At college all learners, regardless of age, are treated as adults and, as such, have the freedom to manage their own learning. Our programmes are designed to support you all the way and our experienced and dedicated staff are always on hand to offer advice and help.
Full-time students are allocated a course / personal tutor, who will monitor your progress and provide guidance for developing your skills. Subject tutors will provide prompt feedback on your learning progress and your course director is responsible for the overall management of your course.
If you are on an apprenticeship programme, you will instead be allocated a training advisor, who will support you through your programme, monitor your working conditions to ensure you are working safely, review your progress at regular interviews and maintain regular contact with your course tutor/assessors and employer.
As well as dedicated support from academic staff for your learning and training, our student support teams are able to help with a wide range of individual needs.
Additional Learning support (SEND local offer)
The College of West Anglia welcomes applications from learners with a wide range of disabilities and learning difficulties and are committed to providing a productive and supportive environment to help you reach your potential and fulfil your ambitions.
If you feel you need support, it is important to discuss your additional needs as early as possible to ensure that we plan effectively and ensure a successful college experience. The college has a strong tradition of support for students with a range of individual needs.
Our campuses are accessible to people with mobility difficulties and our King’s Lynn and Wisbech campuses have fully-equipped care suites. We ask you to tell us on your application form if you have a disability or a learning difficulty for which you may need extra support. You also have a chance to tell us about this at your interview. We will then assess what kind of support you need to attend the course.
Meeting your support needs is the best way of enabling you to achieve your potential. Whatever your educational need, we aspire to provide the right support for you. Examples of the type of support we can provide include:
- A personalised support plan specific to your needs
- Tailored courses in small groups for learners with moderate or severe learning difficulties
- One to one or general in-class support from a learning support officer on mainstream courses
- Specialist equipment or software to help you with your learning
If you require an individualised programme as identified in an Education, Health and Care plan or a Learning Disability Assessment, our additional learning support co-ordinators will work closely with curriculum staff, you and, where relevant, your parent/carer to develop a programme to meet your needs.
- Dyslexia
- Literacy/numeracy difficulties
- Emotional and behavioural needs
- Hearing impairments
- Visual impairments
- Physical and mobility difficulties
- ADHD/ADD
- Autistic Spectrum Disorders
- SPLD/SLD/MLD
- Mental health difficulties
We have lots of facilities to support particular needs, such as specialist IT equipment e.g. large monitors, dictaphones, magnifiers, ergonomic pens, one-hand keyboards, specialised tracker-balls, large print for partially sighted learners, aids for hearing impaired learners, laptop hire and ergonomic keyboards as well as general learning support.
There are also special facilities to improve access for people with disabilities such as parking, lifts, ramps, access and disabled toilets.
An individual support plan may also include special arrangements for examinations; for example: additional time, coloured exam papers, large print papers, a reader or a separate room. We may be able to purchase equipment to support needs as they are identified.
To help you decide if CWA is suitable for your needs, we can accommodate individual visits and taster sessions for all programmes and we run transition groups for students with ASD. We also have a range of courses to aid a smooth and successful transition to college, such as our Entry/Level 1 Stepping On and Stepping Out courses and Foundation Studies (The Bridge) courses.
Throughout your time at college, we will monitor your progress on the course and regularly review the effectiveness of your support in consultation with you and, where relevant, your parents/carers.
If you have any questions, please contact the Additional Learning Support Manager on 01553 815 270 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the Additional Learning Support Team on 01553 815 339/01553 815 500.
Learning enhancement
Learning enhancement at CWA is dedicated specialist teaching from qualified, experienced lecturers to support study on main qualifications in areas such as:
- writing skills
- reading and comprehension skills
- spelling and vocabulary
- punctuation
- grammar
- study skills
- maths
- assignment writing/coursework
We are based at King's Lynn, Wisbech and Cambridge campuses. Your sessions can be online or face-to-face. We work as part of the English and maths faculty.
Maths and English support
The Learning Enhancement team provides dedicated, specialist tuition to support you with English and maths. Support will be on a small group basis, so it can be tailored to your needs and is weekly, to help you get the most out of your time at CWA. You are likely to be with us for 6 weeks at a time - enough time to boost the skills you need.
We can also help in other areas:
- Comprehension and understanding
- Memory and organisation
- Visual stress
How might learning enhancement support help me?
- Focussed time in a small group to meet your needs
- Students often report increased confidence as a result of the sessions
- Lecturers get to know students' needs very well and help them to achieve success on their course.
How can I access support?
- You can email us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- We carry out an assessment of need and also consult with the course directors
- Students usually attend once a week
- The sessions are tailored to individual needs
- Sessions will be on the student portal and on your timetable
- You can refer yourself to us - via your student portal or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Course tutors/directors can refer students as well, stating which issues need to be addressed.