UCAS statements - Any advice please?

[ByRoseLeader]

Hi, I’m wondering if anyone can give me some advice regarding a UCAS statement & how much of a difference they make when submitting an Uni application?

This is the first I’ve heard of them so any info would be appreciated.

To give a brief background, my daughter should have been SEN tested. I have been requesting it since she was in year 9, she’s now in year 12 & has only just been tested & acquired an extra 50% time. This is obviously good for her A-levels, but I have subsequently put in a complaint to the school as she would have been eligible for it when taking her GCSE’s. It’s obviously too late to appeal to the exam boards as the cut off was September, she wasn’t tested till December.

This is the only option the school is suggesting. Has anyone been in a similar position? I would much rather there was a discretionary appeal service as I think it’s not right that she didn’t have grounds to appeal till after the deadline. I can’t seem to find any info on who (other than the school) can advise me. I’ve tried contacting the exam board directly but they have not replied. I’m not sure if the school is 100% being truthful when it states this is the best they can offer.

really hoping someone can either shed some light on the statement or where to go for advise 🙂

thank you for reading this longer than planned message!

Its the only subject that I could think of where it may be a requirement, but in that case I would suggest looking at foundation courses if one was really committed to it.

Why isn't she resitting M and E though?

As this was for GCSE’s don’t worry too much, Uni offers are primarily based on predicted A level grades.

There is a separate section of the UCAS application to indicate extenuating circumstances - not in the personal statement. The school needs to complete this part so make sure the person completing it at school is made aware of all the details and that you want that section to be completed.

On the UCAS form there is an extenuating circumstances part where her school can attest to diagnosis after her GCSEs, however as a belt and braces approach, especially if this is the same school that failed to notice and test her from year 9, then I would have a sentence or two about her achievements despite her diagnosis in her written part of the personal statement.

If this was my child I would be looking at another school/college to restart year 12 with this diagnosis in place and probably resitting maths and English to gain higher grades with the adjustments now in place. But it will probably be a fight on all counts, firstly she has passed maths and English so resitting might be difficult, secondly would she want to move to another school? The one she is at doesn't sound great, teachers missing her SEN, now teachers off. It must be impacting her subjects.

I would contact whichever unis she is looking at to ask about the GCSE and late diagnosis situation to get their take on it.

So is it medicine she is applying for (or would like to) @ByRoseLeader ?

If so I agree that a 5 in M and E is not the worst of her worries; I would be more concerned about the poor quality of A level teaching and lack of support in general. Medicine is a tough row to hoe. If that is her goal, look at the MN threads on the topic as they have lots of good advice.

if it is not medicine, then I genuinely don't imagine 5 in M and E will be such an issue. Who has told her about the five GCSEs at 6 or above?

It was Veterinary medicine that she was hoping to study.

Still looking at other options but no Biology teacher is really not helpful as anything medical will require biology.

Not a great situation.

It’s only compulsory to resit M & E if they don’t achieve a 4.

I would have to pay for her to resit which seems to be quite expensive.

I know it's only compulsory if you get less than a 4. Regardless, she can still resit - a decent school would be encouraging her to do so.

Is she really academically capable of vet med - while I understand her issues if she had the extra time, hand on heart, would she have got 8s and 9s? Hand on heart, with the extra time will she get As and A stars at A level.

If she genuinely is a seriously high flyer with an unfortunate set of circumstances behind her, you need to fight her corner like hell. Resit M and E, consider moving to a better school, restarting year 12 if needed. Keep on at her school about the lack of teachers, get tutors. Throw everything you have at it.

And make sure she does a shit ton of animal work experience!

If it's likely to be a step too far, fair enough and best wishes to her.

There are quite a few medicine and vet med courses that don't require biology A-level, in fact more require Chemistry.

Ah OK yes I agree that vet med does specify GCSE grades. Just checked out a couple of courses and they want 5 x grade 7 (Notts and Liverpool). Vet med is notoriously hard to get on to tbh - for one thing not many unis offer it so I suppose they can be selective. Also a high level of ability is needed, hence the grade requirements I guess.

I think it would be worth getting in touch with the unis directly and asking about this - your DD should do this btw. If she has good reason not to have got the higher grades ie undiagnosed SEN which now allows her a significant concession they may be prepared to consider her. Alternatively there are foundation years for these courses.

