance and Punctuality

Students are expected to attend TSFE between 8.40am – morning registration and 3.00pm – end of period 5, every day as a bare minimum. Registration and the tutorial period (Wednesday period 2 for Year 12 and Wednesday period 3 for Year 13) are a compulsory element of attending TSFE and follow a programme designed to support individuals through one to one mentoring, study skills, current affairs, presentation and social skills, UCAS, Apprenticeship and Employment applications, topical debate and outreach work with outside agencies, to name a few. All opportunities are designed to create a rounded individual prepared for their next step after life at the Sixth Form.

If students do not attend morning registration they will be marked absent and this will affect their overall attendance. Their attendance figure will be reported in any reference written by the TSFE staff and will obviously be vital in these highly competitive times whether applying for work, training or university.

Students with attendance below 90% will not be entered for exams.

In real terms any student whose attendance is at 90% equates to 2.5 periods (out of the 5 per week per subject) per week missed. This would be 50% of the periods for one subject per week, therefore severely impacting on learning and the potential to achieve. Averaged out over the year this would be one day per week over the year or 3.6 weeks missed in total.

To assist parental tracking of student attendance, parents can sign up to the SIMS Learning Gateway via the Nunthorpe website or alternatively email your name, your child’s name, and date of birth to learninggateway@nunthorpe.co.uk. The Sixth Form does not use all of the systems on this platform as used in the main school, however the attendance and punctuality section is updated in real time.

Absence

Any absence from the Sixth Form due to illness must be phoned in to the Sixth Form reception before 8.40 am on 01642 304550.

Leave of absence requests must be made on the appropriate ‘Request for Absence Form’, which can be obtained from Student reception, but must be returned to the Head of Sixth Form for authorisation. The returning of the form is an not automatic agreement for the absence; this must be approved before any leave is taken. Holidays in term time must be avoided due to the level of content delivered within the programme of study for level 3. Please see the Nunthorpe website for holiday periods. The Sixth Form remains open even on PD Days.

Students needing to leave the site for any legitimate reason, which has been approved by their form tutor and/or Head of Sixth Form, must sign out at student reception, and sign back in on return. Driving lessons must not be arranged during Sixth Form hours with the exception of Wednesday 1.00 pm – 3.00 pm for Enrichment. Medical appointments should be made outside of Sixth Form hours where possible, failing this a phone call or medical appointment card should be shown at student reception before signing out.

Lesson and Independent Learning Commitment

Each L3 course has 5 hours of lesson commitment and a minimum of 5 additional hour’s independent study, comprising of set homework, reading, research, practice questions etc. Students are expected to attend all lessons on time and complete all work set. Failure to complete work set could result in students being excluded from the lesson until the work is caught up at the discretion of the teacher.

Independent Study (IS) Periods

All students are expected to stay on site for Independent Study (IS) periods to support their learning. A quiet study area is provided within the Learning Resource Centre on the first floor of the Sixth Form, Student Group Rooms are available, for silent study, for certain timetabled sessions (timetables on all SGR doors), in addition to the Common Room on the ground floor. Therefore environments to suit all learners are provided in addition to research facilities and ICT equipment. Students are also encouraged to bring in their own laptops, netbooks, i-pads etc to assist in their learning, which can access the TSFE internet and ‘my document’ areas of the Nunthorpe network.

Home Study (2 hours)

The only exception to the IS rule is for Year 13 students who have a proven track record of successful independent study, which has been formally agreed by their form tutor. All aspects in this ‘Standards Document’ are taken into consideration when assessing the application from a student for home study for 2 hours per week.

Students are expected to register for IS which also contributes to their overall attendance percentage.

Interim Data

Assessment data is reported every half term. Students will receive Red/Amber/Green grades for Attendance, Punctuality, Class work and Independent Study, along with a current grade and potential (end of ) AS/A2 grade. Students will bring data home the first Wednesday after every half/full term break. Tutors will have a follow up one to one with each student to discuss targets and progress made. If there are any concerns these will be raised initially with the student and subject teacher, if resolution cannot be found and progress made then contact home will follow. All parents are however encouraged to make contact with teachers directly if/when any issues arise so that they can be dealt with immediately. Emails for all staff can be found here: Staff contact information : Sixth Form – Nunthorpe School.

Grades will need to be at an appropriate level in relation to personal ALIS target and all Green’s for all categories for students to be entered into exams, if this is not the case, students may be withheld from entering an exam or requested to pay for the entry themselves.

Exam entries

Entries will be made in accordance with students meeting the criteria stated in the ‘Standards Document September 2011’, and professional judgement on behalf of the staff and students of TSFE by Kate Kell Assistant Headteacher KS5.

If these requirements are not fulfilled then costs for exam entries will be passed onto the students and parents/carers. These cases are thankfully rare, and once the student has attended the examination(s) and performed to the best of their ability, we do reimburse parents the cost of the exam entries. Our intention in these cases is to ensure that we have the full support from parents for the examinations their child will undertake.

Approximate costs for 2011-12 exam entries for:

AS examinations are £40.00, the usual is 4 AS subjects costing £160.00;
A2 examinations are £40.00, the usual is 3 – 4, therefore costing £120.00 – £160.00;
L3 BTEC Award costs between £21.00 – £47.00, which would be combined with another 3 AS examinations, costing £120.00;
L3 BTEC Certificate costs between £57.00 – £86.00, which would be combined with another similar type course 57.00 – £86.00 or 2 AS examinations costing £80.00;
L3 BTEC Diploma costs between £97.00 – £169.00, which would usually run alongside another similar course, costing the same.