College News

Local lockdown announced for Swansea, what does this mean for the College?

Following a Welsh Government announcement today (25 September), local lockdown restrictions will come into effect for Swansea from 6pm, 27 September.

Staff and students can continue to travel in and out of restricted areas to attend College, provided they:

Togetherall – a safe, anonymous community for 24/7 mental health support

Our students' health, safety and wellbeing is our top priority, and we're always looking for new ways to support them. We are delighted to announce that we are now offering an excellent online support service called Togetherall.

Togetherall offers a safe and anonymous community to connect with from anywhere, at any time - whether students need to get something off their chest, have conversations, express themselves creatively or learn how to manage their mental health. The platform is monitored by trained clinicians 24/7, 365 days a year.

Our continued response to Covid-19: Update from Principal Mark Jones (22 September)

Principal Mark Jones reflects on the start of the Autumn term, praising students and staff for their cooperation, and explaining how the College is continuing to ensure health and safety remains the top priority.

As we enter the fourth week of term, it seems a good time to reflect on how things have gone so far at Gower College Swansea.

Firstly, I want to say a huge thank you to all our students and staff for their cooperation as we navigate our way through an academic year that is very different to any we've known before. 

Student Union President, Laimis Lisauskas reflects on his first few days back at College

With the reopening of schools and colleges earlier this week, I thought readers may be interested in getting a student’s perspective of how these first few days have gone.

My role as the President of the Student Union at Gower College Swansea has allowed me to interact with a wide range of students over the past few days, and therefore the comments I make are representative of the feedback I have received from right across the College.

Guidance on face coverings

Following the recent statement by Welsh Government, the College has decided that all staff, students and visitors will now be required to wear face coverings.

This will apply in all communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain (e.g. hallways, stairways or common rooms). It will also apply when using College or public buses.

Face coverings will not be expected to be worn in the classroom as all full time students will be in individual contact groups (bubbles) and all part time students will be social distancing.

After a tough year, Gower College Swansea looks forward

After what has been a very challenging academic year, Gower College Swansea is now gearing up for the return of students from 1 September.

Work has been ongoing throughout the summer to adapt the campus buildings in light of Covid-19 and things will look very different when learners return for their inductions.

A message from Principal Mark Jones re: BTEC results

There is a lot of confusion at the moment in relation to exam results, most recently BTEC results.

So I would like to take this opportunity to reassure all our prospective students that their place at Gower College Swansea is secure.

Changes to results: what does this mean?

Following the announcement of 17 August by Welsh Government, students who have received A Level / AS Level / Welsh Baccalaureate (Skills Challenge Certificate) results this summer from the WJEC will have their grade updated to the grade we submitted to the exam board (Centre Assessed Grade or CAG).

In addition, please note:

Gower College Swansea exam results 2020

Students at Gower College Swansea are celebrating an overall A Level pass rate of 99%, with 1255 separate exam entries.

Of these passes, 34% were at grades A*-A, 61% were at A*-B and 85% were at A*-C.

The overall pass rate at AS Level was 91%, with 66% of those passes being grades A - C and 43% being grades A - B. There were 2610 separate exam entries for AS.

The College’s vocational results are also strong again this year with a 99% pass rate across Level 3 Extended Diplomas. An impressive 64% of these students achieved at least one Distinction.

Update from Principal, Mark Jones (11 August)

We have now received the final part of the Welsh Government’s guidance that will allow the College to reopen at the beginning of September. 

Even though this guidance has been delayed, we have been working with Welsh Government colleagues throughout the summer and I am now pleased to be able to share our plans for September.

However, I do need to remind everyone of the College’s two key priorities as our plans are based on what we believe are the best means of achieving both of these.

Priority one