Changing colleges in year 12

[Collegequery]

My child is unhappy at their current college. Grades have gone from 9s at GCSE to C. No friends and doesn’t like the teachers.
DC has applied to restart year 12 at another college in the hopes that things will improve all round.
Do colleges take students who are already half way through their A levels? I’m worried priority be given to current school leavers and dc won’t get a place. Dc has a college place already so won’t be seen as a priority.
The current college is an outstanding one that’s competitive to get into. The one dc wants to go to is a good college and is where the less academic tend to go.
My concern is that if dc thinks the current teachers are poor when the college is rated outstanding then how will teachers at a rated good college compare?
I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
Has anyone any experience of this please either from a college point of view or a parental one?

Do they want to stick to the same A Levels? Or try something different? What's their long term career goal (if they have one yet!)

Possibly changing one A level but as yet undecided.
Veterinary medicine.

I don't think they will be able to repeat year 12 in a state college/6th form. You might be able to do that if you can afford to go private though.

I think the best bet would be to find another suitable college offering the same A'levels and see if they might accept a student for year 13.

It might be tricky because you might not get an exact match on A'level boards and the teachers may have taught different parts of the syllabus.

It's worth asking though. A grade 9 GCSE student could manage any catch up work.

The best thing would be to talk to the new college and see if they'd recommend a restart or if they could work with a year 13 entry.
Quality of teaching is only a very small part of an ofsted judgement- things like results and management matter a lot. If your current college is very selective they might do better on results but, the new place might be doing a good job with the students they have. You can read the whole report online to drill down to the details.

A YP has three years post 16 – I know a number of people who for one reason or another did not have a successful year 12 and restarted (in year 12) at another setting. It's not at all unusual. Someone in DS2's year picked an A level that they were not doing well at so left after Christmas and restarted (I think in the same school) with different subjects; someone in DD's year didn't enjoy the school (they had done KS4 somewhere else) and switched schools towards the end of their first year 12 to restart year 12 somewhere else.

If VetMed is the aim I am sure you all know how competitive it is. I would advise careful consideration of the next choice setting to be sure the teaching is up to standard. A levels are not easy and it can be a steep learning curve, oddly enough perhaps especially for those who eased past GCSEs with 8s and 9s.

Repeating the year is to try and get the grades up to As. There’s an MDV programme where dc is but not the new college. Grades haven’t been good enough to get on it though. Cs are the average. There’s been a U to a A and everything in between.

I agree with the advice to talk to the new college. That is absolutely the best thing. I would guess that a good explanation about why it hasn’t felt like the right fit, and also an explanation about what steps your son might put in place to mitigate against that happening again. An a-level change is going to be a useful justification. I don’t know if he has social activities outside school but if he doesn’t and you can nudge him towards something then that might help. They should be able to offer him an ‘unconditional’ place if he applies because he has his gcse grades already so you should just crack on an apply ASAP.