COLLEGE POLICIES

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

The Gibraltar College is committed to the pursuit of academic excellence in all its activities, to equality of opportunity for all students able to meet the academic requirements of its courses and to an inclusive approach to equality. It encourages and supports all sectors of the community by promoting an inclusive culture in which diversity is encouraged.


Students:

The College is committed to a policy and practice which require that:

Admission to the College and progression between courses is determined solely by the personal merits of the student, that is:

If any student or applicant considers that he or she has been treated unfairly or inequitably on any of the above grounds in their application, admission or progression through the course or courses, he or she may make a complaint which will be dealt with through the agreed appeals procedure for complaints or grievances as detailed in the College Charter.


Staff:

Subject to statutory provisions, to the provisions of the Government of Gibraltar Standing Orders for Civil Servants and to conditions of employment as negotiated from time to time with Unions and Associations holding negotiating rights, no person accepted on the staff or already on the staff, will be treated less favourably than another on the grounds of gender (including gender reassignment), marital or parental status, race, ethnic or national origin, colour, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age, membership of a trade union or of a political party. For staff the only criterion for admission and progression shall be the ability to perform the job to which appointed.

In all cases, no action of the College shall contravene the provisions of the Gibraltar Constitution Order (1969).


Good Practice:

The College will take active steps to promote good practice. It will, as a matter of policy:


Policy Development:

The College commits itself to meet all statutory obligations under relevant local, United Kingdom or European Union legislation which may be enacted in the future and to apply relevant external legislation as required by the Awarding Bodies. The College is cognisant of the provisions of the:

HEALTH & SAFETY POLICY

This College is committed to the highest standard of excellence in teaching. The same commitment to excellence applies to the manner in which the College discharges its responsibilities for the health and safety of staff, students, visitors and all those who may be affected by College activities.

In meeting this commitment, the College acknowledges the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (UK) and the Factories Ordinance 1999 (Supplement 9 of the Laws of Gibraltar, sub Part 2, revised edition of the Laws Ordinance, 1998) and will take all steps within its power to provide a working and living environment which is healthy and safe for employees, students, contractors and visitors. That said, every individual has a duty in law to take care for their own health and safety and take due consideration for the health and safety of others. Compliance with all statutory obligations is a minimum standard. This Policy aims to go beyond this but will only work if there is a total commitment to health and safety by all staff and students at the College.


Responsibility for Policy:

The ultimate responsibility for health and safety within the College rests with the Principal. The management structure which gives effect to the implementation of the College Health and Safety Policy is shown in Annex A.

This College recognises that failures in health and safety management have the potential to damage the human, professional, financial resources and good name of the College. Control of risk is a management responsibility inseparable from other aspects of professional management. It is therefore College policy that all managers take responsibility for their areas of competence and, jointly, for the general health and safety management of the College.

To assist in the identification and control of risks, staff at all grades, without exception, are expected to report to their relevant line manager any perceived deficiency or action which could constitute a health or safety risk. Appendix A lists the relevant line managers and their areas of responsibility. The line managers, together with other members of the Co-ordinating Team, will act as the Health and Safety Committee of the College and will have the responsibility of advising the Principal as required by statute. The Co-ordinating Team, acting as the Health and Safety Committee, will also, where necessary, consider reports from Inspectors of the enforcing authorities, trade unions, the student body and other interested parties and will take such reports into consideration when advising the Principal. It shall be the responsibility of the Co-ordinating Team, acting as the health and Safety Committee, to evaluate all activities, processes and equipment in use at the College in the light of possible effects on the Health and Safety of students, staff and neighbours of the College and to advise accordingly.


Identification of Risks and Drafting of Safety Documents:

There is a statutory requirement for suitable and sufficient assessment of the identifiable risks to health and safety to be carried out, so that strategies for risk control can be put in place. The effectiveness of the existing control measures, as practiced in reality, will generally require to be reviewed to assess any residual risks. Such revues must be carried out, as a minimum, annually and in addition, whenever a new activity or process commences or new equipment is installed. The responsibility for assessment or the raising of concern is the responsibility of the Coordinator for that area, who will then transmit the results of the assessment or details of the concern to the Coordinating Team. Subject coordinators will also be responsible for the drafting of Code of Best Practice documents for each and every activity, procedure or equipment within their area of responsibility and for transmitting these to the Coordinating Team prior to their adoption as part of College Policy.

