Welbeck Defence 6th College

[Mitzi50]

Does anyone have any info about the college. My son is keen to go - I have lots of reservations. I think he would enjoy it and the discipline would do him good, however I don't want him to join the army. He has always wanted to join the army.

Has he had any experience of what army life might be like eg CCF or army cadets - that can put off lots of boys - they enjoy being cadets but realise its not for them as a career

The other thing to bear in mind is that Welbeck is geared to producing technical officers so if he's not that way inclined he might be better off going to a normal sixth form and trying for a sixth form scholarship

Have you been to an Open Day yet? When would he be applying? Agree that they are completely focused on producing candidates for the engineering corps so there is a very limited range of A levels on offer and they must attend university from one of about 6 options.

Thanks. Not CCF - he does Explorers and DoE. He is predicted all As and A* at GCSE. We have booked a place for the Sept open day. It does sound as if he would be narrowing down his options very early.

We were seriously considering Welbeck, but in the end didn't for the following reasons:

DS wanted to do RAF, and the RAF were not represented at the open days, were never in to take phone calls, and the school were pushing for the Navy instead of RAF.

They stress how difficult it is to get into, and how testing it all is, and not to have all your eggs in one basket etc, but don't do any interviews/testing until July. Well if you want to go to an independent school as back up by July your committed to the Autumn terms fees, plus as they rightly say don't want all eggs in one basket, and all competitive places need responses by July.

DS didn't like the 8 year tie in otherwise liable for fees that's an awful lot of pressure for a 16 year old.

Thanks Isthisoneleft, a really helpful post. He is already at a good Indie school but is army obsessed. To be honest, the thought of him joining the army is my worst nightmare but he listens to his father (my ex) more than me sadly.

Isthisontheleft, are there not two selection boards, one held earlier than July? I only know about the Army selection so maybe it is different but definitely there you make your initial application before November of Year 11, the initial interview is with the Army Careers office, if successful you go forward to the selection weekend and there are two, one in March and one in July. If you went to the March one you would know if you had a provisional place before you had to pay a term's fees for indie. I appreciate it may be different for the RAF who get fewer places so OP, best to check in detail with the college. Because it's such a huge commitment for most people - boarding, military training, intense selection procedure, long-term commitment, restricted choice of A levels, restrictions on university location and courses etc. you really need to look into it so carefully.

It could well be different for the Army, the process of July was what Welbeck told us at open day, and our Armed Forces office confirmed, both RAF and Navy - I asked both just because I was so shocked that we would have no idea if suitable until July. Just seems so late in the day.