SGS College | Be Outstanding

Covid Update

On Tuesday 29 March, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, set out the next steps for living with COVID-19 in England from Friday 1 April.

Updated guidance advises:

  • Adults with the symptoms of a respiratory infection, and who have a high temperature or feel unwell, should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people until they feel well enough to resume normal activities and no longer have a high temperature.
  • Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people. They can return to college when they no longer have a high temperature, and are well enough to attend.
  • Adults with a positive COVID-19 test result should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days, which is when they are most infectious. For children and young people aged 18 and under, the advice is 3 days.

For education and childcare settings from Friday 1 April:

  • Regular asymptomatic testing is no longer recommended in any education or childcare setting, including in SEND, alternative provision and children’s social care settings. Therefore, we will no longer be able to order test kits .

Schools Engagement

Schools Engagement

Activities to support School students in understanding Apprenticehips, Technical and Higher Education opportunities at SGS College.

Schools Engagement at SGS

We offer interactive activities to schools that:

  • help young people to fully understand the breadth of pathways that further education offers; and
  • partner with schools to provide information and advice on further and higher education that fulfils their Gatsby(1), Baker Clause(2) and Ofsted(3) requirements.

Students progress into studying with us from over 80 schools and academies in the West of England, Gloucestershire, Wales and further afield.

We deliver 300 course programmes at foundation, GCSE, A-level and degree-equivalent levels, training 4000 16-19-year-olds annually.

Given that range of offerings, parents and teachers alike want young people to choose their future progression with as much knowledge and understanding as possible.

Offsite Activies

Our Schools Team can offer the following on and offsite activities to schools:

Interactive talks on apprenticeships for students and parents, using, where possible, current apprentices to share their experiences and answer questions.

Short assemblies on full-time technical course options and application processes for KS4 students.

Pop-up 'lunchtime' interactive stands to help promote various sectors (e.g. pathways to careers in the air industry, hospitality, sport, social care or engineering/high tech).

School staff inset on college provision such as T-levels or technical course progression.

Single or double period-sized sessions by specialist staff to directly support curriculum areas at KS4 or KS5 (e.g. performing arts workshops to support English literature or drama; cyber-security workshops supporting STEM), either school or college based.

Bespoke tours to college campus facilities for small groups of students who are tentative about change, but for whom a vocational/technical route is more appropriate; includes apprenticeships.

Promoting/attending large events, e.g. ambitions and multi-schools taster days, as well as school open evenings where colleges can showcase provision and progression.

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The Team

Meet our schools engagement staff:

Anthony Fitzpatrick

John Walker

Head of Careers and Schools Services
View Bio

John Walker

Head of Careers and Schools Services

John joined SGS in 2012 and leads the development and diversification of the careers guidance and schools engagement services.

John has a first degree from Aberdeen University in Animal Sciences and a Master's in Tropical Agricultural Development from Reading University. He worked for five years with the British government to deliver aid programmes in Africa and East Asia, and with a UK consultancy delivering a World Bank aid programme in South Asia.

After further training in the USA (Associate Degree in Theology) to develop a more holistic, understanding view of cultures in the developing world and their dominant religious thought, he then worked in Nepal for 10 years, co-leading a large NGO, delivering training and development programmes in sanitation and health care, agricultural practices and community leadership.

Returning to the UK, he took up training and development roles in the education sector, first in raising secondary science standards among ethnic communities in Bristol, and then coordinating the development of a sixth-form consortium of 1000 students in South Gloucestershire for six years.

Nicole Ince

Nicole Ince

Schools Engagement Manager (Stroud Campus)
View Bio

Nicole Ince

Schools Engagement Manager (Stroud Campus)

Coming Soon

Notes

  • Gatsby: Eight benchmarks adopted by the Department of Education as best practice for all schools’ careers guidance programmes. Benchmark 7 (Encounters with Further and Higher Education) states, 'All students should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace.'
  • The Baker Clause: Introduced in January 2018 by the government, this aims to raise awareness of technical education. From 2 January 2018, it required schools to publish a policy statement explaining how external further education providers can access their school and talk to their students about further education (FE).
  • Ofsted: The Inspection Framework 2015 states, 'Inspectors will make a judgement on the personal development, behaviour and welfare of children and learners by evaluating the extent to which the provision is successfully promoting and supporting children's and other learners choices about the next stage of their education, employment, self-employment or training, where relevant, from impartial careers advice and guidance.'

 Useful Contact

Please contact us to ask about any of the below services:

For West of England Schools: John on 07539 348572
For Gloucestershire Schools: Nicole on 07920 040148

[email protected]

Provider Access

We welcome other providers to share their resources and progression opportunities with our students. For details of our Provider Access Policy please click the link below

Provider Access Policy (Baker Clause)