At Carmel, we pride ourselves on providing all our students with the support and encouragement they need to succeed, regardless of their ability.

“The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding. As a result, most students make rapid and sustained progress.” Oftsed June 2019

“Highly committed, skilled and enthusiastic teachers inspire and motivate students to achieve their very best.” Ofsted June 2019

“Teachers use highly effective and skilful questioning routinely which extends learning, probes deeper understanding and builds students’ confidence and resilience.” Ofsted June 2019

Support & Personal Development

Our Support Programme covers a range of activities. All students are assigned a Personal Achievement Tutor at the start of the term who will monitor both academic and personal progress to help them achieve their potential. The Personal Achievement Tutor is the link between college and parents/guardians and is the first point of contact for any concerns. Should any problems arise, parents/guardians will be contacted by the Personal Achievement Tutor. A text message will be sent to parents/guardians by 5.30pm to notify them of any absences from classes.

Progress Reports

Student reviews take place during Consultation Day/Evenings. They start around 1 pm and usually finish around 8 pm. All Parents/Guardians are invited to attend alongside their son/daughter and the reviews take place twice a year for each year group. The review reports are available on our Connect site via each student’s Individual Learning Plan.

Accessing Student Reviews

Workload

Expectations are high at Carmel and you can expect to have work to do on most evenings. This should amount to around fifteen hours of private study per week for those following an Advanced course. This independent study is vital to prepare you for the world of work, developing employability skills that will ensure you are competitive in the world of industry.

Part-time work

Part-time jobs may provide benefits, financially, personally and socially but it is important to keep a sense of proportion and not allow commitment to a job to interfere with your college work. We would recommend that 8 hours a week is the maximum that you should spend on part-time work, particularly at exam preparation time. Part-time jobs should not be taken during college hours. There is a direct correlation between attendance and achievement and our expectations for attending college match those for employment.

Disciplinary procedure

If students abide by the terms of their student agreement, they are unlikely to meet with disciplinary action. However, there is a disciplinary procedure in place which follows six stages. Depending on the level of seriousness of any particular incident, the college reserves the right to bypass the disciplinary stages.