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Higher education

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Original poster

Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 2, UCAS & offers

943 replies

Decorhate · 06/11/2018 19:54

Here we go!

OP posts:
Monkey2001 · 24/11/2018 18:25

Piggy - do you feel you understand the UCAS final stages now?

We completed application and did "pay and send". It then went into the school account snd we could no longer edit it. The school "Progression Coordinator" checked that it was all truthful (grades and anything else they knew) and then approved it. The tutor added predictions and reference. The Head of Sixth Form checked every application and did the final submit to UCAS. The school could still give the pupil access to amend PS or course choices until HoSF submitted.

At various points UCAS tells you current status on Track.

Piggywaspushed · 24/11/2018 18:55

I do understand monkey, no thanks to school but thanks to Mumsnet. However, I don't trust them one little bit to get their end of the bargain sorted in a respectable time frame (DS did say soem of his schoolmates have got offers, and revealed today he thought the form couldn't be sent off til mid Jan!)

It's not a case of them adding predictions and references : they haven't done them... not even close. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and actually complain on Monday but I don't really know who to complain to!

DS's friend, who does the same A Level for one of his subjects , has his predictions and reference done. There was hoo ha over his PG as the teacher admitted she had based it on his GCSE results for two 'like' subjects and not his work in year 12. I mean , sorry, but WTAF??!?

LIZS · 24/11/2018 19:24

Piggy were they aware ds was considering uni, given his previous lack of enthusiasm. Might account for lack of readiness.

Piggywaspushed · 24/11/2018 19:40

Yes, they never had any idea he wasn't. he has never said that to them.

Besides which, at my school, we do predictions and references for every student in September!

Monkey2001 · 24/11/2018 19:40

Piggy, DS did not see the ref before he had submitted his bit to UCAS. I asked Head of Year for PGs in June when we were planning Open Days. I have never seen them officially, they are not the same as his predictions in his report.

Piggywaspushed · 24/11/2018 19:43

It's not that we want to see the ref. Unifrog shows what has been done. it shows PGs for two of his subjects and a reference completed by oen fot he 4 people who need to do it. No pg or reference for the subject he is actually applying for at university.

Monkey2001 · 25/11/2018 15:23

Piggy, I can see why you are annoyed! Can you ask the Head of Year to sort out the predictions? Do you need the ref before DS completes all his bits? If he does not want to finalise his choices until he has the predicted grades, he could just fill one of the choices in but get all the exams and PS in and submit. The school might then feel under pressure to do their bit as it will be in their area of UCAS.

Piggywaspushed · 25/11/2018 16:15

There isn't a HoY as such and that is one of the intricacies of the bureaucracy of the place. There is a separate standalone sixth form at DS's school. It has a head, who delegates everything. There is a teacher in charge of UCAS who is rarely on site (usually at the main school teaching) and is a nice lady but a bit snowed under/inefficient (take your pick!) and a careers lady who does answer my emails but also passes the buck/ selectively ignores. The woman who is meant to write DS's overall reference and check up on everything had over a week off lately so is playing catch up, I assume. She is the one , along with the careers advisor, who ignore my repeated pleas for a PG for politics. If I didn't know my DS's friend has had his reference for politics done and a PG , I would just assume it was institutional inefficiency. The overal referee is a learning mentor, not a teacher and I do wonder if she really knows what she is doing with UCAS.

Piggywaspushed · 25/11/2018 16:18

The main reason I wnat his PG visible is because I am anticipating having to challenge it if the experience of DS's friend is anything to go on!

I cna't even email his politics teacher directly : such is the labyrinthine nature of communication that I have no idea of how to work out anyone's email address!

Danglingmod · 25/11/2018 16:43

Well that's all totally appalling, Piggy.

How the hell is he supposed to know what level of institution to apply with no known predicted grades? I ve never heard of such incompetence.

Piggywaspushed · 25/11/2018 17:11

Well, quite. And, as a teacher myself, I know things can run a little more transparently than this!!

Piggywaspushed · 26/11/2018 09:48

Raging this morning. RAGING!

I can't even summarise how furious I am. DS's teacher has replied saying she 'didn't know' he wanted a predicted grade . WTAF : why don't they just do them anyway!!? Or a reference, as he hadn't entered her into Unifrog (no, dear, becasue , he did it in June when he had a different teacher who must have been holding on to all this since June : she hasn't left!)

