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Bilborough College

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Bilborough College is a 6th form college on College Way in Bilborough, Nottingham. It is just off the A6002 (Bilborough Road).

The college has students from across the conurbation. A third of its students come from Nottingham, another third from the surrounding Nottinghamshire and a third from south east Derby. The population at Bilborough College is 45% male and 55% female. 15% of the college's students come from minority ethnic backgrounds - this percentage is higher than Nottingham itself. Most students use the college bus system with buses going to Derby and Radcliffe on Trent.

History

It opened in 1957 as Bilborough Grammar School. It became a Sixth Form college in 1975 when Nottingham's education system became comprehensive. The college has grown a lot since 1996 from 635 students to 1,600 full-time students. This has now be accomplished through a major redevelopment project involving a complete college rebuild at a cost of £23 million. The new accommodation opened in September 2005, although it was not officially open until 21 July. The new building is divided into 3 blocks (A, B and C) and 4 floors (0-3). The new building has a lecture theatre, theatre, refectory, large art rooms, library and "sound proof" music rooms. Previously, the students were in a building that had lasted since the 1950s however this has now been knocked down and is currently being re-landscaped. The development, designed by CPMG Architects, has already won a design award from the local Civic Society, and has more recently received Nottingham's Lord Mayor`s Award for Urban Design in October 2006. (Please note some of the information on this page is innacurate since May 2008)

Curriculum

The curriculum is based entirely on Curriculum 2000, on advanced subsidiary-level (AS-level) and general certificate of education advanced-level (GCE A-level) provision. However it also caters for evening-classes with a programme provided in partnership with Broxtowe College Nottingham. Bilborough college offers students the opportunity to study the A levels in subjects including photography, economics, art and design, music technology, drama and theatre studies, performance studies, law, philosophy, dance, film studies, and physical education. It also offers GCSEs in Latin, Spanish, maths and English.

Ofsted Report

In the most recent Ofsted report it gave the college 'Outstanding' in Mathematics and English and modern foreign languages. It received 'Good' in the remainder (Science, Business and information communications technology, Visual and performing arts, Humanities). The college also received one of OFSTED's awards for 'A Particularly Successful College Award'. This award recognised the excellent results for the college in 2004 and in 2005. The overall pass rate for 2005 was 98.4%, with an A-C pass rate of nearly 75% for 'A' level results.

Bus service

The college also has a bus service which takes people to college in the morning and home at 4:10 or 4:20 depending on the destination. The bus services go from Derby, Rushcliffe,Ilkeston, Alfreton, Sutton, Mansfield and Langley Mill. Littles bus company provides the college bus service. This service currently costs £450 annually. Alternatively, there is the College Link bus which is run by NCT services. This bus travels to and from the college every hour from the 8:15-4:15

Enrichment

The college provides a lot of extra curricular activities, Enrichment. In the core set includes:

College day

The college day starts at 9am and finishes at 4pm. The lessons are divided up into 6 blocks. Those not filled with lessons will become frees where students are expected to do private study.

09:00 10:15 10:30 11:30 11:50 12:50 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:05 16:00
Monday S Break S Break P TG Lunch T Break T End of Day
Tuesday U Break U Break P TG Lunch R Break R
09:00 10:15 10:35 11:50 12:00 13:30 14:45 15:00
Wednesday Free Break Q TG Lunch P Break P
09:00 10:15 10:30 11:30 11:50 12:50 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:05
Thursday T Break T Break Q TG Lunch S Break S
Friday R Break R Break Q TG Lunch U Break U

TG = Tutor Group

Student Exec

The college has a student exec that organise college social events. Recent events have included a Halloween party, Armistice Dance and a Christmas Ball.

President

Each year the college elects a male and female president, the current presidents are Pravi Prakash and Jonathan Finch.

Principal

Chris Bradford is the current Principal of Bilborough College, following the departure of long-serving Martin Slattery.

Points of Concern

Canteen

The catering services at Bilborough College are provided by the private catering company Scolarest (part of the Compass Group). In response to objections regarding the cost of the food, the company recently cut the prices of several of their products. Initial explanations for high prices were blamed on theft from the canteen, which resulted in rising prices to compensate for the loss. However, the canteen's pricing remains a subject of controversy in the college.

For instance the healthy food is priced far higher than the non-healthy food, for example, a sandwich is around £1.50, whereas a meal of fishfingers, chips and beans is 99p.

Student Parking

A main point of controversy is students who park in the newly developed Wimpy estate due to low amount of parking spaces and people thinking it unsafe to park in the Bilborough area itself. Due to this, the Wimpy estate will start clamping wheels for cars parked on the estate although it is unknown how this will effect the lane leading to College as this is generally considered part of the College by most students and is where most of the parking happens.

Alumni

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