Student Support

Personal tutor

When you join Runshaw you will be assigned a personal tutor. Your tutor will guide you through your course, support you through any difficult times and, above all, celebrate your successes.

Your personal tutor will help you to settle into college and agree an individual action plan with you to help you to meet your targets. They will carefully monitor your progress and help you with careers guidance, choosing university courses, study skills, health issues and developing your progress file.

Individual target setting

During induction you will be set a target achievement grade in each of your A-level subjects based on your GCSE grades. Your personal tutor and subject tutors will continuously check your progress against these target grades so they can support you in attaining them. Most of all, these target grades will enable you to know how well you are doing.

Parent - college relationship

We believe that your parents or guardians will play a vital role in ensuring your success at the college and we are committed to maintaining a productive and successful relationship with them. We will communicate with them on a regular basis and will always welcome enquiries about your progress or any concerns.

Parents will receive:

• an invitation to an induction parents’ evening to meet personal tutors
• prompt contact in the event of poor attendance or progress
• an invitation to attend 2 parents’ evenings in each academic year
• Higher Education guidance evening at the end of the first year
• progress reports twice a year

Student services

Your welfare is our priority and we will help you to overcome any obstacles to your success, achievement and progression.

We will help you with:

• career decisions and higher education routes
• applying for universities
• job vacancies and employment opportunities
• managing your finances
• individual counselling for your personal difficulties

Study support

If you experience any difficulties coping with your college work or feel that you could do better with some extra help, we have a dedicated study support team to help you.

They can assist you with:

• organising and planning your work
• managing your time effectively
• arranging for extra workshops in key skills such as English, maths or IT
• developing your study skills to maximise your potential
• arranging specialist equipment e.g. software for students with dyslexia
• identifying and exploring your individual learning needs
• extra support if you have learning difficulties or disabilities

Disability and equal opportunities

Runshaw College is committed to equality of opportunity for all members of its community and we respect all students for their individuality, abilities and aspirations. We actively encourage applications from students with disabilities or learning difficulties and you will be given the support you need to achieve your full learning potential. If you need more information, please click here for more information or for a copy of the college’s disability statement.

Library services

We have a modern library with a wide range of resources including journals, newspapers, CD-ROMs, and an extensive multi-media computer network with unlimited Internet access where we provide full text databases and a collection of e-books. Click here for more information.

College restaurants

There are several restaurants, cafes, a hot-dog stall and student areas. There is also a college shop selling confectionery and stationery and a specialist shop for artist materials.

Prayer room

We have a purpose-built, multifaith prayer room based in student services.

Transport

College buses provide easy transport to Runshaw from a wide surrounding area. In addition to these, local service buses run regularly between Chorley, Preston and Leyland town centres and students living in these areas can use these services throughout the day (a college bus pass is only valid for one journey into college in the morning and one journey home in the afternoon on one bus route).

A college bus pass may be purchased to cover the cost of the year’s transport. Information packs will be sent out to all applicants in May/June. Car park spaces are severely limited and so due to the limited number of spaces we do not offer students parking on site but there are secure bicycle racks. We will do everything possible to accommodate students whose special needs demand particular travel requirements.

Student union

Every student has the opportunity to affiliate to the National Union of Students and take advantage of NUS member benefits including discounts on travel, leisure and books. You can also become actively involved in NUS activities such as student representation and student communication.