General Information

Attendance at College is directly linked to the outcomes that students achieve, our data shows that students with 100% attendance achieve one grade better than expected across their studies:

Grade    Attendance

A* 95.5%
A 94.6%
B 93.0%
C 91.4%
D 89.6%
E 87.7%
U 84.4%

It is a College requirement that students attend all timetabled classes unless there is a valid reason, such as illness. We encourage parents to work with us to support their young person to achieve the best possible attendance.

Absences must be reported in advance by the parent using the Parent Portal. If a student has an unauthorised absence an email will be sent to the parent at the end of the College day so that you are aware.

If students feel unwell during the College day, they must see the nurse before going home. They must then find out about the work that has been missed in order to catch up.

Limited parking permits are available for second year students on a first come first served basis - information about how to apply and associated costs are shared in the weekly College News.

We have several catering outlets at College which are dedicated to providing a variety of delicious meals, snacks and drinks to our students.

• Time Out (in Bagnall Building) serves traditional breakfasts, hot lunches and a range of cold drinks.  There is also a separate shop in Time Out which offers freshly made baguettes, sandwiches and snacks.  Costa Coffee is also served here.

• Cafe D (in Bagnall Building) has its very own Starbucks serving hot drinks as well as paninis and cakes.

• Shades offers freshly filled wraps, paninis, sandwiches, baguettes, hot meals and sweet treats.  

All of these areas cater for special dietary requirements - if you have any questions, please just ask a member of catering staff.  All catering is provided by Aramark.

Upay

We operate a ‘cashless catering’ system here at Farnborough using Upay - instructions on setting up your account and registering your student ID can be found here.  

How to close your Upay account - when you are about to leave College, don’t forget to close your Upay account to claim back any unspent funds.  You will need to take the following steps.

Using an internet browser:

1.   Log in to your Upay account

2.   Click the 'Menu' button (3 lines icon) in the top right hand corner of the screen

3.   Click 'Account Management'

4.   Click 'Close Account' and follow the instructions

Using the Upay app: 

1. Click the 'Menu' button (3 lines icon) in the top left hand corner of the app home screen

2. Click 'Account Management'

3. Click 'Close Account' and follow the instructions

Any outstanding monies will be returned to the card that they were uploaded from within 10 days and you will receive an email to confirm this.

All students at College are required and expected to adhere to both the College Charter and Code of Conduct (both of which set out the standards and behaviours required of students and the implications in the case of any transgressions).  You can read both of these on the policies page of the main College website.

Each week students are sent an email containing the College News and Careers News both of which include helpful information and updates about events and opportunities taking place in college, general College information, details about important deadlines, higher education updates, work experience opportunities etc. Both newsletters are available for parents to read via the Parent Portal (see section below about Parent Portal).

We offer a choice of over 45 different courses, these are a mix of A level and vocational courses and many students study a combination of both types of course. 

Apart from students who select further maths as an additional A level, students study the equivalent of three A levels.

We are able to be flexible in terms of timetabling subjects and are not restricted by subject blocks.

Each selected subject will have three 90 minutes of taught content per week.  In addition, students will attend one 90 minute face to face tutorial session and one 90 minute online tutorial session per week.

All students have an individually tailored timetable. Click here for an example of a typical student timetable.

CristalWeb is our internal management information system here at College and is widely used both by staff and students.  Students will use it to:

• See their timetable

• Access their review data

• Record career interests

• (Later in the year) manage Higher Education applications

• See their student log

• View their exam information 

• View their personal data 

We strongly encourage all students to participate in some form of enrichment during their time at College - we have over 80 options to choose from. There are a mixture of staff led enrichments such as sporting teams or performing arts and clubs/societies which may be student led.  If there is nothing on the list which is of interest, students are encouraged to start their own club or society.  Each year we hold a Freshers Fair in September where students can find out more about the options available and sign up.

You can read more information on the College's main website 

Bursary scheme - There are two types of bursaries available, find out more here.

Free meals - Free meals are available for all eligible students - find out more here.

Loans

Students may apply to the College for a short-term loan, in support of their studies. Parent/guardian agreement is generally requested and repayments are arranged through a standing order. If you would like more information about the scheme, please contact Kirsten Halvorsen by email at khalvorsen@farnborough.ac.uk 

Childcare for young parents

If you are under 20, Care to Learn could pay up to £180 per child, per week, towards your childcare and travel costs, while you are learning. You can apply via the Care to Learn Scheme here or get information and application forms from Student Services.

Post-16 study can be challenging for many different reasons, both physically and emotionally.  Here at the College we have a professionally qualified, award winning team, who provide different aspects of wellbeing support to the College community.

The team is made up of:

• a Health and Wellbeing Coordinator

• the College Nurse 

• a team of staff who are mental health first aiders and

• the Counselling team (more information is available on this dedicated site).

There is more information on the College website.

Find out more about the support available to parents to support their own mental health.

Every student, staff member and visitor must wear a College lanyard and ID card around their neck at all times whilst on site. This ensures the safety of our College community.  Students also use their ID card for the Library, printing, exams, cashless payments (including for food) and bus passes.

Staff lanyards are blue. The student lanyard colour changes each year.

When students join us they will be issued with an ID card and lanyard free of charge. If students lose their lanyard, the cost of a new one is £10.

If students forget their lanyard they can borrow a temporary one from Main Reception or Student Services (both in the Bagnall building). The cost of a temporary lanyard is £1 per day and is capped at £10. These are added as a fine to the student's record.

