All students have a weekly tutorial session with their Personal Tutor. Tutorial sessions support with important processes such as UCAS and Progress reviews, as well as exploring termly topics such as emotional health & wellbeing and life skills.

Each session has time allocated at the end for one-to-one catch-ups and students will meet with their tutor at least once a term for a one-to-one conversation to discuss how college is going, and whether there is anything that is worrying them or affecting their studies or well-being.

Personal Tutors are there to support students through their college experience and students are encouraged to ask to see their tutor for one-to-ones more often if they need extra support.

In addition to the support offered by tutors, all students are allocated to a Guidance Manager (GM’). GM's are responsible for managing a group of Personal Tutors,and will handle the more serious issues that their tutees are experiencing. This includes extra support for students who are particularly vulnerable, especially when they are at risk of leaving the college early.

GM's are also responsible for discipline issues,and safeguarding concerns about the tutees in their groups. 

We are excited to announce the creation of a new Theatre Company within BHASVIC – called “Enlightened Theatre Company”.  We will be researching, creating and performing community based projects to our staff and students. 

This is a work based project which will involve the formed company to work as an ensemble to research and select suitable ideas for the project linked specifically to the overall wellbeing strategy, for example we may work around themes such  as:

• Consent
• Managing change
• Transition
• Mental health.

Ultimately this is about creating work that we feel is relevant to our peer group. Through a series of staff led workshops the company will help to generate ideas, write and devise material and develop a project which will be themed around social issues impacting young people like you.  We will contribute to the realisation of the project and perform to a suitable audience.  So watch this space as more details to follow…..

Our last two student ‘Emotional Health and Wellbeing’ surveys have identified the following five things as having the most positive impact on a student’s wellbeing:

• Listening to music
• Friendships and socialising
• Good quality sleep
• Watching films or TV
• Managing my work well

These are simple ways to maintain positive wellbeing and fall under something we would call 'self-care'.  Throughout college we encourage students to identify the self-care techniques they find most useful and to build them into their daily routines. Our tutorial programme also features specific sessions on issues such as sleep and exercise.

We have worked with one of our Wellbeing Partners Andrew Wright of Action Your Potential for a number of years to develop a programme of Wellbeing support for students, parents and carers. Andrew's '12 Rocks of Wellbeing' are embedded into our tutorial work and college induction for new students and Andrew delivers bespoke webinars, workshops and videos throughout the year to support with specific elements of wellbeing. Archives of Andrew's resources are kept here whilst we will update students, parents and carers with up-and-coming activities through the wellbeing noticeboard, tutorial and newsletters.  Please see further resources below from previous webinars:

An Example of Resources from Webinars in 2022

• Exams Support Webinar Recordings - Study Reps and Final Phase of Exam Preparation; Study Reps Process for Students; Study Zero to Hero - 23 February & 24 February.
• There is a range of resources available to students on the dedicated welfare page on the BHASVLE which includes a range of advice and information for students about; welfare, safety and local support services. 
• How to Build Better Sleep; Understanding and Responding to Anxiety (1); Understanding and Responding to Anxiety (2).
• Wellbeing Support - Getting Ready for A2 (Year 13)   - A webinar about managing exam stress and making a positive transition into your second year.
• In March 2022 Action Your Potential ran webinars for students, parents and carers on how to manage our mental health, productivity and well-being in these complex times, to access recordings go to www.actionyourpotential.org. These webinars were an opportunity to take stock, understand our brains in a deeper way and get more out of them every day. Please see the 'Work with Andrew Wright' section below for more information and archives of previous material

During December 2021 Andrew delivered a Wellbeing Webinar Managing Emotion and Learning Through Daily Habits. Recordings of the series of shorter 30-minute wellbeing works webinars can also be viewed here:

• 1. Sleep and Exercise
• 2. Managing Emotions
• 3. Rock 11: Do Something You Love
• 4. How Do I Get The Rocks In Everyday

Before the 2021 summer break Andrew delivered a series of webinars focusing on developing wellbeing skills:

• The first webinar for our new A1 cohort looked at the fundamentals of wellbeing
• Our second webinar for our new A1 cohort focused on how developing your wellbeing skills can benefit you as an independent learner
• Andrew also delivered a webinar for our current A1 students to look at how we can maintain our wellbeing whilst navigating the difficulty of lockdown and the transition into the second year of college
• Andrew also delivered a parent & carer workshop for our A2 students in February looking at wellbeing, revision & managing stress ahead of exams. Information about the workshop can be found here and the slides are available here

We are also delighted that Andrew is now working with our Wellbeing Peer Mentors and is devising a podcast, BHASVICRocks to help students prepare for the new year and manage anxiety around exams: more details to follow; but check out the Action Your Potential website.  

Over the past couple of years, BHASVIC students have been involved in the #IAMWHOLE campaign, which aims to reduce the stigma around mental health #IAMWHOLE campaign.

Here are two videos from the campaign the first is made by BHASVIC TV and second reinforces the message that we are all responsible for thinking about the language we use, and suggesting changes to others when we hear stigmatising words and phrases:  Video

We recognise that exams and assessment can cause an increase in stress and anxiety for students and have created a list of resources in partnership with our students here