Plume College Overview

Plume College provides post-16 education to the vast majority of students who attend the Plume from Years 7-11, and an increasing proportion of students each year join us from other local secondary schools.

The College has seen steadily growing numbers in recent years, and this brings great advantages in terms of the range of curriculum opportunities that we can offer – currently over 37 different courses, and each year this develops and expands further.

While Plume College is based on the Fambridge Road site, College students have the benefit of separate College areas for 6^th Form students only, such as the Common Room with its own food outlet, the College Library, the College ICT room and Level One, which is a combined leisure and study area. Most College lessons take place in the main school building, but many subjects have dedicated 6^th Form teaching areas. The College day runs from 8.25am – 4.10pm, as many subjects now provide Period 6 lessons in order for our curriculum offer to be as flexible as possible.

The College has a dedicated leadership and support staff team, to provide the support and challenge needed for College students to be successful. Students are assigned a Learning Group Leader on entry to the College. Students meet as a group with their Learning Group Leader during two morning registrations per week, and the remainder of the week is used for one-to-one mentoring tutorials, a programme which has proved to be the most effective method for tracking and supporting our College students’ academic progress and welfare.

There are many opportunities for College students to become involved in student leadership – for example as Head Boy and Girl; as part of the College Student Forum; as Learning Mentors for younger students; as writers and editors for the College magazine ‘C6’, and in leading and managing charity events, enrichment and social events. There are also a wide variety of sporting opportunities, not least the Football College team.

The College has the advantage of providing the familiarity and stability of the school environment, alongside the greater flexibility and responsibility of being a 6^th Form student, and provides an excellent gateway onto university, further education, employment and apprenticeships.