Coronavirus Update for Students and Parents/Carers

18 March 2020

Bexhill College has decided to suspend face to face lessons and is moving to remote learning for students from Thursday 19th March 2020 until the Easter holidays (when the situation will be reviewed).

The College has made this decision to enable us to facilitate government guidance on social distancing and self-isolation. In recent days, staff and student absence has increased due to social distancing and self-isolation guidelines, in addition to the usual illness levels in an organisation such as the College. It has become clear that some of our curriculum areas will be unable to deliver a high quality of education to all students with high levels of staff absence. The balance of risk dictates that it is unsustainable to continue to deliver lessons as normal and it is clear from contact with other colleges and school leaders that many educational providers in all stages of education are facing these decisions. Some post 16 providers have already moved to remote learning.

As a post-16 provider, our statutory duties are different to schools, and parents who need to work will still be able to do so while we adopt remote learning. The health and safety of our community is of paramount importance and this decision reflects that.

Services on site today and tomorrow

The College will operate as usual today (Wednesday 18th March). We will be open tomorrow (Thursday 19th March) for students who need to come and pick materials/resources up to help facilitate their own remote working and who are unable to do so today. However, please note:

• Formal learning activity will not be taking place on site, unless otherwise communicated by individual teachers.
• Limited catering facilities will be available – shop only.
• Limited LRC facilities will be available, to allow students to collect or return books.
• Students should follow the social isolation guidelines and not congregate in large groups for social discussions. Students can use the LRC or the refectory to work with their peers to share resources and notes, agree remote group learning and collate group work, if organised by the teacher.
• Student Services support will be available for students who need to discuss financial or student welfare matters prior to remote learning.

Online Learning:

Since it became evident that the action to combat the Coronavirus might call for changes to everyday activities, our curriculum departments and technical teams have been working on preparing for whole college remote learning. This is not a quick process and staff will need to continue to develop and refine the content they provide online. Please bear with them
for the next couple of working days while they finalise resources. Subject staff will communicate directly with students with regard to the systems and expectations of remote learning which will differ from course to course depending on the nature of the subject and available resources.

We ask all our students to ensure they check the following on a daily basis:

o Student Email
o College Website
o MOODLE
o Any other communication media which your courses use

We will be allocating on-line TA support to those students who receive additional support already for their studies, to help facilitate their on-line learning.

Unless ill or unable to be available for other reasons, staff will endeavour to follow the usual timetable periods and will be available on-line at usual lesson and tutorial times to respond to student queries. If staff are unable to respond during these times, students will be informed about alternative arrangements.

Exams:

On line exams that are already planned before Easter will be run. For this and next week, these are:

Date	Course	Exam	Time
Friday 20 March	Level 2 Sport	Anatomy and Physiology	1.30pm
Tuesday 24th March	Level 2 Hairdressing Level 2 Barbering	Paper 2	11.00am
Friday 27th March	Level 2 Hairdressing Level 2 Barbering Level 3 Hairdressing	Paper 1 resit Paper 1 resit Paper 2	11.00am
Friday 27th March	Level 2 ICT	Online world	1.30pm
Friday 27th March	Food Safety	Food Safety	1.30pm

Students are free to decide if they wish to attend but are making this service available. All these exams are ‘on demand’ and we anticipate they will be available at a later date should students not wish to attend. Students who do attend will be spread out as per social distancing guidelines. All exams will be held in Theatre block and student should report to the theatre reception. Students should have this information on their student portal.

We will provide information for exams scheduled the week of 30th March in the 6.30pm College daily update on Tuesday 24th March.

All practical exams will be suspended until further notice. We appreciate students and parents will be concerned about exam preparation, particularly for those students who are
in their final year of courses. We will continue to provide updates as and when we get them, particularly around external exams and assessments.

Students who receive a College Bursary

For students eligible for a bursary whist studying, a separate update regarding how this service will continue during this period will be emailed to you.

Student Wellbeing

We have already provided a lot of advice for students on the Coronavirus and how to keep physically and mentally well during tutor periods. Students can find this information on student portal. This is a link to information provided this week which students and parents may find useful.

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing/

Updates

It is important to reiterate at this point that the college is not closing. We remain committed to providing a high-quality education service for our students. These are unprecedented times with exceptional challenges, which are impacting on our ability to provide our normal services. As such, we are putting arrangements in place for remote working that promote social distancing as advised by Government.

We will update the website on a daily basis with any new information we have. This will be updated by 6.30pm each day.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Karen Hucker Principal

Coronavirus Update 18th March 2020