I gather you need to have a certain amount of relevant experience as well - is this something she is working on? And yes, I would be asking the school what is happening about her biology A level without a teacher. That's a real concern.

Also what @titchy said about her ability - is she genuinely a really strong academically able student? If not, another route may be better for her.

To answer your actual questions:

• yes, there’s part of the UCAS reference for mitigating circumstances, so the person who writes her reference could explain that her results predate her diagnosis and could have been better if she’d had her extra time
• she can resit both maths and English at school if she wants to

The tone of your posts seems to be very much blaming the school though, and I’m not sure that’s fair.

• Diagnosis of SEN is beyond a school’s reach (that’s on you, via your GP).
• Assessment for exam concessions IS part of the school’s remit, but usually only happens either with a diagnosis or if parents / teachers identify a need, well ahead of the exams. As they say, there are deadlines for that, so no, you can’t appeal the results
• It’s normal for students to change teacher between gcse and a-level and theres a huge recruitment / retention crisis in teaching at the moment (remember those strikes?)

Under the circumstances, I’d have thought that supporting her with next steps (resitting English and maths? Getting strong a-levels? Rethinking her career choice?) would be better than dwelling on what you can’t change.

Ah, thank you for this. I wonder if this is perhaps what they are suggesting.

Yes, it’s the same school, she’s been there since year 7..

I think she is actually now regretting not having moved school for sixth form, but then if she did move at the time she might not have been tested at all with it being a new school so at least that’s positive.

There is another school we looked at as she has friends there too from primary and the area. I’ve been a bit conflicted over if she would be better off staying where she’s at due to how long she has left or change but things like different exam boards have bothered me with this.

I’ve not thought about her retaking the year, can I request that if she was interested & restart at a new school?

As she’s only been tested in Dec a majority of the tests she has done this year has been without extra time. It has only been her most recent test in each of her subjects that it’s been applied. Another concern here was that the school use all the the assessments in year 12 together with her mocks in June to provide the predicted grades for Uni and with everything else I don’t fully trust that they will consider this, resulting in lower predicted grades too but a fresh start would solve that niggle.

I appreciate your response however I disagree with you.

i don’t just blame the school, I obviously take responsibility for not wanting to bother the school too much but I did raise this over a period of 3 years.

My daughter has educational needs, not medical needs. I wouldn’t have taken my daughter to the doctors to discuss her education any more than taker her to the school for a broken arm.

My post too is about the future for her A levels & concern regarding absence in 2 out of 3 subjects.

if my daughter was out of school this much I would be in court, likewise I would be on a final written at best.

Im not even going to get into a debate about teachers as this is not what my post was about.

Thank you for the info though.

I sympathise with your situation. Schools vary in their response to potential SEN and while they don’t need to wait for a diagnosis to assess whether a child is eligible for extra time, they often seem to wait for a diagnosis to be put under their nose before doing anything. If your child is now eligible for 50% ET, not just 25%, their difficulties must be quite severe.
Others have already said this, but the school reference part of the UCAS form now specifically includes a question about extenuating circumstances. This is where the school would put in about a late diagnosis meaning that exam access arrangements were not given at gcse, meaning that results were likely lower than they would have been . Teacher absence causing disruption can also go in here, depending on the effect they think it had.
At the time when the reference is written , probably at the start of next academic year, it is worth reminding the school/ tutor that this was the situation, and requesting they include it in their reference.

I think it is reasonable to be concerned that the school failed to recognise Special Educational Needs.
This happened to two of my children.
Both assessed and diagnosed at University!

This is a difficult one. She is extremely good at equations anything along those lines, including maths, I think the extra time in maths would have been extremely beneficial as I think it’s the wordier questions that she has the issues with. If she had the time to maybe break them down/process them I think she could have done a lot better. English on the other hand, most probably a 6 as she wasn’t far off, anything higher I’m not so sure.

I think dd’s going to speak to the Uni tomorrow & I’m going to ask the school about resits/absence. At least I know what the statement is now and come to a decision then.

thanks for your help :)

Thank you, it’s really quite frustrating.

Hope yours are now doing well at Uni

Sorry if I have had a chance to reply to everyone. Thank you all so much for your advice