Frequently Asked Questions

Jump to: Dates, times & events | Attendance & absence | Exams and revision | Uniform and appearance | Other

Dates, times and events

Q. What time does college start/finish?

A. The college day begins at 8.40am and ends at 2.55pm. Further details can be found on the lesson times page.

Q. When are the summer holidays?

A. The summer holidays usually begin in the third week of July. View the calendar for exact dates.

Q. When is my son’s/daughter’s parents evening?

A. The date of parents evening changes each year and the actual date may change as the year progresses. The calendar shows the current date of parents evening and further information will be made available closer to the date in the 'Other News and Information' section on the home page.

Attendance and absence

Q. What do I do if I am absent?

A. If you are absent from college you should get in touch with the college on the first day of absence to let us know why you are absent. You can get in touch using the details on the contact us page. When you come back to college you should bring a letter from your parents explaining why you were absent.

Q. What do I do if I am late for college?

A. If you are late you should report to the main office and sign the lateness sheet. If you are late more than once in a week you may be put on college detention. Persistent lateness will be monitored by the Educational Welfare Officer.

Q. What happens if my child is sick at college?

A. If your child is sick at college they will be taken to the medical room where the college matron is based. Should they need to go home you will be contacted by the college and arrangements made

Q. What will happen if I am late more than once in a week?

A. If you are late more than once in a week you will receive a lunch time detention with the appropriate Head of Year.

Q. What do I do if I have an appointment or need to leave college early?

A. You need to bring in a letter from your parents/guardians informing the college about why you will be absent. The letter needs to be signed by your form tutor or head of year and then when you leave college give the letter to the reception staff and sign the 'signing out' book. When you arrive back at college you should sign the 'signing in' book.

Q. I am going on holiday during the college term, what do I need to do?

A. By law parents/guardians must obtain permission from college to take their children on family holidays during term time. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, no more than ten college days in any one collegel year is allowed. The request for permission will be carefully considered and students' attendance records will also be taken in to account. Please avoid taking your child on holiday during exams or tests. We also hope that parents of students in Years 10 and 11 would not require holidays during term time as absence while following GCSE courses may have detrimental effect on their results.

Parents/guardians should complete a Request for Leave of Absence in Term Time form (available from the college reception) and send it via their child to Mr Firth at least three weeks before the date of the intended holiday. The reply slip will then be returned to parents/guardians within three days.

Good attendance is vital to your child's education.

Q. What is an Education Welfare Officer, does the college have one and how can I get in touch with them?

A. Attached to every college is an Education Welfare Officer (E.W.O.) who can help you sort out problems and offer independent advice on a range of issues including:

Lateness to college
Poor college attendance
Behavioural problems
Exclusion from college
Special Educational Needs
Transfer between and admission to college
Welfare benefits

The college can put you in touch with the E.W.O. their professional help is confidential and free.

Exams and revision

Q. When are the SATs and GCSEs?

A. The SATs and GCSEs take place in May and June. Exact dates can be found on the calendar and further details will be made available closer to the date in the 'Other News and Information' section on the home page.
Further information on SATs and GCSEs:

Q. What are SATs and when do I take them?

A. Standard Attainment Tests (SATs) are National Tests in English, Maths and Science taken by all children at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.

SATS are usually taken in May. Exact dates can be found on the calendar and further details will be made available closer to the date in the 'Other News and Information' section on the home page.

Further details about SATs:

Q. What are GCSEs and when do I take them?

A. GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams are taken by most students when they are 16 years old, whatever decisions they make about their future career. GCSE results, and the range of subjects taken, can have an impact on future choices in education, and in some cases career.

GCSEs are generally taken in May and June. Exact dates can be found on the calendar and further details will be made available closer to the date in the 'Other News and Information' section on the home page.

Further details about GCSE exams:

Q. What are CATs?

A. The Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) is published by nfer Nelson. The third edition (CAT3) was published in June 2001. The complete series of tests, from levels A to H, cover the age range 7 years and 6 months to 17 years.

CAT is a set of nine tests grouped into three batteries which assess a pupil's ability in:

verbal - thinking with words
quantitative - thinking with numbers
non-verbal - thinking with shape and space

CAT scores indicate general transferable abilities, such as the ability to recognise similarities, analogies, patterns and relationships, which are all fundamental to understanding and assimilating new information.

They are designed specifically to minimise the role of prior learning and can therefore provide an indication of potential. They differ from the national tests which indicate attainment in some core areas of the curriculum and reflect how well pupils have acquired and retained specific knowledge in these areas.

The CAT tests are used for monitoring trends in the abilities of the intake, identifying individual pupils' cognitive strengths and weaknesses, identifying SEN, the more able and gifted and underachieving pupils or groups, informing target setting and assessing value added. For easy comparison, pupils' raw scores are converted to standard age scores (SAS), stanines and percentiles.

Further information about CAT can be obtained from the CAT user support website

Q. As a parent where can I find further advice about what my child will learn?

A. The subject pages on our website contain information about what your child will learn. For example, selecting History from the Subjects menu and then selecting Key Stage 3 or Key Stage 4 from the tabs will show you details of the History curriculum. The following websites also provide good resources for parents about secondary college education:

Q. Where can I find revision material online?

A. Some of the best revision sites are BBC Revision, Sam Learning and Skoool.co.uk. For specific topics see each subject’s resources page (e.g. from the History page click the resources tab) or use a search engine such as Google.