Students must be wearing their lanyard (not a temporary one) to sit exams.

All lanyard fines must be paid as part of the clearance procedure when students leave College.

There are four dedicated study spaces which students are able to use whilst on campus, Whitehouse, Upper Bagnall, Bagnall Library and Lower Bagnall (open until 5.30pm Monday - Thursday).

There are numerous library resources available to students via the Accessit website.

The LRC staff also offer:

• Research based workshops

• EPQ support

• Book Club (enrichment)

• A book subscription service and F6th Book Awards.

At College we make sure that the online content that students are able to access whilst they are at College is suitably filtered - our firewall ensures that students are not able to access any content which may be harmful or damaging.

The Goverment has recently launched a campaign to support parents in keeping their children safe online - you can find out more informtation on the Kids Online Safety area of the Gov.UK website.

Parents are invited to attend an online parents' meeting with teaching staff, usually because there is some concern regarding the students performance or progression in their subject (see section on review data below).

Parents' meetings take place online in November and March each academic year - information about how to book a slot is shared with the selected invited parents by email. 

When students enrol at College we issue their parent/guardian with a log in for the Parent Portal.  Using this Portal Parent/guardians can:

• Report student absence

• Amend an unknown absence

• View their young person's progress data.

Please look out for the email from us at the start of the academic year to set this up and if you have any issues please contact the Registry Team by emailing registry@farnborough.ac.uk

Many students have part time jobs during their time at College and these can be really helpful in the development of wider workplace skills.  There is a balance to be struck of course to avoid the part time work impacting on their studies, we generally recommend that students work no more than 8 hours per week to ensure that they have the time available to dedicate to their studies.

Students can access their review data on CristalWeb and parents/guardians can see the same information on the parent portal. This information summarises the current level of attainment based on the various progress assessments that take place during the academic year.

Students' work is assessed at various points during their two year courses, this can be during in class assessments or more formally in mock exams.  This assessment has a three step process:

• An assessment

• Feedback/self reflections

• Review data is updated.

Students are reviewed on the following areas:

• Attitudes - This gives an indication of their commitment, motivation and involvement in their class.

• Deadlines - This captures homework completion and their management of deadlines.

• Understanding - This tells you how well they understand the material being studied. In many subjects, this will also involve the acquisition of key skills.

• Retrieval - This is an indication of whether they are able to remember what they have learnt. This is less about innate memory and more about the techniques being used to ensure short term memory is converted into long term memory. At the College, we describe this process as ‘consolidation’.

• Application - This is used to highlight to the student how well their understanding and memorisation is being applied in exam conditions and, very importantly, meeting the exam board requirements.

These five areas are rated either 1, 2, 3 or 4:

1. Key strength - This is exceptional and where the student has gone above and beyond and made a strong impression

2. Working well - Students can be really pleased that they are meeting, and possibly exceeding their teachers expectations. There may be some areas for fine tuning.

3. Areas for improvement - This should not be a worry, but it does indicate an area of their study that should be targeted. Teachers will be initiating support and advising the student on actions to take.

4. Significant concern - This means changes need to be made, and quickly, to ensure the student gets on track to meet the demands of the course (and the expectations of the college). Again, teachers will initiate support which may also involve the Tutor.

For each subject they are studying, students have an indicator dial giving an overall summary of the level of their achievement in that subject:

Green =  1. Key strength
Blue =  2. Working well
Yellow = 3. Areas for improvement
Red = 4. significant concern.

Each year a Student Union is elected, as well as organising a range of events and fund raising activities across the year, this group provides a 'voice' for the student body and is involved in the regular quality meetings that take place.

There are a range or roles available in addition to President and Vice President (which are elected positions that the student body vote on), these include:

• Environmental officer

• Equality and Diversity officer 

• Community Engagement and volunteering officer

• Health and Wellbeing officer and 

• Learning Experience officer.

Appointments run from May in a students first year to May in a students second year.  Applications open in February with the relevant information shared in the College News.

There is a team of support services to assist students during their time at College:

• Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance

• Counselling

• IT Helpdesk

• Learning Resource Centre

• Nurse and student welfare

• Registry (exams and timetables)

• Student Services (transport, lanyards, general enquiries)

• Study Support.

Our term dates are largely in line with Hampshire schools' term dates. You can see them on the main College website here

Each of your chosen subjects has three taught periods per week totalling 4.5 hours of taught content each week. 

Study periods throughout the week should be used to consolidate lesson study and complete set work - this may be on site, where you can use the learning resource Centres, or at home if you prefer.  

Click to see an example timetable

There are several transport options to get to College using public transport. 

For more details click here

All students attend one tutorial session (face to face) each week and are also required to complete an online Tutorial + session. As part of these compulsory sessions, students complete the Prospects Diploma which is endorsed by a number of high profile local employers and universities.  The Tutorial sessions support the holistic development of students beyond the classroom and aims to prepare them for their time after College including e.g. life skills such as personal finance, mortgages and budgeting or stress management strategies.

Students will received 4.5 hours of teaching each week per subject.  They should expect to complete a further 4.5 hours per subject each week in independent study.

There are study periods built in as part of each students timetable and with careful planning these sessions can be used to ensure that learning is consolidated and that deadlines are consistently met.

Good study habits include:

Routines - plan what to do with study periods the night before

Small managable targets are more productive

Keep on top of deadlines (get work done early so you can see help if needed) 

Build the foundations first - organisation, understand the basics, keep notes up to date, ask questions to clarify understanding.