As I write, we are just minutes away from the culmination of the last lesson of the winter term. A little light snow is falling and Christmas glints all over the college through cards and decorations and santa hats and charity fund raising. Mother Christmas has visited the theatre, I believe. Students have raised money for MacMillan and for Duchene and for the South African charity Botshabelo, which a group of students and staff will travel out to support in the summer.
The Winter Concert on Wednesday night in St Albans Parish church was superb. The balance of voices in the choir currently is one of the best we’ve ever had. Bach himself would have been proud of the opening cantata – and I’m sure he’d have sung to the rhythm of the Big Band and tapped away to the Ceilidh Band later on. The dance students did a great show on Tuesday night and I’d recommend the March show, when they will perform their final pieces. The ballet sections are challenging – and impressive.
Then on Thursday night, the College Corporation met. Yes, it was one of the programmed meetings but it had a significant decision to make. It took it – by accepting the Secretary of State’s invitation for the college to “designate” as a sixth form college. Now this may puzzle you, because, of course, the College already is a sixth form college and always has been. That’s true. However, the latest education Bill to be passed by Parliament, just a month ago, created a legal “designated” category of sixth form college. Previously, sixth form colleges were a variety of further education college, distinguished in practice and activity but not through legal definition. Now, we are legal as well as decent, honest and truthful!
This is important in another more practical way. The title “sixth form college” is associated – through years of outstanding success – with the best education and outcomes of any type of post-16 provision. That makes the title, like any successful brand, prone to attempted “hi-jack” by imitators as others attempt to piggy-back on the success. This has happened locally and recently. If you’re in any doubt about whether what you’re looking at is what someone has put on the tin, there is now a second simple test. Is it designated as a sixth form college under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act, 2009? (The other test, already available, is to ask whether it is a member of the Sixth Form College’s Forum.)
Well, I’m sure the Law Lords have packed their bags and gone of to prepare to feast by their Yule-Tide fires some time ago, so it’s my pleasure to do the same. Have a really good Christmas break – designated or not!