In many cases, it will be appropriate for a written risk assessment or Code of Best Practice to refer to existing local codes of practice on health and safety, which will include, for example, class manuals, equipment manuals etc, since these will have already been based upon the significant outcome of risk assessments. However, the changing face of work in departments often creates new transient risks associated with novel activities. Risk assessment clearly then becomes the responsibility of the immediate supervisor of the work in question. The details of the particular risk assessment will often be compiled by other employees or students concerned in the work, but the Subject Coordinator must always approve the assessment and the risk control measures before the work commences. Ultimately, the Subject Coordinator must be satisfied that risk assessments are being competently completed, that they relate to the actual working practices and that they are reviewed when necessary. There are no specific rules on how risk assessments are to be made or recorded. Trivial risks may usually be ignored in the formal process since they can be controlled by common sense measures. When hazards are few and risk assessment is straightforward and obvious to all concerned, a formal record is unnecessary. Otherwise, the level of detail in a risk assessment should be in proportion to the risks and the complexities of each case.

A written risk assessment should be produced and maintained by all Subject Coordinators for their department’s activities. Copies should be handed to all staff working in that department, whether permanent or part-time. The Subject Coordinator is also responsible for ensuring that any significant risk is brought to the attention of the students either as a separate document or as specific warnings or instructions in class notes, assignment briefs or similar. Where the risk pertains to a particular apparatus or equipment, the Subject Coordinator should ensure that a suitable warning notice is displayed affixed to the apparatus.


Implementation of Safety Procedures:

First Aid Certificate Coordinators and Managers must ensure that the College Health and Safety Policy and Code of Best Practice is followed by all members of staff within their area of responsibility and by all students and ancillary staff working in that area of responsibility. To this end, they will arrange instruction and training for staff, ancillary staff and students to ensure familiarity with the Health and Safety Policy and the Codes of Best Practice and will provide all information necessary.

Infringements of the Health and Safety Policy or Code of Best Practice will, in all cases, be reported to the Coordinating Team and the Principal. The latter will then act as required, by statute or otherwise, to ensure compliance.

The Coordinating Team will monitor that the Health and Safety Policy and the Code of Best Practice is being implemented throughout the College and will set in train appropriate remedial action when monitoring reveals discrepancies.

All members of teaching staff have undertaken a First Aid course and have certification valid for three years.


Recording of Accidents:

All members of staff, in all grades, whether full-time or part-time are responsible for recording any accident which may occur either to themselves or to colleagues or to students they are supervising. For this purpose, an Accident Record Book will be kept and maintained in the College’s Reception. In addition, where the cause of the accident is deemed to be due to a deficiency in the Health and Safety Policy or the Code of Practice, staff will make a report to the relevant Subject Co-ordinator. Likewise, if the accident was caused by the member of staff or by a student failing to follow and/or apply the requirements of the Health and Safety Policy or Code of Practice, a report will be made to the Principal who will then decide on appropriate disciplinary action.

Maintenance of Equipment, Furniture, etc.

All members of staff, without distinction, are required to bring to the attention of the responsible Subject Coordinator and through the Coordinator, the Coordinating Team, any deficiency in equipment, facilities, furniture etc, of which they are aware. The report should be on the form(s) available for such purpose. Where the equipment, facility or furniture is deemed dangerous, the member of staff should ensure its withdrawal from use until such time as its safety can be determined.

Subject Coordinators and Managers should establish a maintenance schedule for items of equipment under their control to ensure that equipment is safe. Ordinarily, these maintenance checks will accord with the manufacturer’s recommendations. In the absence of these, the Subject Coordinator or Manager will establish a schedule with a minimum of an annual cycle and a lesser time interval if warranted.


