Promotional Video - Text Version
Back to the College Life page.
Music
[Camera sweeps down the new building's façade, which has panels of greens and cream, to students walking in and out of the main entrance and walking up the central stairs. Then students are sitting in a class with Derek Bodey, the Principal, as he points to the new build plans.]
Derek Bodey – voiceover
St Brendan's is one of sixteen Catholic Colleges. It's a sixth form college. Faith-based institutions have a place in the 21st century.
[Derek Bodey talking in a science lab with desks, computers and science equipment behind him. Caption below him: Derek Bodey, Principal, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Derek Bodey
It's because they can demonstrate, at a time of increasing sectarianism, the ability to live together regardless of race, sex, creed, colour and economic background that you come from.
[group of 4 students sitting with Derek in his office discussing the new college plans]
Derek Bodey – voiceover
I think one of the advantages of being an inclusive college is it's not either or. It's not being inclusive or achievement – you can have both.
[View of Derek in the science lab again.]
Derek Bodey
And that's one of the things that St Brendan's excels at. So our pass rates are above national averages.
[camera tracking through a physics lesson with students working at their desks.]
Derek Bodey - voiceover
The quality of those passes is very high as well. In terms of the contextualised value added measure that the government has introduced, we are in the top ten percent of providers in the country.
[close-up on students and the physics teacher]
Madeline Woolfenden – voiceover
The Ofsted results show that this college is 'good' with 'outstanding' features. The areas that have been identified as 'outstanding'...
[Madeline Woolfenden sitting in a chemistry lab with desks and science equipment behind her. Caption reads, Madeline Woolfenden, Curriculum Director, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Madeline Woolfenden
...is the support that we give to our learners and we have certain subjects that achieve 'outstanding' results.
[video depicts art students working in the art area. The student closes to us is working on a black and white charcoal picture of two faces. There is a close-up of her smoothing the medium with her finger. Then the video cuts to another student who is working on a pencil drawing of a building, and another who is embroidering a piece.]
Madeline Woolfenden – voiceover
One of our features is that we have a very select team of fifteen managers who are called Student Support Managers that take care of the students on a one-to-one basis and then...
[camera cuts back to Madeline in the Chemistry lab.]
Madeline Woolfenden
...collectively in a pastoral role, but also as an academic tutor as well.
[Marion Welton is helping a student at her computer in the Learning Resource Area of the college. She then walks to another student who is in a wheelchair at another computer. The room is full of computers with windows making up most of the back wall.]
Marion Welton - voiceover
Learning Support is here for everybody – not just for people that I know in advance have special needs.
[Marion is standing in the Learning resources room – there are students working at computers in the background. Caption reads, Marion Welton, Learning Support Manager, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Marion Welton
We go on the surmise that everybody at some point, as they go from GCSE to A level, will need some support.
[Video shows Marion helping a student behind a computer monitor. There is then a close-up of the student as they discuss her work.]
Marion Welton - voiceover
The Student Support Managers work alongside classroom teachers and alongside ourselves to try and iron out any problems that individual students have. So they are very much the central point for every individual student and from there they can access the help that the student might need.
[Camera cuts back to Marion being interviewed in the Learning Resources room again.]
Marion Welton
A Student Support Manager is what is in many colleges and schools is a personal tutor. We have fifteen specialist tutors who have fifty percent of their time tutoring, fifty percent teaching, in different areas of the college. So they are key to any personal difficulties or learning difficulties that the student might have.
[Student walks through a door down a corridor lined with College Production posters. He glances at the posters on his way.]
Keiron Rowley - voiceover
I chose St Brendan's because I'm dyslexic; I sort of need some assistance.
[Kieran is being interviewed in the dance studio with mirrors behind him. Caption reads, Kieran Rowley, Second Year A Level Student, St Brendan's College, Bristol]
Keiron Rowley
And I found that the learning support sector here was fantastic.
[Video shows Madeline Woolfenden being interviewed in the Chemistry Lab again.]
Madeline Woolfenden
We're very proud of our value added scores that we get for students, because what they show is that a student that comes to St Brendan's is guaranteed, more or less...