Uniform and appearance

Q. Where can I buy the college uniform?

A. Some items of college uniform can be purchased direct from college and other items from Marks and Spencer or Trutex. A full list of uniform, where to buy it and prices can be found on the uniform page.

Q. What college uniform do I need?

A. Every student must wear the college uniform. Images and further information can be found on the uniform page.

Q. Are there things I can't wear for college?

A. The following uniform rules apply:

Trainers or leisure shoes, jeans, ski pants, culottes and tracksuit bottoms are not acceptable.
Outdoor coats must be dark in colour – no tracksuit tops.
The wearing of denim or leather over jackets is strictly forbidden.
Hair should be of an acceptable length; any form of cult hairstyle or shaven head is not acceptable.
Walkmans, mobile phones, pagers and electronic games must be switched off and kept out of sight in classrooms and corridors.
Baseball caps or woollen hats are not to be worn in college.
Mini skirts are not acceptable.
Watches may be worn. All other jewellery is forbidden for practical and Health & Safety reasons.

Q. Can I have any hairstyle?

A. Extremes of hairstyles are not permitted; these include Mohican, 'tramlines', shaven head and unacceptable colouring *including extensions). This is at the college's discretion.

Q. What personal accessories can I bring to school?

No mobile phones are allowed in college unless they are left in reception at the front of college at the start of the day and collected at the end of the day. Students who are caught using mobile phones in college will receive an after college detention.

Personal stereos, MP3 players or similar, are not allowed in school.

Other

Q. What is the college’s policy on bullying?

A. The college bullying policy can be downloaded from the documents page.

Q. I would like to make a complaint, what should I do?

A. Under Section 23 of the Education Reform Act (1988), parents and/or guardians have a right to complain if they feel the college is not fulfilling the Act.

Wakefield Council issued the following guidelines:

Go to the school and speak to someone who knows about the problem and can help you.
If you are still not happy, make an appointment to speak to the Head Teacher.
If the problem is still not resolved, write a formal letter of complaint addressed to the Head Teacher.
If you are satisfied once you have the Head Teacher's explanation of the situation, then the matter is considered closed.
If you are not satisfied, then you should write to the Chair of Governors at the school and ask that the issue be reviewed by the Governors.

If at any stage you need help or advice, you can contact:

The Parent Advice and Mediation Service Tel: 01924 305337

If your child has special educational needs, please contact

The Parent Partnership Service Tel: 01924 303662

Q. Do you ask parental consent before using photographs of students?

A. Current Data Protection laws state that images of groups of students can be used without the need for parental consent, however, the names of the students should not be included with the image. Parental or student consent must be obtained before using an image of a single student. We will send a letter of consent to all relevant parents/guardians.

Q. What transport can I get to and from college?

A. The college is located on Barnsley Road (A61) accessed by a number of bus services and in walking distance of Agbrigg Train station.

Buses at the back of the college:

Bus Service 102 travels to Wakefield bus station, then along Dewsbury Road to Lupset, Lyndsey Avenue.
Bus Service 447 travels to Wakefield bus station, then to Rothwell via Aberford Road and then travels on to Leeds.
Bus Service 117 travels to Wakefield bus station then to Ossett via Dewsbury road.

Buses at the front of the college:

Bus Services 110 regular service to Wakefield bus station

Buses from Sandal Cricket Club:

Regular service to Barnsley, Kettlethorpe, Hall Green etc. Including the 196 to Crofton.

Trains from Agbrigg station:

Regular service to Wakefield Westgate station and beyond. The 15.04 train is the nearest to the college finishing time.

METRO have produced college transport guides for students and parents and can be download by using the links below.

METRO Guide for Parents about College Transport (209 KB)

METRO Guide for Students about College Transport (361 KB)

If you are a parent/guardian collecting students by car please do not park on the side roads behind college (Duncan Avenue/Agbrigg Grove). There have been difficulties for buses accessing the college in the evenings due to parents' parked cars and subsequently the safety of pedestrians, most of whom are our students, is being put at risk.

Q. What is a BCG injection, why do I need it and when do I get it?

A. The BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) immunisation protects you against a disease called TB (tuberculosis). The immunisation is given as an injection usually in Year 7. For more information visit www.immunisation.nhs.uk, call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47, speak to the college nurse or your own doctor or nurse.

Q. Do students take part in work experience or careers education?

A. Careers Education is now well established as part of the Personal, Social and Health Education programme. The work offered to the students takes them on a journey of self enlightenment and skill development ready for their Post-16 transition. Two weeks Work Experience will be offered to all Year 11 students in December, following their mock examinations. All Year 11 students are offered interviews with the Connexions Service. Many strong links have been established with local Post-16 establishments who offer us taster visits, guest speakers, careers help and course information. There is also a Post-16 evening for Year 11 students and their parents where representatives of further education establishments attend to provide information on Post-16 provision.

The college’s well stocked Careers Library is open every day for research and supported by a member of the college’s Administration Team.

Q. What is SAM Learning and how do I get on it?

A. The SAM Learning service provides test practice and revision for Key Stage 3 SATs, GCSE and A level. SAM Learning Secondary is the market leader with 60% of all English state secondary schools as subscribers.

You can log in to SAM Learning by going to www.samlearning.com, click on the green Login button and enter our Centre ID: WF2ST, your User ID: Date of birth followed by initials of first name then last name. EXAMPLE: 010890DJ for David Jones born 1 AUG 1990, and your Password: Initially same as User ID. The school SAM Learning co-ordinator is Mrs Johnson. For technical help you can ask Mr Gilsenan or visit the SAM Learning website and click on Help.

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