Atlantic College, Wales..opinions please!

[brightandbeauiful]

DS wants to return to the UK to board for sixth form. We are currently living and working in a developing world country and he will do iGCSEs in 2017.

I think he has a good temperament /maturity for boarding, and in fact, he suggested it. His interests are arts, music and outdoorsy (D of E) stuff.

Academically he's solid-good, I guess he'll get A/ A's and B's next year, but not a long string of A's.

Anyone got any experience to share? And how well received was the IB (opposed to A levels) when looking at tertiary education in the UK?

Thanks all!

[lifeisunjust]

Stiff competition for places. Best to read up about application process now.

[mummytime]

It doesn't have a "normal" application process, and it varies with which country you qualify to apply from. Do you qualify to be selected by the British committee? Do you qualify to be selected by the committee of the country you live in (which can be far harder than the British process eg 200:1 or more rather than 20:1).
Go to the website and find out more details.
IB is very highly regarded, as are the UWC schools.

Your son really needs other alternatives, maybe look at the Four Square schools? (Gourdonstone or Box Hill etc.).

[MidLifeCrisis007]

Look at St Clare's Oxford.

Brilliant sixth form college with outstanding IB results.

[TellAStory]

My cousin won a scholarship a number of years ago - she went on to do medicine. She found that the IB was not as welcome as A levels would have been, I'm not sure if it is the same these days. There is a huge emphasis on extra curricular activities, she enjoyed them but she did find that they impacted on time for study - the whole environment is quiet pressured. She has friends all over the world and has visited may of them and does not regret her time there but says it was tough.