As the firebreak lockdown comes to a close, here is some important information for when you return to College next week.
From Monday 9 November
We will now resume our face to face method of teaching for all our full time students.
If you are a part time student or an apprentice, your course will resume in the same way as it did before the firebreak lockdown.
Following yesterday’s Welsh Government announcement of a firebreak lockdown across Wales, the College will close to all but essential staff at 6pm on Friday 23 October for half term.
From Monday 2 to Friday 6 November, the campuses will remain closed, but all teaching will be delivered online.
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.
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.
Staff and students
We can confirm that the Sports Centre will reopen for staff and students from Tuesday 1 September.
To ensure the health and safety of all, please note the following changes:
Members of the public
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:
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
Update 19 August 2020
All students will be able to access their exam results from the examination details section of their eLIP. Alternatively, you can log onto the engage app after 8.30am on results day.
If you have any problems logging on, visit this page on the website
GCSE results will issue on Thursday 20 August after 8.30am.
In the past few days we have now received guidance from Welsh Government on the arrangements for both the reopening of further education colleges and for school and college transport.
This guidance allows for a return to face to face teaching for our full time students, provided that they are managed in cohorts. We are calling this our Plan A.
Mark Jones, Principal of Gower College Swansea, explains how the College is planning to help people get the support they need to secure and retain employment.
Of all of the challenges we have faced in recent months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and possibly the greatest one that still lies in front of us, is the projections that around 7.6 million jobs or around 24% of the UK workforce could be at risk because of the lockdown period.