Changing schools for sixth form.

[Swedes2Turnips1]

What are the pitfalls of changing school for sixth form? Any advice greatfully received.

Yes my son's year will be the first year to have the new A* grade.

well, when considering my 6th form options aged 16 I asked -

which has the most interesting (ie fittest) people and is nearest to the high street so you can bunk off and hang out in the pub all day instead of going to French?

Who is likely to have the best parties where you can get drunk on cheap cider and smoke too much spliff thinking you are being oh-so-daring?

Who does the courses you enjoy with good facilities?

Isn't this what 6th form is for or have I missed the point somewhat..?

As a parent of a s2b sixth former, I would be shocked if that were his attitude. It certainly wasn't mine at the time (we didn't have a culture of switching in those days, unless it was to be one of the few girls in a boys boarding school).

DS has been offered a scholarship for sixth form so is definitely staying put.

Frogs , Totaly agree with you when you say

'There is a level of intellectual curiosity and originality that distinguishes the potentially outstanding candidate from the merely good. It's hard to explain or quantify, but you know it when you see it. And nowadays both these categories tend to have straight As, so it would be impossible to differentiate purely on the basis of A-level grades and UCAS forms.'

My PHd supervisor was tutor for admissions in an Oxford collage, and works on developing class neural selection procedures. I once asked her what she looked for in a candedate and she said she was most interested in how applicants reacted if their ideas on a question were said to be 'wrong'. She felt that the best students were the ones who could take that information on board, and develop the ideas further.....rather than being upset or defensive because their initial idea was incorrect.

mery - How did you manage to procure the sixth form scholarship at his current school? My son has been invited to sit the sixth form scholarship exam at the end of January.

mery - I mean Amerry, sorry.

They award scholarships to current Year 11's based on the effort, exam performance etc. There is also a scholarship exam for external candidates.

My own school has a scholarship exam for both current pupils and external candidates.

Well done him AMerry, you must be .

Amerryscot - well done youngmerryscot.

Amerry - you say based on exam performance - but they have yet to perfrorm, have they? My DS1 took some exams a year early (and got A* in them) but the bulk of his GCSEs he takes in 2008. Are you in Scotland, perhaps the system is different or perhaps he took all his exams early?

Swedes, how important is Russell Group? DS1 has offers from 4 unis including Liverpool, which is Russell Group, but his inclination is for Newcastle, which isn't - what does it signify?

Thanks, we are very proud

DS did 3 GCSEs in Year 10 - French, RS, and Core Science, and got A* in each of them. The school also went on effort grades and the performance in school exams.

I changed schools for sixth form and it was the best thing I ever did.

But it was my decision and I think it had to be at that age!

WW, well done ds1 I think personally a lot depends on the subject- in my area (medical sciences, broadly) I would say Newcastle had a considerably better reputation than Liverpool apart from a few specific areas. I know that's not ds1's thing, but I wouldn't place too heavy an emphasis on RG.

WendyWeber- If your son is doing and going where he wants and the choice is reasonable - isn't that the most important thing? I understand the 20 Russell Group universities share 65% of the country's research money each year - they may therefore be better resourced (but I believe it varies from department to department). I believe RG graduates earn more but again graduate salaries vary by subject hugely, this may not be the case in your son's chosen discipline.
Earlier this year, if i remember correctly as part of the Times Good University Guide, the Times published details of current students ratings for various departments within each university and also asked academics to rate their own and other universities. The results were not identical to the results found in the main part of the survey. It was interesting reading. Droning on now.

It should be easy enough to look up the RAE ratings for his subject at both universities- it will be a bit out of date because we are in the throes of the next one, but it will give you an idea.

Thank you, tamum

I know Newc is wildly popular amongst med students from here - also that most of them seem to want to stay there after qualifying, it must be a fab place to live. Also we have family over there. Also AFAIK he has no inclination to go to Liverpool (although it will be City of Culture 2008!)

Swedes, yes it is, of course - trouble is he is now out of the country until the end of April so all I can do is steer him towards different websites for information, so any extra inf I can garner will be v useful. I didn't even know L'pool is Russell Group until I was wandering around their website, and I just wanted to know if the information is relevant to him. He will be doing Politics; the offers are unconditional as he got his A levels in summer 06.

Oo-er, thank you, amicissima! It's so hard for a rank amateur to find this stuff out

I had always thought Newcastle was, well done amicissima

Wendy, I just looked up the last lot of RAE for Politics and Newcastle got 5 (the highest rating apart from 5* like wot we are hem hem) and Liverpool was 4, so I would have thought he was best off with Newcastle all round. Stepds went there and absolutely loved it too, FWIW.

Wendyweber - russell group universities here perhaps he is thinking of going to Northumbria - which is in Newcastle but is not RG?

No, it is Newcastle, Swedes - I just didn't know that was RG either [thicko]

Thanks for that, tamum - I have his UCAS login details, shall I just go on and tick Newcastle for him now, do you think?

Yeah, go on- he'll thank you for it I'm sure I'm glad he's got himself all sorted out- you seemed a bit despairing a while ago!

amicissima great post
what is IB?