Are many colleges still online this term?

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Dancecrazy
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Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by Dancecrazy »

Hi all,
Does anyone know how many/ which colleges are back doing fully face to face classes this term?
My dd’s college is currently 50% online which is frustrating as we’re hearing rumours that other colleges are now fully face to face.
islandofsodor
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Re: Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by islandofsodor »

Some of it depends what jurisdiction the course comes under.

Hammond Diploma is 100% full time as it is legally classed as a school or college.

Their degree course is partly online as it is classed as a university. Some face to face teaching is now allowed for practical university courses but anything that can be is done online.
lawn
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Re: Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by lawn »

The 'ordinary' colleges do you mean or the dedicated dance/drama ones?

My daughter is at an FE college on an MT course . They have been back fully f2f since their return after Easter. This is for the first time since March last year. From Sept-Dec last year they did a mix of f2f and online, and the same again when educational places were allowed to open from 8th March until Easter.

A year of all or part online teaching has very much affected my daughter's training, combined with a staff change (non covid related) and that can be seen in her cohort's offers for places. Just not the calibre of offers previous years students there have got.
islandofsodor
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Re: Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by islandofsodor »

I agree, it really has affected standards. It would be unheard of for students who have completed 3 year diplomas to apply for degree courses afterwards but this year several have. My own dd is hoping to get into an MA whereas normally she'd do the degree top up online whilst working. She just doesn't feel industry ready having only had 1 full year of full time training.

She went back full time 6th March.

Ds is on a practical music Btec course at an FE college. He has been on 50% timetable most of the year (apart from Jan-Feb lockdown) but went back full time after Easter.
amo185
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Re: Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by amo185 »

DD's college has returned fully to face to face teaching for 6th form (BTEC), Gap Year and Degree since March 8th. They were fully face to face during the Autumn term but various" bubbles" were affected and therefore some students had to be online - very few in fact went the whole autumn term unaffected. The college went fully online from January taking a three week extended mid term break from mid Feb until when they could return face to face in March. Easter hols were reduced to one week and the summer term has been extended by two weeks. The only class that has remained on Zoom is each student's individual singing lessons which they still take at college in a designated room. I think the college has done remarkably well but I think it's been a bit of a nightmare with their 3rd year show as well!

And I agree that everyone has lost out over the past year and more. This is obvious from the streamed shows we have seen. They've done well and we've enjoyed watching them - but even taking into account Covid restrictions they are not up to previous years' standards and very few students are looking or sounding fully industry ready. We know of several now going onto MA courses from extremely reputable colleges. This is partly down to insufficient training (no-one's fault) and partly down to lack of opportunities within the profession currently. I'm not convinced that the gap will close by next year either. I really think that everyone could have benefited from an extra year regardless of what or where they have been training/studying (but know that was impractical!)
Dancecrazy
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Re: Are many colleges still online this term?

Post by Dancecrazy »

Thanks for your replies , it sounds like a lot are back fully face to face
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