Teaching

Our teachers have been selected because they demonstrate the characteristics that have been proven to lead to outstanding student success. They all:

•  love their subject and enjoy teaching it
•  communicate their subject expertise to their students effectively and so can inspire and motivate
•  can explain complicated ideas in a simple and straightforward manner
•  are demanding and have high expectations of students
•  are experts in their subject specification and the requirements of the examiners and are often examiners themselves

Teaching is focused towards examination success and this requires the acquisition of examination technique as much as subject knowledge.  Students consistently practise applying their knowledge to past paper type questions and detailed teacher feedback allows them to improve their answers to the standards an examiner would expect of a top grade student.
The College holds a week of mock examinations in each of the autumn term and the spring term.  These are intended to monitor the progress of each student but also to recreate the atmosphere and environment of public examinations.

Students also sit regular examinations throughout the year constructed from past paper questions and examine the material covered from the commencement of the course.

This achieves a number of aims:

Our small classes allow, and demand, the participation of every student.  Consequently, our teachers can be of most benefit to the group and individuals.  Questioning and discussion allows us to monitor each student's grasp of the material along with their application skills. Students rapidly identify their relative strengths and weaknesses - building on the former and eradicating the latter and thus leading to improved confidence and performance.