Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College

Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College
Established 1975
Type Sixth form college
Principal Christopher Thompson, MA
Location 205 Dyke Road
Hove
East Sussex
BN3 6EG
England England
Coordinates: 50°50′05″N 0°09′04″W / 50.834725°N 0.151178°W / 50.834725; -0.151178
DfE URN 130669 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students c.2200 students
Gender Coeducational
Ages 16–19
Website www.bhasvic.ac.uk

Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College, usually abbreviated to BHASVIC (pronounced "Bazvic"), is a college in Brighton & Hove, England for 16- to 19-year-old students.

Location

Main entrance of Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College

The college is in the Prestonville area of the city. It is situated at the corner of Dyke Road (A2010) and the Old Shoreham Road (A270), a major road junction in the north-west of the city of Brighton & Hove in Seven Dials. BHASVIC It is next door to Dyke Road Park, in the parish of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Brighton. How to find BHASVIC

History

Grammar school

The college has its origins in the Brighton Proprietary Grammar and Commercial School, founded in July 1859 at Lancaster House, Grand Parade. The school continued as the Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School. It opened on its present site in 1913. In 1914, not long after it opened, the school was requisitioned for use as a military hospital.

Sixth form college

The current sixth form college was formed in 1975 following reorganisation of secondary education in East Sussex. There are two sixth form colleges (BHASVIC and Varndean College) in Brighton and Hove. BHASVIC draws nearly 40% of its students from East and West Sussex, the remainder living in Brighton and Hove. The joint admissions policy for BHASVIC, Varndean and City College gives top priority to applications from pupils at 11–16 schools in Brighton and Hove.

Funding and governance

BHASVIC and other sixth form colleges in England were transferred under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 out of local government control and established as independent FE Corporations. On 1 April 2010, under the Apprentices, Schools, Children and Learning Act 2009, the college was designated as a sixth form college. Over 90% of the college's funds come from the EFA (Education Funding Agency). Corporation Members (governors) are individuals from business, the local community, staff, students and parents. The principal of the college is an ex-officio member of the corporation.[1]

The current principal is Christopher Thomson MA. The current vice-principal is Shirley Brookes-Mills and assistant principal is Jutta Knapp (Finance). The current chairman of governors is Peter Freeman.

School building and environment

Playing fields

BHASVIC is located on a relatively large site by the Dyke Road and Old Shoreham Road Junction in Hove. Most of the site is taken up by the large playing fields which are shared with Cardinal Newman School. The area covered by college buildings is relatively compact with three distinct outside areas. These are the upper and lower car parks and the aforementioned fields. The main building is especially noted for its panelled hall which is decorated with murals. BHASVIC enjoys a large library which was added to the building in 1935 and refurbished in the late 1990s), and 15 acres (61,000 m2) of playing fields.[2]

The college consists mainly of four buildings. The main building, which is the oldest part of the college, contains the main hall and the library. Then there is College House, a separate building which contains many classrooms, the language centre and the media editing suites. The sports centre contains two classrooms, a sports hall and a cafe. The Copper Building was finished into 2014, and contains the new canteen, the study support area, and several classrooms. BHASVIC has several other smaller buildings such as the canteen and refectory block, some temporary classrooms and a new student services centre, which contains the careers suite, welfare office and tutorial rooms.

The following subjects are located in Main Building: – Geography, Visual Arts, Psychology, Travel and Tourism, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Health & Social Care and Performance Studies.

Located in College House: – Music, Modern Languages (French, German, Italian and Spanish), English (Language, Lang & Lit, Literature), Media Studies, Business Studies, History and Economics.

Located in Sports Hall: - Physical Education and Dance.

Located in the Copper Building: - Law, Politics, Sociology and Philosophy

There is also a multi-purpose Student Services Centre and several buildings behind College House.

Student population

There are approximately 2,500 students in college, most of whom take Advanced level courses. The remaining students are enrolled in variety of courses, predominantly Vocational Intermediate level or GCSE programmes. Approximately 60% of students are from Brighton and Hove, and up to 40 students come from outside the United Kingdom.[3]

About 70% of A level students continue on to a degree level course at a university or begin a specialist course (such as an Art Foundation pre-degree course) at a college of further education.[4]

Academic results

Students do outstandingly well at BHASVIC relative both to national benchmarks and prior achievements - see the BHASVIC website for full exam results.[5]

OFSTED assessment

OFSTED published a report on its assessment of BHASVIC in November 2012, and BHASVIC was the first college in the country to be awarded a grade 1 Outstanding by OFSTED under the new inspection framework.

BHASVIC’s Ofsted Report 2012: You will see a clean sweep of grade 1s and the college overall has been graded 1 Outstanding. The achievement is significant as only 13 of 203 colleges inspected under the previous Ofsted framework achieved the Outstanding grade for Overall Effectiveness and we understand BHASVIC is the first college in the country to achieve this grade under the new framework which is widely regarded as tougher. BHASVIC's Principal, Chris Thomson said, "We are rightly proud of Ofsted's recognition of our achievements; it is the commitment of our staff and their enduring focus on teaching, learning and the student experience that has led to this truly outstanding success."

The Prime Minister's Global Fellowship

The college has a good record of students attaining places on the prestigious Prime Minister's Global Fellowship programme. The college achieved its first student in the inaugural year of the programme, 2008 and in 2009 had 2 more successful applicants.[6]

Chemistry Olympiad - Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (lower 6th) - C3L6

The college enters a good cohort of its best AS level Chemistry students into the Cambridge Chemistry Olympiad (C3L6) annually. This is arguably the most challenging test of scientific aptitude that an AS Chemist can ever expect to endure and is organized by St Catharine's college as part of the Chemistry department of Cambridge university. It comprises a single 60 mark test paper of degree level chemistry, deliberately unfamiliar to A level Chemistry students, with not all teachers that try the paper getting full marks. The idea is that a good Chemist will read into the subject beyond the scope of their various specifications and can use their existing knowledge to answer the questions. Students from all over the globe take part and awards are internationally recognized. The Chemistry Olympiad is run by Chemistry teacher Jason O'Grady at BHASVIC and the candidates entered in 2014 received good results.

The awards are structured in correspondence to group 11 of the periodic table of elements, specifically including; Copper (Cu), Silver (Ag), Gold (Au) and Roentgenium (Rg). Those who received the Cu award in 2014 were in the top 35.5% of competitors worldwide, those with Ag were in the top 14.4% and thise with gold in the top 7.8%. Those competitors that scored exceptionally high marks (which is very rare) were given the Rg award and invited to a residential weekend at Cambridge university. The Gold and Roentgenium awards for this specific Olympiad are thought to be two of the most prestigious awards an AS Chemistry student can achieve.

The highest achievers at BHASVIC for 2014, received a gold (Au) award - this was in the top 7.8% of competitors in this year. Said competitors were;

BHASVIC also enters students into a similar Biology Olympiad.

Notable alumni

As Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "BHASVIC Sixth Form College: Origins of the school", retrieved 20 March 2008
  3. ↑ "BHASVIC: An Introduction To The College", retrieved 18 March 2008 Archived 2 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ "BHASVIC Prospectus: After BHASVIC", retrieved 18 March 2008
  5. ↑ http://www.bhasvic.ac.uk/
  6. ↑ British Council website "Fellows" accessed 10 November 2009.

External links

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