If your child is doing AS levels in the lower sixth,can you do Year 2 in another college?

[time4me]

My daughter is studying Sociology,Psychology,Biology and English Literature at AS level.
If we moved to another part of the country,say Brighton,would she be able to continue her studies?Is Brighton a good area for Further Education Colleges and young people? Thank you very much indeed for answering this thread.

Course wise they are technically separate courses but would depend on exam board syllabus ,I would imagine they are pretty similar though.

My dss did this.

You can transfer if subjects are offered AND(and this is the dificult one) exam syllabus's (syllabi??!!) are compatable.

I think there is something about it on QCA website.

Have to say dss found it very very hard socially, as all cliques were already set up, and he had 2 subjects that only had about 3 people in class, so unable to make friends there.

Not all exam boards are compatible BTW

Thanks fizzbuzz,would love to apply for a job Ive seen in Brighton,but my daughter is a worry as she is at a sensitive age. Trouble is,I am nearly 52 and opportunities dont come up very often.I really would love to live in Brighton.At the moment we live in an Industrial Northern Town.

She may be OK academically, but as I said, socially it was very hard for dss, although girls are different I suppose.

TBH he made no real friends in that year, which made it very hard for him, although now has lots of friends at uni

is she planning to drop one subject? three subject are probably more like to fit in the timetable than four...

i would find a list of colleges in brighton (and siwth forms) and ask the which exam boards they use for the subjects, it is easier to change from say AQA Human Biology to AQA biology (thats what i did) than from AQA Biology to Edexcel Biology though it IS possible.

How high are her marks expected? How many modules has she taken, is she planning on retaking? If she switches boards/ the syllabus she will not be able to repeat modules.

Is she planning on going to uni? As i would say socially this would be good prep, re meeting new people etc.

You can only move if the exam board is the same, and the college takes different modules in the 2nd year to the ones you have already done in the first year.

Most A levels will have separate first and second years so there wont be a modular overlap. But if she is doing and AVCE courses these may not be so easily transferable. Some exam boards will allow you to transfer modules between the two if they are similar.

Inevitably she will drop one subject at the start of year 13 so this will give you some felxibility. The only difficulty may be the english literature books if they are continued through to the second year. but she could drop this. Many colleges also start the second year after the AS exams have ended, so they can get a few weeks of extra teching in before the holidays, giving them flexiblity later on.

The best thing to do would be to get in touch with the college.

Would the job be avaliable on hold for a year?

The exam boards don't have to be the same, but they do have to be compatible.

Eg, dss was doing Edexcel (I think) Geology. The centre he transferred to were doing a welsh board and they were compatible. However he was doing another subject, and the exam board was AQA. The new centre was doing Edexcel, and this wasn't compatible.

I am sure all this is on QCA website somewhere. I have just had quick look, but not had time to do it properly. The centre she would be transferring from, or going to would be able to find out, BUT, this took a long time (about 6 weeks) when dss did it.

HTH

It is possible to change college as the but it always depends whether the new college teaches the same exam board syllabus. We are considering moving DS from a state 6th Form college to a private one after AS, but the private college does do all the boards (and we would be paying for the privilege of ensuring he gets decent A levels).
My DH's parents moved at the end of his Lower Sixth and he spent his Upper 6th in "digs" (rather a long time ago!) though he was only 50 miles away and able to get home for weekends. Any possibility of your DS staying with friends/family September - June?

Thank you very much for the caring replies,you are so helpful.
My head is spinning as I would love to move to Brighton.I think it would be less money,as much as £3000 a year and my husband would have to give his job up but he only earns £500 a month and isnt happy either. For myself Im not bothered about the money as property prices would even that out-we live in the North.
The job sounds great,I really want to go for it.
The other difficulty is the daughter,she has said go for it but I think there is a chance she will go back on her word.She has a boyfriend and I said he could visit.
Oh you know,would love the change,the challenge etc Thanks for listening.

How do we know whether the different exam boards are compatible to each other, e.g. Psychology in South Holderness Technology College (SHTC), Hull is AQA, and Wyke College, Hull is OCR. Wyke said they are not compatible with SHTC. The same subject in a Wales college is OCR, but they said they are compatible with SHTC.

It is difficult to do As's inone college then change to another college to do A2's. You can't take an A2 without having done an As as they are actually a continuation.

There is a list of what is compatible with what for the different subjects in this document

In order to transfer to a different centre you have to cash in your AS at the first centre asap and complete this transfer form. It is not then possible to resit any AS modules.

Actually reading it, you can resit AS modules, but doing so might delay you getting your A2 results.

Yes, it is possible to change schools at Year 13.

It is even possible to switch awarding bodies.