Foundations Newsletter

Welcome! 

Colleagues, A belated  welcome to the new semester and an especially warm welcome to the new staff who have joined us; we have 17 new faculty and a new Foundations Chair at RKMC;  I have heard how ‘at home’ they have been made to feel, and we are delighted to have them with us.

Spring 2015

We are well into the semester and hopefully things have begun to settle down a little and there will be very few, if any, schedule changes or movement of students between sections, enabling you to get on with your jobs with as little interference as possible.

The start of this semester hasn’t been without its challenges as you know better than me. Due to the very short turnaround between semesters, there wasn’t enough time to register all new P1 students and some, but not many P2 and P3 students.  In some colleges, hardly any new students were admitted into Foundations although there was plenty of space, while in others, more than 50 were taken.  In Foundations, priority was given to Level 4 P2 and P3 students; not ideal and we are working on making the process more equitable for next semester.  The results of the Exceptional Progression exams meant more changes to classes but next semester these exams will take place a week earlier, hopefully meaning classroom changes happen no later than the middle of Week 3.

Exceptional Progression

The implications of the Exceptional Progressions exams are amazing, and I have attached a table  to show how well those successful students do in Levels 3 or 4 after skipping either Levels 2 or 3, compared to new students, progressing students and those who are repeating the level.

Men’s Colleges

Those of you who work in men’s colleges will know that the students who joined the military last September haven’t yet returned, but we hope they will do so in the new academic year.  Every effort will be made to contact these students to remind them that they have places waiting for them.

I look forward to meeting you all in the next few weeks at your team meetings, assemblies and other college events. As always, if you want to contact me on any issue, please feel free to do so.

Best wishes,

Tim