Latest news from Derby College Group (DCG)

WELCOME

Parent Carers Consultation Evenings

(for current students only)

Parent and Carer Consultation Evenings are an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s subject teacher to discuss their progress on their course. Upcoming dates are all listed below. Links to these events and details of how to book your attendance will be released soon. Look out for emails with more information in the coming weeks!

Year 1 students

The Round House – 25th January 2022
The Joseph Wright Centre – 26th January 2022
Broomfield Hall – 27th January 2022

All students

The Round House – 15th March 2022
The Joseph Wright Centre – 16th March 2022
Broomfield Hall – 17th March 2022

COVID

Any DCG student testing positive for COVID-19 must report this to the DCG Health and Safety team immediately by filling out the Covid Positive report form. Please ensure you also follow the student absence process as normal.

The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Student Bursary – Income Threshold changes

From 1st November, DCG are able to provide help with costs associated with attending College to students who live in a household with an income of below £30,000 (previously this figure was £20,000).

If you feel that your child may now be eligible for a Student Bursary, please ask your child to fill in a Bursary Application form. Your child can access the Bursary Application form via their InTouch account.

If you have any questions you can contact the studentsupportfund@derby-college.ac.uk team:
By phone on 0800 028 0289

Keeping your child safe

Spiking: what to know and what to look out for

Spiking is giving someone alcohol or drugs without their knowledge.

In most cases, being spiked involves someone adding something to your drink. This is usually a substance like a ‘date rape’ drug or alcohol. Spiking someone is illegal, but people who have been spiked often don’t report it.

Visit the Change Grow Live: 1625 Outreach website to find out more about Spiking: what you need to know and what to look out for.

Introducing Ad Astra

DCG are delighted to tell parents about their brand-new Ad Astra programme. This is a focussed set of initiatives open to all level 3 students at DCG. These are designed to either inspire and/or develop a student’s skillset to help them move towards or discover their dream career. Students need to attend and participate in Ad Astra activities that are promoted in their tutorials. The scheme recognises work a student may be involved with outside of their curriculum.

The Ad Astra group is made up of Teachers, Careers Advisers, Progression Coaches, and the Dancop team all working collaboratively to ensure our students get access to the right people, in the right organisations, at the right time to help them move forward.

Students will be able to gain recognition for the additional input and reflection via the Ad Astra programme and gain an Ad Astra Enrichment Award which is available at bronze, silver and gold levels. Please tell your child to look out for #Ad Astra

Competitive career provision and support

DCG are proud to support competitive applications to Oxbridge (the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge), plus medicine, veterinary, dentistry and law careers. The careers team work closely with curriculum and students to ensure students are given the right information and targeted help to improve their success at every stage.

Sally Archer, a Curriculum Manager at JWC provides insights to the Oxbridge pathway: “As part of the extensive Higher Education provision given to students at the Joseph Wright Centre, we are proud to be able to support our students in their applications to competitive universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.

In term one of year 1, interested students are targeted with support and detailed information about how to prepare. Teachers may also actively encourage students at this stage to consider the options. This is followed in Term 2 by focused super curricular tasks aimed at extending the students’ thinking and they practice keys skills of communication and critical thinking crucial for the interview process. During term 2 students can sign up for a trip to the Oxbridge Student Conference, at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Students are then supported with their applications in Term 3 via tutorials and individual careers advice. There is also a trip to the Oxford University open day in June. If the subject of interest requires an additional entrance test, at this point, subject specialist teachers will support where necessary in the preparation. During this term students are also given talks by the Oxford and Cambridge outreach team who also assist with applications.

In term 1 of year 2, mock interviews are conducted with external specialists familiar with the Oxbridge interview process. The aim of these mock interviews is to enable students to experience an authentic scenario with questions pertinent to their chosen subject area. These intensive sessions replicate Oxbridge’s method of teaching and help students to solidify their confidence in discussing and talking about their subject in an academic setting. The Joseph Wright Centre aims to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to access support through this personalised programme catering for their needs.”

The College Careers team can support all students with a range of areas, including making decisions about their next step options, ways to identify and develop their strengths, skills and abilities in relation to their next step and also practical help with making applications and preparing CVs

The careers team, based at Roundhouse, have a brand new careers room and are based in K101. Any student can ‘drop in’ for an appointment between 9-4pm. No need to book.

The team can also be contacted by emailing: careers@derby-college.ac.uk

For Level 3, year 2 students who are applying for Higher Education (university level study) Please remind your child that they need to fully complete their online UCAS form and then arrange to meet with their personal tutor in order that the hand-in checklist can be completed.

All students (and their parents/carers) can access a comprehensive booklet covering areas such as the Higher Education research and application process and guidance on writing a personal statement (the booklet can be accessed in the ‘Higher Education’ folder, which is in the ‘MyCareer Tutorial’ section of ‘My Career’: Student Booklet for UCAS 2021-2022.pdf (derby-college.ac.uk)

Plus, the following guide (produced by Nottingham Trent University) is designed to give parents/carers information about the Higher Education (HE) process, plus advice on how to support their child make the transition into HE: Nottingham Trent University Parent and Carer Guide

Target Careers – Path to Careers Guide

This booklet will help you understand all the different types of qualifications and pathways available to your child (post College); plus, it highlights several job sectors including IT, Science and Engineering.

paths-to-careers-parents-guide_2021.pdf (targetcareers.co.uk)

Unifrog Webinars

From the 6th December Unifrog will be running webinars; including ‘How to find your perfect University course’, and ‘How to find your perfect apprenticeship’.

The webinars run for 30 minutes and will show you how to use the Unifrog tools to find the best course/apprenticeship for your child. They will show you tricks to get the most from the tool and how to help create strong applications for their next steps. Uni Frog webinars

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More information for Parents and Carers can be found on the DCG website.