Vulnerable student support wins big

Making a virtue of necessity to help left-behind students – Kevin Watson, principal of BSix in Hackney, explains below how the college has uncovered a winning formula for students who have arrived at sixth form study with a long history of underachievement.

BSix is unlike most sixth form colleges in that it runs courses from entry level to a Level 4 Art Foundation programme in order to sustain a student body of (approaching) viable size. Competition for students at level 3 is particularly keen in Hackney and surrounding boroughs and BSix has had to evolve to survive. Necessity, rather than strategic planning, has been the main spur to action, the college having diversified its curriculum in large part to offset a fall in `mainstream` enrolments. In so doing, the college has, over the years, created a niche as a second or even third-chance provider as well as catering for ESOL, SEND and Alternative Provision students and for those seeking level 3 courses but who have not met the more exacting entry requirements of local school sixth forms which focus almost exclusively on A levels.

Such diversification has brought with it many problems. Students who have failed before often arrive with poor study habits and attendance records. Those starting from a low educational base require more of an infrastructure of support than those with already advanced study skills and by the time they rise through the levels they frequently reach an age where funding becomes less generous. During global pandemics, it transpires, they are not always best placed to be able to access technology and work productively online!

Despite these challenges, BSix staff have become increasingly adept at responding positively to the needs of non-traditional students and helping to put them “back on track”. The case studies below are examples of students who left this summer having achieved great things from often inauspicious beginnings. Their successes are not the product of any single pedagogical approach or behavioural magic bullet but assuredly owe much to an institutional culture characterised by staff who invariably display great patience and determination in aiding students to overcome past setbacks and current fears. There is an overriding belief that BSix makes an important social as well as educational contribution to the community it serves and this fuels, too, our resolve to defend the college`s status as a stand-alone self-governing college, which is currently in question.

A key task for BSix moving forward is not to allow spectacular individual successes to blind us to certain weaknesses. Too often in the past, and under the guise of magnanimity, students have been recruited on to unsuitable programmes and therefore set up to fail. High drop-out rates have led to successive inspection judgements of “Requires Improvement.” BSix has long aspired to prove that a comprehensive ethos and academic excellence are not mutually exclusive entities, but whilst we have moved closer over the past two years than ever before to realising that aim but still have some way to go.

In the meantime, the case studies below will hopefully testify to the fact that BSix has been instrumental in transforming the lives of a number of students and remind us of the enormous power of education.

Danyal Afzal

Danyal has risen through the ranks at BSix, from Level 1 Health and Social Care to D*DD at Level 3 and a place at London Metropolitan University to read Youth Studies. As well as blossoming academicaly Danyal developed hugely as a person, casting off his initial reserve, becoming a prominent student ambassador and promising to return to his BSix alma mater to work here in the future.

Biancia Lobaton Alay

Now commencing a course in Psychotherapy and Practice at the University of East London, Bianca is testimony to the virtues of hard work, determination and positive  interaction with teachers. In her four years at BSix she studied English as a second language,  Level 1 Health and Social Care, Level 2 Health and Social Care and Level 3 Childcare and Education.

Oceanwaves Balysma

Seeing Oceanwaves on the day he received his extended Diploma results was a touching reminder of the scale of his achievement in maturing from uncertain, self-doubting beginnings to gaining a place at Birmingham University to study journalism. The transformation was the product of his finding a niche in Creatitve Media at BSix where he took Level 2 and and then Level 3 over a three year period.

Victoria McMahon: 

Victoria left secondary school with no GCSEs above grade 3. Thinking in an environment she found more conducive to learning, she was able to pursue at college her interest in Media and achieved distinctions at Level 2 and Level 3. So markedly did she grow in self-esteem that she became an active and perceptive student governor before leaving us for Ravensbourne University to study Film Production.

Ezechiel Riberiro

Ezechiel came to BSix in 2017-18 as an ESOL student and made such swift progress that he moved the following year straight to Level 3 Business. He completed his studies this year with D*D*D* in the Btec Level 3 Extended Diploma and secured a place at City University to read Law.

Suely Mario Da Silva:

After arriving in London from Portugal without formal qualifications Suely blossomed creatively at BSix. As well as passing a number of GCSEs she rose through the curriculum levels in Art, winning in the process a FAD fashion competition as part of London Fashion Week and earning a place at the London College of Fashion.

Shamonique Lee

Shamonique spent four years at BSix advancing from Entry Level to Level 3 Business and acquiring some key GCSEs and a Duke of Edinbrough Award along the way. A degree in Law and Criminology is the reward she can now enjoy for her commendable application and enthusiasm.

Mia Clarke

Mia is probably one of few students whose academic route has taken her from a Pupil Referral Unit to Oxford University. Sandwiched between those establishments was a three year stint at  BSix where she passed a number of GCSEs before gaining  A*A A in A Level French, Sociology and History. She will read History at Pembroke.

George O`Connor:

George came to BSix from Stormont House (special) school with an Education and Health Care Plan and few formal qualifications. Over subsequent years he has become something of a fixture at BSix, climbing up the academic levels to a point where he is now studying Level 4 Foundation Art.

Leandra Rodriques: 

This summer Leandra completed a four-year stay at BSix. Coming from Portugal  with limited English, she first took an ESOL course before a Level 1 in Health and Social Care, Level 2 in Childcare and, finally, Level 3 in Childcare. She has reached her immediate goal and secured employment as an early years pratititioner at a local children`s nursery.