Can anyone offer urgent advice on sixth form choices?

Really pleased for you - we are also in Hampshire and it seems like we are very lucky.

All I can say is things have changed massively since my day if you dd's grades are considered disappointing. It makes me worry for my rather lazy year 11 ds. He has been predicted 6-8s but whether he will actually do that well remains to be seen.

Whistle73,
Brilliant news for your DD.
Wondered if she would consider combining her love of both PE and Psychology and consider a Sports Psychology degree, as well as a criminology degree.
So pleased.

Hope it all goes well.

Whistle71
Only too glad my post helped, thought it was too long.
once again and possibly to your DD. It awful when results aren't quite what they hoped for, it so hard to suddenly change your mind/choices.
is there anyone she can ask at 6th form or advise, or can you email them. A girl at Ds 6th sat in a couple of different options for a week, before choosing her 3rd option.
Could you (and possibly your DD) arrange a visit to the FE college, if only to completely dismiss it. WE looked at a couple, after A/s, whilst school decided if they would allow Ds to continue into year 13. The 2 we thought we would like/approve, we hated, the one like you describe, we loved and would have sent him too.

Once again good luck to your DD and you. When it went wrong in A/s the teacher, who inspired to do 6th form and taught him partly for that subject, took him aside at start of year 13, told him to forget about, he still believed in him and go prove the buggers who said you aren't good enough wrong. One door closes, 2 open up.
He was and is a brilliant teacher and person, I hope your DD finds her passion

It's a difficult decision for you to make as you have had so little thinking time.

• 3rd choice A levels
• BTECs that your school happens to offer
• local college that has poor rep and you haven't already looked round

What about the other non selective. What's their offer?

Hi Whistle73,
My Ds1 is off to study Criminology at Lincoln in 11 days.
Like your DD, he got B's, C's, a D and a E at Gcse. He too lost chance to do his favoured A levels, chose 4 he could do, couldn't do Geography due to clash, 6 weeks in drop 2 A levels, and took on Geography and went with 4, instead of 6th forms 5.
A/s we got C,E,E and a disaster. Chemistry dropped Criminology taken on. This August left with C,C,C and a D in world development. The others, sorry, where Criminology (in 1 year), History and Geography.
He wants to be a Police Officer or possible prison sector.
To ask teentimestwo question
Tariffs depend on university you apply to,
So RG and Surrey and the likes want A,A,A or roughly 150 points
The likes Coventry , Bradford and Hull and wanted 112 which is B,B,C
Lincoln asked for 104 which is B,C,C so did CUScarborough.
Derby and a few others where 96 points which is C,C,C
then likes of Salford and Plymouth where are 80 (C,D,D) or 72 (D,D,D)
Think there are a couple which will accept around 56 (D,E,E)
A* = 56 points
A = 48 points
B = 40 points
C = 32 points
D = 24 points
E = 16 points.

As for subjects accepted most are. I wondered if your DD could BTEC Sport, Business Studies and Criminology at her 6th form.
Ucas has a Tariff calculator, just entry the BTEC your DD wants to study it will tell the tariff points she will get if she passes.

Please ignore the comparison to Media studies, if we had a pound for every person who has took the p1ss or told Ds it was worthless, including 6th teachers, he would have been apply to fund freshers week.
Sorry can you tell Ds and us have spent 15 months looking into every aspect of Criminology degrees
Finally good luck to your DD, remember once she has Btec's/ A levels no one will ask about her Gcse's and if she gets a degree no one asks about A levels. Also if she doesn't like a subject don't force her to continue most 6th forms/FE colleges allow and expect students to change subjects in 1st 8 weeks. (no one tells you that!)
to you it's hard, but your DD will find her feet and learn to run again, once again good luck.
A final yeah for all Criminology students.

I would look at which courses are available at the local college, she might find one she loves the look off and will probably do better,

The other thing you could do is go onto the UCAS site and try to see the requirements to do criminology at various levels of university.
if you can't find the info then ring some of the admissions departments and ask them what they think of the subject combination you are thinking of.

What do you mean by the local college just isn't very good ? Is that objective (ongoing hopeless ofsteds, people you know having had poor experiences) or 'hearsay' based on looks, academic snobbery etc? Also some departments might be dire and others good if you drill down a bit.

Photography BTEC could be really useful. Lots of website companies looking for people with visual skills especially Photoshop and Premiere. Photography isn't art but you do need a good eye.

