Cirencester College is a specialist sixth form college in a rural setting on the outskirts of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. One of only three designated specialist Sixth Form Colleges in the South West, Cirencester College is one of the top ranking Sixth Form Colleges in the country.
About Cirencester College
The College provides a bridge between school and university, apprenticeships or employment. Students experience the academic challenge, pastoral support and enrichment expected at the best sixth form but with a more adult ethos, based on mutual respect, to prepare you to be a successful, independent person.
The College offers an unrivalled choice of subjects from the Upgrade Programme to Level 3 A-levels, T-levels and Vocational courses. The great choice of courses and professional apprenticeships is a major reason why so many students make us their first choice.
Cirencester College ensures that students achieve their full potential through individual student tutorials. Cirencester Sixth Form College’s reputation for excellent teaching, learning, innovation and student support produces consistently high value added scores and achievement rates.
Our Campus
Our Campus adjoins the early Eighteenth century Cirencester Park and is a 15-minute walk from town. The playing field out front and the surrounding trees create a green-campus feel which our staff and students find attractive.
Our campus is currently being transformed both in terms of buildings and biodiversity. Firstly, as we move from having the worst buildings of a major 6th form College to some of the best. Most of our teaching is in blocks built since 2010 and we have many great teaching rooms, a Sport and Fitness Centre with another teaching block including science labs. In February 2022 the College will be opening its new state-of-the-art ‘Digital Skills Centre’, a fantastic new facility which will benefit most of our students. And in 2022/23 we will be opening a new T-level building with specialist rooms for Health Science and Engineering. We have plans to go further with additional Animal Science block, Library and Theatre extensions, an Art Loft and much more.
The second transformation of our campus is about encouraging biodiversity and making more of our outdoor space. We have been developing our ‘green campus plans’ for many years but our efforts have been boosted by being part of the Wild Campus Cirencester Project with 2 neighbouring institutions which is about providing better habitats for bats and other endangered species. We have undertaken a great deal of planting of trees, native hedging, bulbs and wild flowers while a small group of staff have converted one part of our site to a kind of ‘forest school area’ with ponds and wildlife areas. They are currently building a roundhouse there. Our ambitions include developing more interesting outside spaces both between the buildings and around the green parts of our campus. We hope it is somewhere you will also enjoy.
History of the Campus
Cirencester College opened on 1 September 1991 on the site of the old Cirencester Sixth Form. After incorporation in April 1993 the College has gone from strength to strength and grown an extensive and comprehensive curriculum that offers young people the biggest choice of courses in the area. The College initially opened with around 450 full-time students and now 30 years later has over 2,300 full-time students attending the College.
During World War II Cirencester College was the site of an US Army Hospital. To find out more about the part Cirencester played in World War II click through to the World War II US Medical Research Centre
Our Mission & Values
THE specialist Sixth Form College for Swindon, North Wilts and Gloucestershire.
Our purpose
‘To inspire and empower students to be the best they can be’.
The Cirencester way is:
- Being ambitious for all our students and challenging all to excel
- Respecting and nurturing individuals
- Developing independent, resilient and employable citizens
- Being a learning community which is large enough to offer unrivalled choice but small enough to care
- Providing THE stepping stone from School to University, Apprenticeships or Work
- Empowering great staff to deliver great student experiences.
