Futures Thinking Conference

A wonderful day at College; 75 visitors joined us for a futures thinking conference. Colleagues from the South of England and South Wales came to hear about our progress to date within the BSF programmme. Two other "Human Scale" Lead schools were present as was our friend Simon Richey from the Gulbenkian Trust and Graham Powell from TLO. The content of the sessions enabled colleagues to not only hear our story but also to see for themselves the transformation that is taking place within the College. The workshops were presented by senior staff and provided an insight into our new curriculum model, the management of our change process and the reality of small learning community life for staff and students. It is real pleasure to be able to show how far we have come and to identify schools and colleagues from other parts of the country with whom we can now build relationships to take our own learning journey forward. It was great to see BEC colleagues presenting with such clarity and authority. 

TEACHER AWARDS

Monday was a good day for the College. At the Teacher Awards ceremony held in Bath I was awarded a distinction in the Head Teacher of the Year award in the West. This is a great achievement for us all at the College. It recognises the journey that we are on and how far that we have come. Our congratulations go to the winner from Cleeve School in Cheltenham, a very different school to ours.

We have also had two other colleagues nominated for awards this year. A wonderful attribute to the quality of teaching and learning that is being delivered on a daily basis within the College

Apologies for the lack of updates

 I am very sorry that this blog has not been maintained during the past few months. We have been working hard on a new web site design. This is now almost ready and will be launched in  a few weeks time.  

Some news updates: We have increased our student entry number for September to 270. This is from an original number of 216. Our popularity in increasing on a daily basis. During this year we have admitted over 50 students.

Our new ASD centre was opened for students last week. It is a wonderful provision that has excited both students and parents.

The new College mini bus was delivered and handed over by the Brislington Trust members two weeks ago. It is currently in Mid Wales being used on the "Panther" Community camp. 

Year 11 are now into their second week of GCSE examinations. Yesterday was the first big Maths exam. Today is English Literature. Breakfast is being served for all candidates at 08.15. I am off to help serve the coffee. Good luck will not be needed as they have all worked so hard along with their members of staff

Partnership for Schools annual awards 2008

It is wonderful to be able to report the success gained by the College at the first ever PSF award ceremony held in London on 26th November 2008. We received a "highly commended" for the design of our building. That was a great start to the evening. It got better when we were awarded the "Best School Team" award. This award was presented due to the collective efforts of Teachers, Governors, Students, Parents throughout the past four years to enable us to achieve our great new building. The award also reflected the level of innovation and desire to achieve excellence for every student via personalised learning and the principles of "Human Scale Education" that now inform all our work. The contribution of our partners Skanska, our wonderful and brave architects, James, Tim and Wai Lan of FLACQ, the members of Bristol LEP and our IT partners Northgate is also recognised within this award. It was a very proud moment for us when our College name was read out and we stepped forward to receive the award. Well done to everyone who has played any part in the College achieving this accolade. This is recognition of a job well done

Mr David Kozlowski

On Friday 24th October 2008 our colleague Mr David Kozlowski retires from teaching after more than 36 years service to the students of Brislington School and College. He joined the staff on 1st September 1972. He was appointed by the then Headteacher,Mr Hellier, to teach Design Technology. He has worked with every Head that our College has had. It is a remarkable period of service to the community of Brislington and Bristol. As with many things he does not wish to have any grand ceremony to mark his retirement. However if you are someone who was taught by him or worked with him and wish to send him your best wishes for a long and happy retirement please use the comment facility on this blog or email Headteacher@because.org.uk. I will ensure that all will be passed on to him next Friday. This is a period of service that is unlikely to be repeated in the ever changing world of education. Our kind,gentle and self effacing colleague deserves the best of farewells from us all.

Success of Open Week events

I said that we were expecting 600 visitors during the week. In fact we were just short of 1000. I would urge anyone who wishes to be allocated a place for September 2009 to put your forms into the LA and select 1 for BEC. A letter published in the Evening Post last Saturday sums up many parent/carer views of the College. In summary,"I had heard some awful things before visiting the College but having seen the college working and met the staff and students I know this is the right place for my child".
Thank you to everyone who took the oportunity to visit us.
If you missed out and would like to visit before 24th October please contact the College reception

Open Week events

The third week of term one is when we have the opportunity to enable prospective Parent/Carers and students to visit the College. This year will be a particularly exciting time for all at the College. We finally get to show off the new building and our learning communities. Tuesday will see the start of events with our Open evening. Two sessions are available at 6.00pm and 7.30pm. If you are intending to visit us please be aware of the lack of parking on site due to the demolition of the old building. Walking tours are will take place on Wednesday & Thursday morning at 09.15. These last for one hour. Our final event is at 10.30am on Saturday 4th October. We are expecting well over 600 visitors throughout the week. The 216 places that are available next year will fill very quickly. Our slogan for this year"because the best is yet to come" seems even more appropriate as we reach this important series of events.