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"The progress made by students in the rapidly growing sixth form...was well above average overall and amongst the highest in the county." Ofsted Feb 2009
As a member of the Barnwell School Sixth Form students are able to make full use of the facilities available, these include the Common Room with its own café and Sky Television, Study Room and facilities in the Learning Resource Area.
In addition, Sixth Formers benefit from a supportive guidance programme with teachers identified as their personal learning mentors enabling students to succeed in their studies. Mrs Johnson is our Head of Post 16 Studies and she is supported by a Post 16 Administrator and an Administration Assistant. Mrs Johnson is your first point of contact for all things Post 16.
Many of our students go to University each year and a full support programme is offered as part of our Guidance entitlement.
Barnwell’s Sixth Form is a thriving community. Year 12 and 13 students share excellent facilities. The Sixth Form has nearly 250 students studying a wide range of courses including A levels, BTEC,GNVQ and Specialist Diploma qualifications at Level 2 and Level 3. An enrichment programme including social and sporting activities are run over the course of the year and there are a large number of social events many of which are organised by Sixth Formers.
FACERecognition
What is it? – Face Register identifies a student and guarantees that the school can record students’ arrival and departure. Using the latest, ground breaking technology the wall mounted face recognition units give our school an absolute guarantee that we know who is on-site in the 6th form centre.
On entering the sixth form, students present themselves in front of the wall mounted registration device, enter their four digit student I.D. code, follow the on-screen instructions and they will be signed ‘in’ or ‘out’ in less than 3 seconds.
Face Register eliminates swipe cards and protects an individuals’ identity using the latest, encrypted technology available. No-one has access to this information and the stored data points can never be viewed as any thing other than a string of numbers and letters, so students and parents can be assured this software is very secure. The technology, which conforms to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, works by scanning students’ faces with an invisible infra-red light and matching this with key facial measurements stored on the system.
Work is currently taking place by Aurora where stronger links with SIMS are being developed which will further enhance our capabilities with regard to monitoring sixth form attendance – this was the main reason for implementation of the system following the recent Ofsted inspection – to develop greater monitoring of sixth form absences and so improve attendance.
The response, so far, has been very encouraging. Initially there were a few teething problems but these have now been sorted. Students have welcomed the system and are happy to take ownership of registering in and out of the sixth form. We are now planning to use the ‘registration time’ to offer students’ formal mentoring appointments with their form tutors, enriching their sixth form experience.