Applying for 6th form- presumably you state which AS levels?

This thread is so depressing!

Sorry. I am involved in the widening access scheme for Oxbridge and one of the biggest barriers we face is applicants with the wrong subjects/combination of subjects.

The poor advice or lack of any advice is a fucking disgrace'

Round here, the current schools don't have anything much to do with subject choice for A-level; that's between the student and the potential 6th form.

What the secondaries do is to have a 6th form information evening to describe the application process. Some will also host a 6th form fair where several 6th forms will send representatives to talk to students and parents.

DS had to go to several interviews (and changed his mind about his AS choice midway through every interview, as far as I could see) before submitting applications with four preferred subjects and a reserve.

We didn't exactly look at facilitating subject combinations so much as beg him to put at least one recognisably academic subject on every application.

We have the 6th Form open evening tonight. His school will have a parents evening before the subject forms need to be in and he's having careers meetings etc. I'm assuming it's standard practice for them to know what subjects people want so they can sort out the staff or cancel subjects if no one wants to do them?

Not even had any notification that now is the time to find out when open evenings are.

seriously? DD's had 4 or 5 leaflets mailed to her from various 6th form colleges so far advertising theirs. Maybe our area is more proactive because most of the schools don't have 6th forms so nearly everyone does have to choose a college.

My DDs school doesn't start the Sixth Form process until after Christmas.

However she has already applied to one Sixth form college, is applying to a highly selective one, and is going to look at two more. None of the open days have been flagged up at school (very different from the process of going from Primary to Secondary). School haven't given any advice so far about Sixth form, I think in her older brother's year they had a careers advice interview this term, which did discuss options.
DD has done some of the research, and knows what she would ideally do, and her "second choice" and where she is aiming. DS at this stage had few ideas and drifted really - but he wanted to stay at his school's sixth form.

DDs school does seem to give some guidance - careers teacher, and a session with one of the senior staff. I think we can also discuss things with subject teachers at the 6th form open evening which is next week - she's really not interested in going elsewhere, there's only one other open evening she wants to go to more out of curiousity than anything.

Have you looked at the 6th form prospectuses of the schools/colleges your DS is interested in? DDs has some info on the whys and wherefores, and also lists the admissions criteria for each subject (in addition to the overall minumum GCSE requirements). I'd have thought they all would have this, and also stuff like whether they have to do General Studies, and extra-curricular opportunities.

We've been researching a bit ourselves, as it's not totally clear which subjects would be best for what she wants to do - she can't do everything she'd like to. MN can be very informative! Also we've looked at some of the relevant A-level curricula - so we can ask sensible questions at the open evening.

No - very little advice from the schools, IME (I have one in Yr11, and 1 now at University - different schools).
Not even had any notification that now is the time to find out when open evenings are.

Sorry, didn't answer your question.
The forms do seem to require them to state their probable subject choice, and I think the interviews are used to check/confirm they have thought about it properly.
As far as I can tell, they can change choices later as long as there are spaces on the courses. I have no idea how likely it is there will be spaces. The whole process is as clear as mud.

Haven't heard anything from the school about it yet, although we have a meeting coming up.

We have heard/seen on some school websites that it's a minimum B at GCSE to take it as an A'level, but DD also wants do a couple of new subjects - not sure how that works.

We have been talking to DD about it and are about to start visiting different sixth forms. Fingers crossed.

Is every other Y11 being carefully guided and advised about which AS levels to take?

No nothing from the school. You haven't missed anything.

For the sixth forms my dd will be applying to, the applications don't have to be in until January. By then she will have been to all the open days and also had her parents evening.

Tansie well, you must be in our area somewhere, this is how it has been for us:

I think we have done 99% of the actual subject advice for our DD (I may be wrong though)

They have had the colleges round for a 'post 16' evening so you could see what was available, plus a talk on apprenticeships. Plus they've had guidance with personal statements. Facilitating subjects may have been mentioned as 'look what you might want to do later and check you are doing acceptable subjects'.

She has had an interview with the careers advisor at school. But I understand that was more DD saying what she was thinking of, and advisor looking at predicted grades and saying 'yes that should be OK'. Which was as much help as a chocolate teapot really (as I think predictions are too high).

I am currently trying to word emails to some of DD's teachers to ask what they think about her doing A levels in their subjects, as I think parents evening next month is a) too late and b) not the right place. (This is maybe a problem of the Hants system, their GCSE teachers aren't also the A level ones).

However maybe there has been more advice available and DD hasn't been mentioning it / accessing it as she is getting good advice from us!

Particularly unclear to me is the new all-through A levels (eg English), what if you may want to stop after 1 year.
Also, no one seems to be explicitly saying that you should be at least getting Bs in the subjects you want to continue with (some subjects e.g. Languages and sciences do, but not as a general statement).

When my dd was applying (two 6th form colleges, and putting in an "expression of interest" at her school), she had to list 5 subjects she was interested in taking. Nothing is set in stone until they actually enrol after the GCSE results though.

And no, there wasn't much talk of A levels at school at this stage. Towards Christmas her school had their 6th form open evening, and then in the new year the y11 parents evening, and it comes up through the year then. Your son could always just ask the relevant teachers.

I did show my girls the Informed Choices booklet and the Trinity list, I have no idea if that sort of thing was mentioned at their schools.