Sixth Form

Overview

The Sixth Form takes great pride in all that it does, whether through academic study or extra-curricular work.

The St Michael's Sixth Form is an opportunity for students to continue working, along with their familiar teachers and friends. It enables them to work in a friendly environment and to achieve their best, academically as well as enriching their spiritual and social life further. This video was made in November 2008.  It gives a taste of what life in the Sixth Form is like.

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The Sixth Form also welcomes new students from other schools that are part of the Alban Consortium.

 

 

Prefects

Prefects have the opportunity to work in a closer school community with various years and age groups, as well as staff.

Each prefect is attached to a year group and a specific form within that year, for which they are responsible for attending their assembly and one afternoon registration each week. It is their duty to help prepare assemblies, be a support for the class and aid the form tutor in any duties that need to be taken care of, including break duty. This is simply taking one break-time a week, and standing at an assigned position around the school, guiding the lower school i.e. using the one-way system.

By becoming a prefect, you are able to enhance your social and organisational skills, as well as your approach to leadership. It provides great experience, and a chance to gain an insight to the other side of school life.

If you become a prefect, there is then an opportunity to become a senior prefect. We have seven current senior prefects, consisting of the following people;

• Head Girl: Victoria Grainger
• Head Boy: Kane O'Shea
• Deputy Head Girl: Stephanie May
• Deputy Head Girl: Laura Smith
• School Council: Kalifa Julien
• Senior Prefect: Christopher Howe
• Senior Prefect: Monica Sandhu       

 

 

The senior prefect team takes huge pride in working together as a team to help and improve the school. They do this by taking assemblies, meeting with other staff and students, helping and assisting staff with trips along with other events such as Lent, Break Duty, and Assemblies. They are also always present with the lower school talking and helping in any way possible, attending and talking at open days and evenings as well as attending the GCSE and A-level option evenings.

Buddies and Readers

Apart from becoming a prefect there is also the opportunity to become a buddy or a reader.
 

Buddies are people who will support a student in year seven, who may be finding the jump from primary school to secondary school a lot more harder than others, they will help the student become more confident in school life through their organisational skills and finding their way around the school. Buddies will also be able to speak and help a student if they have a problem and wish to talk to someone other than a teacher.

Readers have a similar job as they are assigned a student from the lower school who they will support with their reading, giving them help on difficult wording and generally guiding them, enabling them to become more confident. They will also be on hand to talk to if any problems arise.

These are perfect opportunities for the sixth formers, to be able to get involved with the wider school and to interact with the lower school and what happens. It is also a good quality experience to have when applying to university.

Lent

At St Michael's, we undergo an annual Lenten Campaign, and the Sixth form takes great pride in fundraising along with the school. With every other year group, each form participates in a number of activates in order to raise money for a rural clinic in Rwanda.

The Sixth Form took part in many activities throughout the six weeks.  For example:

• daily frozen yogurt sales
• a performance of Seasons of Love
• daily money collections
• a lunch time pizza party and the original
• Sixth Form calendar
• St. Micks Got Talent (new for 2009)

 

A Massive contribution was also made by William Simpson, who raised over £1000 by skydiving.
Overall the lent campaign was a huge success due to the Sixth Forms dedication to all the fundraising activities throughout the school.

The Sixth Form attend all fun days where they help the lower school to create the fun day it is. They go to the annual sports days events, where they help on track and field and help behind the scenes. They also attend all the school productions, in which a number of our students are involved in, regulars include Daniel Saggars, Sean Aydon, Dominic Powell and William Simpson.  A selection of both boys and girls participated in the Gym and Dance Display this year, performing to ‘Boogie Nights’, along with ICT teacher Mr Flain.

School Trips

The St Michaels Sixth Form have many opportunities for going on school trips that will help with their academic and social skills. This begins with all Year 12 students taking part in a trip to London Colney. This enables the sixth form to get to know each other, old and new, encourages them to work in a team, as well as  having a fun and good time.

Other trips that have taken place for the sixth form, are:

• A-Level Graphics Trip to New York
• Sixth Form trip to Alton Towers
• A-Level Geography Trip to Dorset and Ireland
• Sixth form revision conferences
• Skiing Trip
• Dance trip to New York
• BTEC- Travel and Tourism trip to Thorpe Park
• Walk a Mile for the Catholic Children's Society at Westminster Cathedral

 

Dress code:

While it is difficult to define a definite dress code the Sixth Form, we would ask that students are at all times dressed appropriately, respectfully and with dignity. Suitable clothing may include:

Girls

• Jacket
• Smart skirt (respectable length)
• Smart trousers (may be smart knee length or 3/4 style)
• Formal style blouse with a collar and sleeves?(must cover waistline)
• Smart jumper (with a formal blouse underneath)
• Polo neck jumper
• Formal shoes (with an appropriate heel)

 

Boys

• Dark colour jacket & trousers
• Dark colour suit
• Formal style shirt - plain colour of your choice
• Sixth Form School Tie (available from school office)
• Formal style black shoes

We do not expect to see students wearing:

• Jeans
• Trainers
• Inappropriate length skirts

 

Games

Sixth Form games is a chance to escape from the pressures of school work and provide an opportunity to socialise and have fun with your peers.
Sixth Form games offers a variety of activities some are listed below:

• Ice Skating  (Hemel ice rink)
• Bowling  (Hollywood bowl)
• Football
• Tennis
• Golf
• Self-Defence
• Basketball
• Table Tennis
• Gym
• Health Spas
• Multi-Sports
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Dance

There are many more activities that you can take part in during games which help develop social skills as well as fitness. Games also provides you with the opportunity to gain a coaching qualification. This is achieved through the CSLA programme.

 

CSLA

CSLA stands for Community Sports Leadership Award, during this course students learn about coaching physical education and actually go out to primary schools to teach for 8 weeks. This course lasts a full school year where you firstly learn the skills to be able to coach primary children. After learning all of these skills you and a partner are allocated a position in a primary school where you will teach PE to a year group. At the end of the 8 weeks of coaching primary children you gain a Community Sports Leadership Award which is a recognised qualification at Camp America.

Supervised Study

The Thomas Aquinas Study Centre and the LRC are used as study areas. For 6 periods a week you will be able to revise, complete Homework and coursework. Laptops are now available so everyone has internet access; the laptops are taken out and returned at specific times during the day, they are your responsibility to look after. Teachers will supervise room 28, making the atmosphere ideal to work in.

Common Room

There are two common rooms, they are areas to relax in before school and during lunch/break. The common room is out of bounds during lesson times. It is your responsibility to keep the common room clean – do not rely on others or the cleaners.

 

The St. Michael Bursary

A maximum of four bursaries will be awarded to students who proceed to university after the completion of their Advanced Level or BTEC courses. The value of each St Michael Bursary is £3000. The money can be used at the student's discretion to help them deal with the financial burden entailed by pursuing a course of Higher Education. It will be awarded to those who demonstrate the following throughout life in the Sixth Form:

• Outstanding academic achievement, with results in line or exceeding the minimum target grade in each subject area.
• Evidence of outstanding commitment to the wider life of the Sixth Form. This could be in a number of areas including serving the school as a senior prefect, prefect, sixth form council representative, community placement, and buddy support.
• Active involvement in whole school events and extra-curricular activities.
• Evidence of a genuine passion to continue their study of their chosen subject at a higher level.
• Evidence of excellent attendance and punctuality throughout the Sixth Form.
• Adherence to the Sixth Form dress code.