[Students going through the glass library doors into the new library. As they walk further into the library the camera focuses on the closing doors and the St Brendan's Sixth Form College Logo printed on them]
Madeline Woolfenden - voiceover
...to get either the grade that they might achieve anywhere or a significantly higher grade.
[Camera pans along a shelf of books and through a space in the books we see a student on the other side of the shelf choosing a book. We then see a close-up of him standing at the shelf flicking through some books.]
Hari Ramakrishnan - voiceover
I've applied to Oxbridge. At AS level I got an AABB grade and although it's good ...
[Hari Ramakrishnan being interviewed in the book stacks. Caption reads, Hari Ramakrishnan, A Level Student, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Hari Ramakrishnan
... I need a 3A offer to get into the universities so at A level that's what I'm hoping to do.
[Hari reading books in the stacks again.]
Hari Ramakrishnan - voiceover
So I'm quite academic, so a place like St Brendan's is good for me.
[Hari in the book stacks again.]
Hari Ramakrishnan
I wanted to do History and English and it's really changed everything.
[Camera pans down some posters saying 'Celebrate the Difference' to a student putting up another poster 'Deversity Debates'. ]
Amy Quershi - voiceover
I'm the Quality and Diversity Officer here at St Brendan's on the Student Union. I've interpreted that role as...
[Amy being interviewed in the Refectory with students sitting at tables chatting behind her. Caption reads, Amy Quershi, Equality and Diversity Officer, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Amy Quershi
...making sure everyone in the college feels equally represented.
[Amy sitting at a table in the refectory talking to other students. Then close-ups of students she is talking to.]
Amy Quershi - voiceover
If you're not respectful of other people's differences and cultures, then there's a lot of animosity within a college ...
[Camera cuts back to Amy standing in the refectory.]
Amy Quershi
... and cliques separate off and people don't mix and there isn't the sense of community that we've got here, without an awareness of equality and diversity.
[Camera starts on three students standing in the auditorium singing from a choral score then zooms out and pans around to show two music teachers also singing and another student conducting the music. There is then a close-up of the score and then of the conductor.]
Isabella Harding - voiceover
There's a lot of ways in which we expect people to treat one another with respect and to listen to one another, to respect people's individuality and diversity. Spiritual Journey programme is a programme that everybody does and it's one lesson a week. The objectives of the Spiritual Journey programme...
[Isabella Harding is sitting in a Spiritual Journey classroom with posters in the background saying 'I am Way Truth Life' and 'It is the Lord'. Caption reads, Isabella Harding, Student Support Manager, St Brendan's College, Bristol.]
Isabella Harding
...are that the student be introduced to theological, spiritual and ethical principles.
[Isabella standing at the front of a class teaching. Then close-ups and wide-shots of the class.]
Isabella Harding - voiceover
This helps students prepare for their future because when they go out into the world they will encounter a very diverse community and they need to be able to understand that community.
[Amy and her friends sitting at a table in the refectory.]
Amy Quershi - voiceover
St Brendan's has totally changed my life. When I had my daughter, I thought I wouldn't be able to carry on with my studies...
[Amy standing in the refectory with students sitting at tables behind her.]
Amy Quershi
... but they welcomed me back and gave me extra support and I'm doing well and I hope to go to university now, so it's changed my life totally. From having no prospects, I've gone to having a very bright future, I hope.
[Derek walking through a computer area. The camera focuses on one of the Computer desktops which has the St Brendan's Sixth Form College screensaver on it.]
Derek Bodey – voiceover
St Brendan's tries to treat each student that comes as an individual...
[Derek in the physics lab with tables, computers and science equipment behind him.]
Derek Bodey
...to provide a tailored package, both in terms of the academic programme, but also the support that they need to be successful in that programme
[Shots of students playing table tennis, playing skittles on a large skateboard, doing an exercise with a parachute. The final image of a smiling student refocuses into St Brendan's Sixth Form College's logo and web address – www.stbrn.ac.uk]
Derek Bodey – voiceover
and to have fun while they're going through their education as well, because that's very important. It's not all about hard work. It's got to be a mixture of work, fun and play.
Music