Strode's College Feedback

Conference 1

You Said, We Did - 23/24

CATERING AND ESTATES - Includes facilities, parking, security and catering

Students would like to have more access to places for quiet study

Please could the Gym opening hours be extended so that it can be accessed for more than three days a week?

Rooms and guidelines for new study spaces have been circulated since the last conference and these quiet study spaces are available and being used already. Many thanks for this feedback

We would love to extend the gym opening hours, however sadly we do not have staff to support this. Our technician is only here 3 days.

STUDENT SERVICES - Includes tutorial, attendance, careers & placements, financial support, library services, administration, safeguarding & wellbeing, student enrichment

The dress code poster came across as 'sexist and harsh', with the vast majority of students appearing to target female students.

Students do not like having to pay £1 to replace ID cards if they go missing. Please could they be available for free?

TMail is incredibly text-heavy and not very easy to read. Information about extra curricular activities goes through core studies but not all of the teachers give students sufficient time to read the slides, and often they are not explained properly. This impacts on things like club attendance. Please could the College promote extra curricular activities via a newsletter instead?

It wasn't explained in Induction that you have to pay for printing. How does this work?

A revised version of this poster has now been updated with input from the Student Union

Students may receive three complimentary temporary passes per term. After this they either have to pay £1 via the cashless system for a temporary one day pass or purchase via the Cashless system for a new permanent ID card at a cost of £2.00

We have listened to your feedback and are currently trialing a weekly Student Newsletter as part of Tutorial. The newsletter will consist of short bullet points with hyperlinks to further signposting.

£5.00 printer credit is given to each students for the first day of term. Details are on the student intranet. Credit is purchased via the cashless system and the LC credit the student ID card. Posters are displayed at all points

IT & LEARNING TECHNOLOGY SERVICES - Includes access to computers, ILP, student software, wifi, college app, google classrooms

Some Tutor Reps reported that their ID card wasn't working at the start of term due to an IT fault, whereby some of the cards were not activated properly. Has the technology been upgraded since September to prevent a repeat of this in future?

This should have been fully discussed at Induction and when students have a LC tour at the beginning of term. To use printers for the first time, the students full email and password have to be entered on the screen then tap the card to photocopier then the card can be activated. Clearer instructions to be added to the College IT Induction Guide

TEACHING AND LEARNING - Includes all curriculum related matters, exams, assessment, homework, study plus, department trips & visits

There has been an increase in the amount of independent work. Is there a way that different subjects/departments can have centrally coordinated schemes of work that ensures a consistent flow of work, rather than peak periods of high assignments and peak low assignments at other times?

Some teachers discourage all forms of talking in lessons which makes group work a challenge. Please can the rules around talking during non-directed lesson time be relaxed?

Homework isn't being marked in some STEM subjects. Who should I speak to about this?

The workload from Year 1 to Year 2 changed drastically, could it have been built up overtime instead of just going straight into a heavy workload in Year 2?

This is a concern that has been raised for years and a tricky one to crack. Independent study should be happening little and often, so there shouldn't be peak periods of high or low study activity. The areas where it may be most pronounced might be where subjects have higher levels of coursework. It's difficult to coordinate independent work across all subject areas, but with regards to coursework we can certainly review the internal deadlines to consider the possibility of staggering them in a student-friendly way.

Yes! it would be helpful to know the context but I can't think of any lessons where group work would be discouraged, diversity in tasks are usually encouraged. It is difficult to understand what happened here without the specific context, normally group work should be taking place across all subjects. Eg Maths where groups work across whiteboards, or discursive activity in Film Studies.

It depends. First port of call is always the teacher, to try and understand why it hasn't been marked. SLT have been clear that some homework doesn't need to be marked in full but teachers need to be clear with students when this is the case. Students can approach the Head of Department if they are unable to resolve the concern with the teacher.

A Levels and BTECs tend to increase in volume of work as we get towards the end of the course, things get more challenging so it will generally feel more difficult as its a step up from year 1 to year 2. The work set is based on the subject's scheme of work which is regularly reviewed to ensure workload is evenly distributed throughout the two years. If there are specific subject concerns students should approach the Head of Department in the first instance.

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