Academic success depends largely on the student. Our teaching staff and academic coaches will help learners as much as they can, but ultimately the final results will depend on the amount of effort the student makes throughout the course. Academic Coaches deliver weekly group sessions which cover a range of topics including developing behaviour and attitudes to be successful at sixth form, personal and awareness and progression. These sessions are a valuable and compulsory part of the timetable. In addition, students will have regular one-to-one appointments with their Academic Coach, during which they will reflect on their progress and set targets to help them continue to improve.
This process:-
• encourages students to take responsibility for planning their learning.
• helps them to make clearer and better informed decisions.
• enables them to identify their long/short term goals and reach them.
• helps them to self-evaluate, which means recognising their strengths and weaknesses.
• involves target setting to help them to tackle weaknesses and achieve short term goals.
• focuses on their achievements.
Should it be needed, the academic coach can assist students in accessing more specialist resources. The College has an excellent pastoral support services, which includes financial advice, student welfare support, counselling, and health advice. Expert careers advice is also offered and additional learning support is available if a particular need is identified. These services exist so that every student can maximise their potential.
The academic coach will also help learners in their progression to the next stage of their development, be it higher education or employment. If it is the former, they will help with UCAS applications and personal statements. They can also provide references where needed.
Academic Coaches are the first point of contact for students and parents. They are available during term time, Monday to Thursday, from 8.30am – 4.00pm, and Fridays, from 8.30am – 3.30pm. The telephone number to reach them on is 0121 704 2581. A full list of Progress Managers and Academic Coaches is as follows:
Sarah Law (Progress Manager)
Karen Sherwood (Progress Manager)
Jo Tully (Progress Manager)
Chris Brothers
Jack Brown
Reema Chauhan
Graham Everitt
Tracey Hayden
Selina Iqbal
Anisa Lokat-Fanning
Suhana Miah
Caroline Noble
Kerry Richardson
Sue Stowe
Melissa Taylor
Gail Williams
If you are unable to speak to an academic coach when you phone it is probably due to them delivering a coaching session or conducting a one-to-one appointment with a student. Please leave a message and they will call you back as soon as they can. You can also contact Academic Coaches by email – all email addresses are firstname.surname @solihullsfc.ac.uk.
Please note academic coaches are not the correct contact to notify of student absences – absences can be reported online here.