BTECs starting 2015 - General support thread

Thats It! ds has decided not to bother going in today or for the rest of the week - 1 assignment left to do which is submitted online - about 5 to get marked and no opportunity to tweak so he says there is no point in going in to sit and do the work there when he can focus much better here

So 2 years of college is up - just like that. So very different to school where there was prize giving, leavers events with the opportunity to meet all his teachers to say thank you. I still think he benefited by going to college, his marks so far mean he has already met his university offers and he has certainly had his eyes opened as to the realities of the society in which we live.

Had school run his course, I would have encouraged him to stay put but looking back now, if I was in that position again, I would be encouraging him to leave and go to college. (Warts and all) College is very different to school -and imo/e working in an FE college (not the same one ds attends) and having one ds who stayed on at school and one ds who went to college - it is the college student who is much better prepared for life beyond the classroom.

Hope everyone's grades are as they hope - I'll check in again when the final results come out - in the meantime there is an 18th birthday to arrange!

Fingers crossed for him Gas. DD having a good time and had the results of one of her last projects, 2 distinctions so that's great. Only one more mark needed now.

It has really helped that they do 11 units and only need 9 as she took some time to get the hang of it and the first 4 units were passes. Once she got the hang of it things improved and according to my BTEC calculator app she should have a Distinction Merit which I will be very pleased with after such a difficult start and she has had a bad year losing two Granparents. Fingers crossed the app is accurate.

DS has wangled an 24 hour extension. Honestly. I am worrying that he hasn't spent enough time on the assignments and his grades won't be as good as they could be. We will find out soon.

Hope DD has a good time.

The end in sight then Gas, does it feel good? We're ok thanks. DD arrived safely and is off food shopping with her list she read to me on Skype!

Gutting as it is T & T she tried and they can't do anymore than that. How is she feeling?

Last lots of assignments must be handed in by 16:00 on Monday and that's it.

How are you all managing Sugar?

Really sorry T&T, it is good she tried though. How is her walking ?

Fozzie he will stick it out - he has an offer at a good university and won;t throw that away for anything but it means its a hard slog right every day right up to the end to get the work done (except today when he's at home having told them he was going to France for the football ) but he is on the computer for hours every evening trying to get it all done

Eat My DD stuck it out for 3 years and did really well, so I think if he keeps his head down and the course suits him, keep at it. She also had quite a lot of kids in her year who didn't want to be there, but luckily over the years a lot dropped out, moved courses or were thrown off. By the second year of Level 3 they had streamed them into groups and removed the time wasters which helped.

Draylon it is such a shame that this stupid law was brought in. Not only are the colleges having to take kids that are really not interested, but services like the canteen, library and other social areas are now swamped as they were not built to take so many students. The funding for the colleges is also being cut so a lot of colleges and sixth forms are having to cut courses.

Goodness Eat, that is not good. So sorry that this has spoil the his last few weeks.

T&T I hope the tweaking pays off for her. How is she today?

Agree you have a lot of people there who don't want to be. DD found that a lot on the media BTEC she did before swapping. I was yesterday when I heard my friend's DD has passed her tractor driving test as part of her BTEC, how lovely!

The problem that you now have to be in education so colleges are full of students who don't want to be there.

Sounds like DS has had a good organised set of teachers (she says cringing as if this could be tempting fate!).

That is shocking eat. Very incompetent. The problem with colleges, as far as I can see, is that the funding is just not good enough and there seems to be a constant struggle to balance the books

Teen I hope DD is now appreciating the chance

DS tells me everything is under control but I may just send a quick e-mail to double check. The good news is that he passed his driving test yesterday so at least that is now out of the way. I am still sobbing at the increase on the car insurance!

Fozzie ds also came from an independent - his eldest db stayed on to do A levels but it didn't do BTECs and was very small so we figured college would be a better fit but he too had a massive culture shock which I think he still hasn't got his head around - most of the students he says have no particular desire to get anything from their time there - the class disruption is rife despite his college being rated outstanding by ofsted. Just hope he doesn't become too disillusioned - think we'll have to mount a massive morale boosting assault over the next few weeks. Ho hum!

Eat That happened every year throughout my DD's 3 years at college! Even this Monday evening one of my DD's friends was having to finish an assignment they were only told about that afternoon by the next morning - which meant working all night. After being caught out the first year, I always booked our summer holidays late to take into account any um 'workshops' that needed to be held after the end of college. One of the many reasons I don't want to send DD2 to college and would rather she stay on at school for A-Levels. I have nothing against the actual courses which are really good, but the teaching and lack of admin has left so much to be desired, especially as both girls went to private school which was really hot on admin. Huge culture shock!

ds came home yesterday saying college have told them they have missed some things out and as a result there are now 7 more assignments to do They were meant to be breaking up next friday Looks like they will be going in during the staff admin weeks and won't be done now until around the 8th July.

The college is going through a major restructuring and the grim reaper is carrying a rather large axe so all the staff are permanently fed up and stressed out I hardly think they are going to deliver high quality lessons at this late stage of the term if they have a P45 waiting in their inbox. They have already given ds a hard time for wanting to take a gap year - it won't appear on thier progression stats now. Only he and one other applied to uni in the end and it has unfortunately marred his last few weeks in college when this should be a time to enjoy and celebrate their time there together.

Well done to your DD Teen for both getting the assignments in and for the distinction. Is she penalised for writing too much?

DS's predicted grades when he first started college based on GSCE results was something like MMM so he will have contributed to the colleges's added value in the league tables!

Draylon Your DS will get used to how it all works but he does need to ask if he is unsure. I am curious to how different OCR and BTEC are or more so how the grading works

I think they will be a mix as DD's have been eg. Describe the function of a firewall. Describe and evaluate the recommended protocols. Design a database and explain how you implemented these functions. Evaluate the effectiveness of the firewall the database you designed. Disclaimer, I am not techy and know nothing about firewalls and am probably totally wrong about the type of BTEC content.