Additional Documents:

All documents, manuals or instructions written in support of this Policy are to be considered as integral parts of this Policy. Alterations to documents must be approved by the Coordinating Team acting as the Health and Safety Committee.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS POLICY

Here is a summary of the College’s Special Educational Needs Policy. Parents and other interested persons can have access to the full policy statement, if they wish, by contacting the Principal.

The staff of the Gibraltar College recognise, and affirm the equality of right of access to the broad and balanced curriculum including the National Curriculum for students in our college who experience special educational needs.

The college adheres to the Code of Practice 3-stage model of response to the special educational needs of our students who are placed on our Register of Special Educational Needs and with whose parents we endeavour to work in partnership.


Whole-College Ethos:

The Gibraltar College, in common with all local schools, has a Special Needs Co-ordinator (Learning Support Coordinator as referred to in the college) responsible for co-ordinating our response to Special Educational Needs in order to ensure that the entitlement curriculum is sustained and for liasing within the college, family and outside agencies such as the Principal Educational Psychologist, Social services...


Identification of Special Educational Needs:

We are aware of the importance of the early identification of and appropriate response to special educational needs.

We recognise the need for on-going assessment to determine changing needs and our response to them; systematic processes using a variety of diagnostic and observational techniques are used, together with counselling of, and negotiation with, pupils in order to obtain a full overview and understanding of each pupil’s needs and how best to prioritise responding to them.


Curriculum Entitlement:

We recognise that in order to ensure success in, and access to, a balanced, broadly based curriculum for pupils experiencing special educational needs the following elements are important and necessary:


General Aims:

The Department of Education (Dept of Ed) regards the following as important:

In order to help achieve these aims, the Dept of Ed sees the formal curriculum as providing an educational experience which is broad and balanced and which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of children and of society and which prepares all children for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.

In order to ensure that this curriculum is appropriate to his/her ability and needs, the pace and emphasis of such a programme may need adjusting from time to time. Particularly where students are encountering physical and/or learning difficulties:

The College strives to ensure that the children can face an uncertain future with the knowledge that they have acquired the skill to learn, to adapt and to change:

CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT POLICY

This policy is reviewed annually to ensure compliance with current regulations.

Purpose of  the Policy for the Management of Controlled Assessments:

This purpose of this policy is to:


[Taken from JCQ GCSE controlled assessments - Outlining staff responsibilities (editable template)]

[Taken from JCQ GCSE controlled assessments - Risk management process (editable template)]


This policy complies with JCQ’s 2016/17 General Regulations 5.8 in that the centre is required to “have in place, and be available for inspection purposes, a written policy with regard to the management of GCSE controlled assessments”.

This policy does not cover specific instructions for conducting controlled assessments which are provided by JCQ and awarding bodies.


Controlled Assessment Policy:

Controlled Assessment is a form of internal assessment which replaces GCSE coursework. It encourages an integrated approach to teaching, learning and assessment. It is intended to enable teachers to authenticate and confirm that students have carried out the assessment tasks set in accordance with their exam specification.

The Gibraltar College is committed to the safe and secure conduct of controlled assessments in the best interests of students and with clear guidelines for all relevant staff.


Policy:

Key features:


Senior Teachers:


Coordinators:


Teaching staff:


Exams Officer:


Special educational needs coordinator/additional learning support:


Risk Management Process

Process of Controlled Assessment:

The process has 3 stages:


Task Setting:

Tasks are set either by the awarding body (High control) or by the Centre (Medium Control) and in both cases, must be developed according to the requirements of the specification.


Task Taking:

Controlled Assessment tasks will be undertaken with three levels of supervision:

HOD / Subject Teacher will be responsible for ensuring that an appropriate level of supervision is in place for each part of an assessment task. Levels of supervision are clearly outlined in each subject specification.


Formal supervision:


Informal Supervision:


Limited supervision:


Task Marking:

Notes: 


Internal Appeals:

Students have the right of appeal in situations where they feel their work has been assessed inappropriately or incorrectly.

Currently the policy and procedures for internal appeals can be found in the Staff T Drive/Policies.


Monitoring, Evaluation and Review:

This policy will be monitored by the Examinations Officer and evaluated and reviewed by the Principal.


Dissemination of the policy:

This policy is available on request and can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: