Sixth Form College, Farnborough

The Sixth Form College, Farnborough
Address
Prospect Avenue Farnborough , Hampshire England
Information
Type	Sixth form college
Motto	"...where teaching and learning are outstanding"
Head teacher	Dr John Guy
Age	16 to 19
Website	http://www.farnboroughsfc.ac.uk/

The Sixth Form College, Farnborough is a sixth form college situated in Farnborough, Hampshire. It is also know as Farnborough Sixth Form College, or Farnborough Sixth among the local population as opposed to Farnborough Tech, a technical college also situated in Farnborough. It caters for around 3000 students between the ages of 16 and 19. Admission is mostly from schools in the local areas of Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.

Students study for AS/A Levels and other qualifications such as the GNVQ and GCSE. The college has an excellent reputation in the local area. In 2007 the College was described as 'outstanding' by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector. and continues to enjoy Beacon Status as one of the country’s top colleges. It is therefore often over-subscribed. The college website states that "you must apply in good time - last year we had over 2400 applications for the 1500 places available."

The Principal, Dr John Guy, has served on a number of government committees, including the Tomlinson Committee on 14-19 reform. In 2001, he was awarded the OBE for services to education.

History

The College was originally founded as the Farnborough Grammar School in September 1936, when the Aldershot County High School outgrew its premises and the boys were relocated to Farnborough.

In the last two decades it has grown fast, from 1,180 full time students in 1992 to 2,960 in 2007.

Famous alumni

From Farnborough Grammar School:

• Peter Howard (RAF officer)
• Stephen Timms (Government minister)

College facilities

Cafe Direct, one of three canteens

The college has recently undergone a major building programme costing over £15 million. The first project was The Prospect Theatre and performing arts suite providing start of the art facilities was opened by The Earl of Wessex in 2000. The latest building - The Dame Kelly Holmes Sports Centre was officially opened on 25 April 2007, by the double Olympic gold medallist herself. The developments have also seen the construction of a brand new quad built in the centre of the college, and fairly recently, the Whitehouse Building which boasts an e-Assessment Centre–an IT centre for students to use. The latest phase is a new physics and arts block to replace the existing 1960's Scola block. Planning permission has been granted and the project designed by internationally renowned architects Broadway Malyan has commenced. The college has three cafeterias and two large fields which are used for sports & recreational purposes.

Student Association

Every March, students elect a President, Vice President, and various officers to organise student affairs and social activities both in and outside of the College, as well as charity events. The President and Vice President are members of the Governing Body of the College Corporation.

In October 2007, the 2007/2008 Student Association broke the College record, that had been set the previous year, for the most amount of money raised in a single College day; the £1,800 that was raised eventually went to a variety of gene therapy charities through the 'Jeans for Genes' initiative.

Enrichment

Outside of the classroom, the college runs a comprehensive enrichment programme. There are successful sports teams in men's and women's football, men's and women's rugby, netball, badminton, men's and women's hockey, men's and women's basketball and ultimate frisbee. The college also runs a number of other societies and has projects with local schools, such as Copperlink, which produces a drama production with a local handicapped school every year. The college also runs World Challenge, and Young Enterprise, to name but two of the inter-collegial schemes.

The college also has a Christian Union. The college has also recently a link has been set up between The Sixth Form College, Farnborough & Presbyterian Secondary Technical School, Aburi, Ghana. This project is called the Ghana Link and it aims to broaden students from both schools' horizons and develop a two way partnership that would be of benefit to both parties. In June 2007 15 students from the sixth form college went to the school in Ghana and stayed for ten days there they took part in many lessons and enrichment activities. Following this successful visit, which strengthened links between the schools, students at Farnborough Sixth Form College raised funds for students of the Presby Secondary Technical School, Aburi to visit the UK and stay with the students they hosted over the summer. A second batch of students have departed Farnborough Sixth Form College to stay in Aburi with families, to continue this link between the schools.

In March 2000, Prince Edward opened the new £2.5 million Performing Arts Centre incorporating the modern 300-seat Prospect Theatre and teaching suites for music, dance and drama. This modern development enables the students to study and perform in a superb, state-of-the-art facility. Touring theatre groups regularly visit the theatre to give public performances. The theatre is supported by an experienced technician, along with many students who take an active interest in all aspects of the theatre.

One of the music enrichments making use of this facility is the biannual college Opera Project, where full-scale operas are performed by students. In 2006, the college staged The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, acclaimed within the community. Following the success of this first opera, a performance of Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel took place in July 2008.

CristalWeb

A screenshot of CristalWeb on a student account

CristalWeb is the college's web-based management information system that allows both students and staff to see the data that the college holds on them. It is extensively used within the college, to pass messages from staff to students, take registers of classes, submit absence reasons, look up exam results, amend certificates of enrichment, and edit students' personal information. It also enables access from outside the college campus to SixthNet, the series of web-pages for each subject faculty containing homework, revision aids and past exam papers, in addition to information about the departments. The system has been operating since mid-2004.