These Full Time courses are for:
   * 16-18 year olds, who come to us instead of staying on at school or college
   * Home-educated students can start from the age of 14.
   * Students with an EHCP can be on the course up to the age of c24.
The courses generally follow the academic year. Students generally attend here Tuesday to Friday, from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm with an hour for lunch. There is some flexibility for days and hours, and students do not usually work on Mondays. There may be extra hours for students that have not achieved their English and Maths; we provide specialist tuition in English & Maths for these students.
Each day's study has some theory lessons plus some practical. Attendance is monitored by online registration at each lesson/session.
These courses are free of charge, as we are funded by the Government.
We are an Outreach Teaching Centre for Abingdon & Witney College, and we have operated these courses for many years.








Students can study City & Gilds courses, broadly based on an equine syllabus, at Levels 1 and 2, and they can also progress to Level 3. Level 3 can have an optional second year. We have additional modules for students who have not achieved their English and Maths minimum GCSE standard.
The courses develop a wide range of skills in our students, and they are suitable for students who wish to develop a career outside of the equestrian industry as well as in it.
STUDENTS WITH EHCP:
If you are interested in attending this course, please arrange to come with your parent/s and or carer/s to meet key staff here and see our premises. It is important that potential students see the sort of activities and facilities that we have and get a better understanding of how we operate.
We need to see the EHCP and Abingdon & Witney College and ourselves will review it to make sure that we can meet the needs of the students - in practise that is usually the case.
The student can then be enrolled on the course which usually starts in September.
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Below is a general guide to the to the content of the courses for 16-19 year olds that we offer. The courses change over time, so this is just a general indication.
Entry requirements for the city and guilds qualifications.

Students need to be 16 before the course starts and generally they start with the level 1 land-based studies in horse care, then move onto the technical certificate in horse care level 2 and then up to level three.

 

On some occasions, where they are academically able and have enough practical and

basic knowledge or have already completed a level 1, we can start students at level 2.

 

We would always want a student to complete the level 2 before moving onto level 3.

 

We would need to discuss with Abingdon & Witney College any student applying with an EHCP to ensure that we and the College are happy that we can meet their requirements.

 

The level 2 qualification would give a student the qualification to be able to go on as a junior groom. But they all open up lots of possibilities with working in the equine industry and in other similar industries. However, we find that nearly all students benefit from greatly-improved general life & work skills and preparation for a wide variety of careers.

 

The land-based studies in horse care covers 5 different topic areas where each topic has a mixture of practical assessments and theory tasks – such as making a leaflet or poster to support the theory knowledge. There are also two multipple choice exams - one health & safety and one to do with career pathways. The topic areas covered are riding, feeding, health care, stable care and general horse care.

 

The technical certificates are formatted differently. Both levels two and three have an external exam - the level 2 is multiple choice where the 3 is a written answer paper They also include what we call “synoptics”. This is the other way they are assessed so they have to complete two set practical tasks and two set theory tasks, which is a report or written paper on a particular topic. They also have a health and safety multiple choice exam and we have to complete one or two optional units alongside. We tend to pick the riding units as these options. What differs between the 2 and the three is that level three expands and deepens on the topics in the level 2 and includes other topics alongside that. 

 

Our usual timetable contains yard duties at the start and end of the day which help improve practical skills, horse handling and increases students efficiency. Then theory and practical sessions every day; we also offer riding alongside each week on scheduled days and English and Maths as required throughout the week.