Barton Peveril Sixth Form College

Dear Colleague

Thank you for your interest in applying to Barton Peveril College.

Our interest in you!

We are looking for staff who can lead and inspire student learning in the college.  You may already have a track record of excellent teaching and leadership.   You may be an NQT, keen to bring the benefits of your recent training, your ideas and your enthusiasm to us.  You may be potential support staff with valuable skills and a commitment to working in education.  Whatever your qualities, you must delight in working with students to raise their aspirations and enhance their abilities, so that they can exceed what they thought was their own potential.  You will want to help prepare them for life outside College in an inclusive, modern, competitive and multicultural society. You will have a concern for their safety and wellbeing as well as for developing their ambitions and self-belief. Above all our successful candidates will expect the highest standards of themselves, their students and their colleagues.  I hope you will be committed to your own professional development, which we will support, like your ambition to develop your career, at or on from Barton Peveril.

Our College

Barton Peveril is a thriving Sixth Form College in Hampshire, over-subscribed and well-regarded by our community and partner schools.  We are not complacent and determined to get even better!  We hope you can help us to do so.The College has a very simple, but challenging, aim – to add value to our students’ academic and wider achievements. We were awarded Beacon College Status in 2002 and Ofsted inspected us in February 2010 grading us as “outstanding” in our support for students, leadership and capacity to improve.  Our challenge now is to move from overall “good” to “outstanding” by bringing all subjects up to the level of the best and raising student achievement a little further beyond the national average for Sixth Form colleges. We have 2500 full-time 16-18 students this year, who are drawn from an area that includes Eastleigh, Hedge End, Fair Oak, Fareham, Romsey, Southampton, Winchester and a wide band of south central Hampshire.  We have excellent relationships with our partner schools and work closely with them in the Eastleigh Consortium.  To ensure that all the students in our community have appropriate opportunities in terms of level and type of course, we work very closely with Eastleigh College (an FE College on the same road) to provide for their needs.Students choose from a very large number of subjects at Level 3 - AS, A2, OCR Diplomas and BTEC Nationals – and at Level 2 where there are Vocational and GCSE courses available.  There are very few constraints upon combinations of subjects.  About 95% of first year students are following a Level 3 course.  The great majority of students now follow a combination equivalent to four AS Levels in the first year and three A levels and an Extended Project in the second.  The general entry requirements for an Advanced Level course are five A-C passes at GCSE, although some individual subjects specify requirements for a higher grade.  The College is committed to offering its students enrichment opportunities.  Sport is particularly strong at Barton Peveril, with some of the most successful teams in the county and regular success at the British Colleges’ competition.  We also have lively Drama and Music departments. Departments organise many regular trips, in the UK and abroad.Last year, about 750 students went on to degree courses at universities and other degree-awarding institutions.  Thirteen students moved on to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  The College has strong links with HE providers in the county and has compacts with Southampton University, Portsmouth University, Southampton Solent University and the University of Winchester.During the past eleven years, we have developed a lively and popular programme of courses for adults in our community.  We work very closely with our local general further education college to meet the needs of the adult learner in Eastleigh.  We can, therefore, offer teaching and training opportunities that extend beyond the 16-19 range.There are now 167 teachers and 105 support staff working at the College.  All our sixth form teaching staff and support staff are employed on contracts based on the guidance of the Sixth Form College Forum and on their pay scales, which are similar in level and structure to National Levels in schools. We provide a very comprehensive range of staff development that derives from each member of staff having a Personal Development Plan.  We have Investor in People status and were the first Sixth Form College in the country to add the Bronze Award to that status.  We are determined to live up to the spirit of the Award.  We retain very close contact with our partner sixth form colleges and play an active role in the Hampshire Sixth Form College Partnership, which organises collaborative work and joint staff development.   Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) training is carried out as part of the partnership and management training programmes are organised for both teaching and support staff. On the social side, there is a Staff Room, as well as work areas for staff.  Staff events are organised regularly and fitness facilities are available for staff use.The College has an annual income of £13 million, mostly derived from government funding.  The Comprehensive Spending Review cuts in Sixth Form funding will reduce the amount of money per learner by around 10%, but steady year on year growth in student numbers and the efficiencies of being the seventh largest sixth form college in the country have helped us mitigate the impact.  The college financial planning is very strong and will ensure we remain a sound and highly competitive institution in the years ahead.  Our estate is fresh, modern and and well resourced. In 2005 we built twelve new classrooms; a Sports Hall; Drama, Dance and Music accommodation; and a Lecture Theatre and we are currently renovating our library and oldest building which contains science and ICT.
 
Staff at Barton Peveril work hard to provide our students with a high quality sixth form experience and this is reflected in the excellent examination results achieved.  However, we know our value added could improve.  We see improving students’ value added as the top priority for the College over the next 3 years.  We have clarified our values as an organisation and are proud of our active commitment to promoting equality and diversity. All staff are thoroughly aware and committed to the culture of high expectations and  the emphasis we are placing on ensuring high quality and effective teaching and learning in and outside the classroom.

Structure of the College

The College has a history of being stable and well managed. On retiring in May 2008, my predecessor, Godfrey Glyn, was awarded an OBE for his work at the College.  I joined the College in August 2008 having been Principal at a smaller neighbouring Sixth Form College.  Nigel Groves, the Vice Principal, whose responsibilities include the finances and building projects and many of the business matters of the College, has been at the college for over 10 years. We have created three Assistant Principals with cross-College leadership responsibility for Students (Mark Henderson), Curriculum (Mandy Wood), and Quality (Mat Chart).  The three Assistant Principal posts are unusual in that they each take responsibility for the welfare and achievements of one third of the college’s 16-19 year olds as well as leading a third of the teachers and curriculum.Heads of Faculty line manage Heads of Department over matters to do with staffing and the quality of teaching and learning.  They are assisted by a Student Progress Manager and support staff, to look after the wellbeing of students and to lead tutors and tutoring. Almost all teachers are also tutor to a group of students.  Their primary role is to help students take advantage of the opportunities available to them whilst at College and achieve their full academic potential.  They help students to plan and prepare for the future and are the first point of contact between home and College. There is an extensive support function including: careers, library, health, examinations, finance, information systems, technicians, estates, and administration. We are very fortunate to have support staff who are highly professional and work closely with teaching staff to ensure the highest levels of customer service. 

Your application

I hope you will be excited by the thought of joining Barton Peveril College. I very much look forward to receiving your application.  All relevant documents have been uploaded onto the TES HireWire site for reference purposesYours sincerelyJonathan Prest
Principal