What are tutors?

Every student at Cirencester College has a tutor to look after them. Your tutor will work with you one-to-one to help you to develop independent learning skills and to keep you on track. You will also be given a pastoral or progression tutor who will help you to look after your wellbeing and support you to achieve your career goals.

Tutors are allocated to you based on your career aim and/or subject choice. This allows us to make the information we give you relevant to what you are planning to do.

What is in the tutorial programme?

Our tutorial programme is essentially designed to focus on your personal development, social skills and health and wellbeing, to prepare you for life after college. Therefore, we offer a wide-ranging programme of topics which will include money management, higher education talks, career progression and themed weeks such as World Mental Health. We will also look at current affairs in the news, looking at the different viewpoints, allowing you to articulate your thoughts, discuss and debate with your peers. All this will help you develop as a person and become a well-rounded individual, essential to future employers and universities.

Also, as part of the tutor programme, personal tutors will see you for:

Tailored one to one conversations called Personal Development Plan (PDP), meetings to talk about your progression plans
Time to discuss and review personal targets
Weekly Tutorial sessions, for year one students. In your second year, you will have tutorials in the autumn term to support UCAS
and apprenticeship/employment applications
You will work on a wellbeing plan with your tutor to help you develop tools and skills, to manage your wellbeing now, and in the future
A safe space to share any concerns you or your tutor may have

Pastoral

Broader pastoral and progression support will help you in many ways, such as:

Personal/one-to-one guidance
Target setting and academic monitoring
Careers guidance
Bursaries for financial support
Academic support
Working alongside parents where appropriate
Exams support
Applying to university or apprenticeships

Pastoral Managers steer the direction of our support, and specialise in health, wellbeing, careers, progression and tutoring.

Developing Employability

You will have the opportunity to take part in a series of programmes, workshops, lectures and mentoring that focus on raising aspirations, developing career awareness and enabling students to reach their full potential. All students are encouraged to do work experience and, for programmes like T-levels and transition, work experience is essential to completing the course. Your tutor will help to prepare you for a professional working environment.

Access to Career Matching Tools

The national government website for apprenticeships has all of the up-to-date vacancy information. You don’t have to be actively looking for an apprenticeship to register. You can sign up and keep an eye on vacancies in the area to get an idea of the possibilities locally to help plan for the future.

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UCAS is the University and Colleges Admissions Service. They hold all the information about university courses on their website and if you apply to university you will make an application through this service. The website has lots of careers information, including a quick careers quiz, which is an easy way to begin to generate some ideas.

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WHAT UNI? Allows students to register and research university courses and provides a tool for comparing universities as well as some useful guidance articles.

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The Russell Group’s guide ‘Informed Choices’ provides students with information, advice and guidance about their post-16 subject choices.

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PROSPECTS is an excellent site designed for people already at university, with information on opportunities for graduates. For example, you might think ‘What job could I do if I studied a particular subject?’ This site will give you good ideas on careers you could do if you had a particular degree subject, following A-levels. It can be a good starting point if you have subjects you are interested in at A-level, but don’t know where they might lead.

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