Welcome to BHASVIC

Welcome to BHASVIC: New Student Information

We are delighted that you have enrolled at BHASVIC. This is the start of an incredibly exciting, challenging, and eventful new phase of your life. You will make lifelong friends, learn new and impressive skills, and journey towards increased independence. We are really proud of our results and hope you achieve all your academic ambitions whilst with us.

Alongside your learning we want you to make the most of our community. We have a fantastic Student Union, over 50 student-led clubs and societies, performances, sports teams, and a huge range of enrichment opportunities. We celebrate every interest and identity found within our community and believe there is something for everyone to enjoy.

This page outlines all the next steps to becoming a BHASVIC student, make sure you read it carefully.

We look forward to seeing you again on Welcome Day - Monday 9 September.

Starting with confidence work

These tasks are designed to help you prepare to start your courses with confidence. They will help you know you are on the right course and having kept your study skills, your mind, and your interest warm over the summer.

You should have completed the first 6 hours of work for each of your chosen courses. You should now move on to the last 4 hours of work.

Accessing Starting with Confidence work: Go to Starting with Confidence (sharepoint.com)

I have requested a change course of course – what work should I do?

If you requested a new course at enrolment that was not a waiting list course, you should begin the Starting with Confidence work for that course. Do as much as you can but do not worry if you cannot complete all of it in the time. Please bear in mind that no course changes can be guaranteed.

If you requested to join a course with a waiting list then focus your time on the course you most likely to have a place upon (either your original course, or backup course if chosen). If you are not sure, then do a little work from both courses – but do not try to complete the Starting with Confidence work for four or more courses in their entirety – this would not be a reasonable amount of work for you to expect of yourself.

If you start a course and you had not completed all the Starting with Confidence work due to uncertainty about which course would be on your timetable, let your teacher know – they will understand.

If you are experiencing any problems logging in to your BHASVIC account, you can contact ithelpdesk@bhasvic.ac.uk

myBHASVIC app

All BHASVIC students use the myBHASVIC app to access all our learning platforms and to keep up to date with college life, news and events. Download the myBHASVIC app now from your usual app store. You can also access the app on your laptop (https://mybhasvic.bhasvic.ac.uk/).

MyBHASVIC App:
IOS Download
Android/Google Play download

Digital Induction Course

We have recorded a video to introduce all students to the key digital tools you will use in your learning. This is a quick 20 minute overview of the tools you will need to use to get up and running and survive those first few weeks.

What you must do:

Watch the YoutTube video showing you what you need to know to survive your first two weeks at BHASVIC. View video

Read over the Student Digital Induction guide (sharepoint.com). This will give you more detailed information about our tools.
Complete three assignments that will be set in your tutor Class Team based on the content of the Student Digital Induction page.

Welcome Day: Monday 9 September

Welcome Day provides an opportunity to meet other students in your tutor group, meet staff and break the ice on studying on the college campus. Details of your tutor group, start time and locations for the day will be available in myBHASVIC from the afternoon of Friday 6 September.

Normal timetable will start after lunch and so you may have one or two lessons or might not ; while some of you will not have a lesson in the afternoon. Your Welcome Day will finish, therefore, either around midday, at 14.00 or at 15.45, depending on your timetable. You will be told how to access your timetable in the morning of Welcome Day, as well as an explanation of how it all works.

How do I find out where to go and when for Welcome Day?

To know where and when to go on this day, please follow these steps:

1.Your start time and location will be in myBHASVIC
2. Either open the myBHASVIC app on your device or go to the Students page of the BHASVIC website and use the myBHASVIC icon to open the myBHASVIC web portal
3. Open the Welcome Day tile and find your name in the list.

The whole welcome session will last for around half a day (we are finalising the details imminently). You may choose to bring a packed lunch, buy some lunch at the College, or use popular outlets around the local area. The Student Union to support new students, Information Points will be located around the campus for any questions about your courses, financial support or other support needs, and an IT Helpdesk will be running in the Sports Centre Café.

What to do when you arrive in the morning:

Go to the location indicated in myBHASVIC where you will be welcomed by a member of staff. Avoid arriving late as you will miss vital information, but if this is unavoidable, please still go straight to the room listed in myBHASVIC and join your group.

You can use the college map in myBHASVIC or on our website in the Contact Us page – look for the link in the ‘How to find us’ section towards the bottom of that webpage. The map will help you navigate your way around the campus. You can also use the Map Totems in outside areas and wall signs inside buildings and there will be plenty of people around to give directions.

The BHASVIC Timetable

So that we can accommodate a wide range of subject combinations and make full use of our classrooms, we operate a ‘seven block’ timetable. This means that every student will have several hours of trapped time across the week, which are called ‘study periods,’ each day between lessons. Due to the way college timetables work, these are unavoidable, and we ask you to be prepared for a different study pattern than you have had at secondary school.

Depending on when these ‘study periods’ occur, students may choose how best to use this time. Teachers and tutors will encourage you to use much of this time for independent study. However, you are also able to spend some of this time socialising and participating in teams, enrichment, clubs, and societies.

Please make sure that any paid employment, appointments, or holidays do not prevent you from attending every lesson and other College commitments. If you have any concerns about this, please speak to your Personal Tutor at the first opportunity. BHASVIC advises a maximum of 10-12 hours per week of part time employment, avoiding late night work during weekdays. Part-time work can be excellent for your time management, maturity and of course your independence.

Your Own Laptop

All BHASVIC students need to be able to access their learning materials online, both at home and in college. We recommend that students have their own laptop which they bring with them to college. A smartphone will give you access to many of the college apps but is not suitable for working on documents in class or independent study.

All modern mobiles, tablets, Chromebooks, and laptops will be compatible with the systems we use at BHASVIC. We recommend a modern Windows or Mac laptop. You can access the college’s Microsoft 365 services on any device connected to the internet or through mobile apps available from the Android or iOS app stores. As a BHASVIC student, you can download the Office 365 Pro Plus package free for the duration of your course. This package comprises: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive. You can install this on your laptop or smart device. Visual Arts students, you will be able to download Adobe Creative Cloud onto your own machine – you will be shown how in your lessons.

We recognise that not all our students will have access to a laptop or device, so we have desktop PCs in the library for independent study. If you do not own a laptop that you can bring into college then a limited number of laptops can be loaned on a short-term basis from the self-service lockers in the Copper Cafe. We have a bursary scheme to provide financial assistance to eligible students who would not otherwise be able to access learning. We can also loan a laptop to bursary students for the duration of their course. To find out whether you are eligible to apply for a bursary, contact bursary@bhasvic.ac.uk.

To use the Wi-Fi at the college you will need to on-board your device. You can do this ahead of coming on-site for the first time from the comfort of your own home. The instructions are included in the Digital Induction here: Setup BHASVIC Wifi