Principal's Question Time - 1 & 2 December 2020

The last Principal’s Question Time sessions before Christmas were held on 1 December for Seevic Campus students and 2 December for Palmer’s Campus students.

The now fully online experience allowed students to address questions to Dan Pearson, Principal and CEO; Seval Fadil, Assistant Principal Academic; Jon Briggs, Assistant Principal Vocational and John Revill Vice Principal Partnerships Funding & Business Planning.

How will lessons continue after Christmas?

We are continually reviewing our plans which we will communicate with you as soon as we can. Whilst continuing to follow government guidelines we will look at increasing onsite teaching. We have a blended teaching model in place that we can scale up and down. If you are self-isolating you will have the opportunity to continue your lessons online.

What are we doing for staff?

Everyone has been asked to wear masks in communal spaces and we had a circuit break where the college moved to home-based working. We have limited the number of staff in staff rooms at any one time and we have encouraged staff to stay in one classroom where possible. All staff are asked to work a safe distance away from others and where possible to wear visors.

We continue to supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and complete risk assessments along with an intensive cleaning rota. We have also made modifications to the campus to allow social distancing.

We have reduced staff travelling between campuses and all meetings take place on Microsoft Teams.

If there’s another lockdown what will we do?

We have invested a lot of time, money and training in online teaching. We are continuously trying to improve online learning and are trying to make online lessons as similar to on site lessons as possible. If we go into a local or national lockdown we can provide teaching entirely online. We have invested in two more Immersive Rooms and 25 live-streaming rooms as well as content capture suites for static green screen elements.

Have management had more exam news?

We believe that exams are going to happen and we have been told that the exam period has been extended. Exams may take place, or it may be predicted grades, or there may be a hybrid model in place. We will do lots of formal assessments and log all of the details so that we are prepared for all situations. We will also be supporting students with exams and mock exams.

How come we had certain days for A-Levels even though college is open?

Most colleges have gone for week on/week off and have responded to local infection rates. We have had to close bubbles and lots of things have influenced our decision. We need to keep infection rates low, keep students safe, but provide teaching face-to-face where possible. If the pandemic disappeared we’d go back to teaching face-to-face at all times.

Will there be an interior design course at Palmer’s?

Our graphic design and art programmes do cover this but we ask Heads of Learning to review what they are offering every year and look to what is most popular.

Will enrichment sports run soon?

When Covid restrictions reduce we want to get to a full enrichment timetable as soon as possible.

Will you be changing the canteen food and have more items for special diets?

We constantly review what is on offer and will look into the provision of more vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free foods. Student Champions are looking at this as a project for 2021.

Why are A-Level students allowed to spend their free time in the warm areas of the college and others are not?

We would love to have the space, but the college is not built that way. We tried to allocate designated spaces when it was warmer in September. The sports halls are colder and we will look at providing additional heating for them.

Will we stop using screening rooms?

We will continue to review how they are used and incorporate them into learning.