As a solicitor I would say to anyone wanting to study law that A level law is a waste of time and although I don't know the BTEC spec I suspect it would be pretty much the same advice.

What career does she hope to pursue with a criminology degree or does she have no idea (which is fine as most 16 year olds don't)? Does she just have a fantasy idea of what it means?

This is my local 'tech' www.eastleigh.ac.uk/careers/

A quick look shows
Paralegal apprenticeship
Business Admin BTEC Extended Diploma
Media, marketing & Event Management
etc

Btecs are not the doss everyone makes out. Dd is taking health and social care and the exams were fairly hard. She got a merit in the exams but is hoping to get a distinction overall.

Photography a level will be a lot of work but if she is genuinely interested in photography it's a good one.

I did a btec national diploma in business and finance which I think was equivalent to 2.5 a levels and went on to do a criminology degree. Criminology degrees btw have or did have one of the worst rates of graduate level employment.

I personally think you need to go back to basics.

• what is she good at generally
• what does she enjoy
• what kind of career might she actually be good at

(e.g. indoor or outdoor. at a desk or moving around. very structured or free flowing. problem solving, creative, or following rules. working with public or with a team, or more solitary. involving lots of writing, or physical, or numbers, or people. etc.)

I'm worried you seem to be picking random things that won't prepare her for anything much?

Does she have any idea why she didn't do as well as expected? Who predicted the better grades? Is she diligent but not very good at exams? Can she actually write well enough for A-levels and uni, without much effort, ie toss off a good homework essay with a bit of thought and half an hour, or would she struggle to organise thoughts and figure out which are relevant? Or was it just extreme nerves (in which case BTEC rather than A-level might well suit her better and boost confidence)?

In Hampshire we have the great system that schools only go to y11 and then everyone goes on to some kind of college. That way everyone makes a positive choice about what they want to do next rather than defaulting to what current school offers.

Why are you only looking at what 'her school' does rather than all offers within an hour's travel to find the most suitable course for her?

What does she want to do?

You need to be looking at what universities want, if she is set on criminology have a look at potential universities, although most universities just ask for UCAS points some will request that these come from only a-levels and not BTECs. Personally I would say for her to do an A-level.

Her GCSE grades aren't bad at all. Although the work in A-levels/BTEC is a lot harder than that at GCSE, she will only have three subjects to focus on rather than 8+ she will have had for GCSE. This makes a huge impact.

From my own experience i got a grade D in English lit at GCSE and went on to get a C in English Lit at A-level. Similarly i got a B at GCSE maths and an A in A-level maths. Sometimes ability appears like a light switching on.

My personal view is that a single level 3 Extended Diploma (3 A level equivalent) would be much more use than 3 separate BTECs, or 2 separate BTECs and a random A level.

I could be sold a BTEC Diploma (2 A level equiv) plus an A level.

(DD did Diploma in Travel & Tourism. Started Spanish A level but failed the AS. ).

Do well enough at BTECs you can go to university for a related subject. But I'm really not sure how 3 separate BTECs would be viewed. (DD didn't apply).

Are there no suitable Extended Diplomas on offer anywhere locally?

This is the first year for a lot of the new exams, and teaching and especially grade predictions must have relied more than normal on guesswork. 7 is an A not a B. 6 is the B equivalent grade, according to a government website as well as the BBC. If the school is happy for her to continue with a 5 (a slightly higher C), I think they must still think she has the potential to do better, as she was predicted an A (7) or even A+ (8) - maybe they messed up on syllabus teaching, marking and grade predictions, and they didn't get very many grades of 7 and above or even 6. Is she staying at the same school or going to a sixth form college?

BTEC is apparently more coursework based whereas A levels are now totally based on the exam at the end of the course. Which suits your daughter better? Grades seem to be starred distinctions, Distinctions, Merits and Passes and the top grades get A-level level UCAS points.

A good BTEC grade is taken as seriously as an A level and I think the question to ask is what subjects does a student want to study, do they do well at coursework or exams.

If she wants to try for an A level, perhaps you and her dad can help her look at old papers and marking and get to grips with what is being asked, as often being prepared for the actual exam is as important as knowledge and ability, and she won't be such a guinea pig as for her GCSE, so if school is willing to let her and she wants to, it's worth a go..

I actually got my best A level (and only A) in a subject I got a B in at O level, and I don't remember being taught how to write an essay before the 6th form.

University isn't out of the question with her GCSEs.