She has now also declared she will predict him a C ( a grade lower than the predictions all last year) and , if he comes to revision sessions, she will raise it (blackmail??). She also wants to see how he does in assessments (which he is doing tomorrow and will do shit in as he hasn't revised, because .... well all sorts of factors) but she won't mark those for several weeks, I'll bet. This culture of 'compulsory' revision sessions is red rag to a bull to me, so that sentence really irritated me. Just teach the subject, woman.

Yes, he can be very unassertive and, yes, he can appear unmotivated (although his effort grades for politics are high). But it seems the only news that has spread around his school is that he 'may not go to uni'. None of the other requests or queries have been dealt with. And, anyway, if they ehar that of a child, surley they should try to spur them on, not just think 'oh well, one less job for me'.

I think it is precisely because I am a teacher that this gives me the rage so much.

ifonly4 · 26/11/2018 10:17

Piggy - I'm sure you feel like screaming. Whether your a teacher or not, I'm sure every one of us would be so frustrated and angry. Giving him a C just like that doesn't feel like a fair assessment. As you say, surely they should be helping and encouraging students to try and achieve their hopes for the next stage.

With regard to the predicted grade, I do wonder (and hope) if teachers are coming down hard on them this term. DD has her predictions, but ALL her working grades have fallen this term and are lower than they've ever been. Maybe some teachers are doing this, in the hope it'll start getting them more focused.

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 26/11/2018 10:31

Piggy I'm not surprised at your rage but at least now you are in a position to bollock chivy them along. Clearly some schools are much more organised than others...

Monkey2001 · 26/11/2018 11:12

Piggy I think we all feel for you and DS. When he needs encouragement, he is getting the opposite. At least he has you to fight his battle - how must it be for the kids whose parents do not engage?

At least he will be free of the school soon - look to the next phase!

Piggywaspushed · 26/11/2018 13:26

I know ; I think that all the time. It really is no wonder his school has low rates for progression to university....

madmum5811 · 26/11/2018 13:41

Piggy go see the headteacher, make him aware of you and your teaching background, talk to Ofsted about your concerns, you can send an e-mail to heads secretary asking them to forward it to x y and z, which they will do. Make them accountable. In the email say you are puzzled by ......... keep everything in writing.

Piggywaspushed · 26/11/2018 14:09

I have had a shouty phone call. PG has been changed.

The teacher had not been told by any other teacher of my concerns at a missing grade!

Felt a bit sorry for her , as I was being 'that parent' but it needed doing.

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 26/11/2018 14:15

Well done, Piggy, hoping it's (relatively) plain sailing from here onwards. Hopefully, the reference side of things and school submitting his UCAS application will happen very swiftly now.

Clearly there's a considerable communication problem at your DS's school....

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 26/11/2018 17:33

DS has just decided that he's going to put Durham as his aspirational choice...

Aurea · 26/11/2018 17:42

Which course at Durham? My son has applied for law.

Best of luck!

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 26/11/2018 18:00

Geography.- he'd not even considered it previously (but his teachers' encouragement and the revised predicted grades have clearly made him think he's capable). His GCSE results aren't stellar but he finally seems to have hit his academic stride (doing subjects he clearly loves), so his PGs are realistic rather than inflated.

I am aware that Durham has quite an elitist reputation so keen to ensure he applies to a college that would be the right fit for him. He's certainly not an inverted snob but think he'd prefer to be in one that doesn't exude too much of a 'raa' mentality (DH is a lefty class warrior at heart and has done a reasonable job indoctrinating the DC against anything that he considers to smack of 'privilege'). Mind you, one of our friends, possibly the most left-wing person I know, is a Durham graduate...

Good luck to your DS too, Aurea.

Danglingmod · 26/11/2018 18:18

How absolutely appalling, Piggy. As others said, if students didn't have parents like you chasing stuff up like this, or were incredibly organised themselves, they would end up without university places. It makes me doubt they have much in place to support students who don't want to go to university either? How can they be so incompetent?

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 26/11/2018 18:25

It makes me doubt they have much in place to support students who don't want to go to university either? It happened a long time ago but DSis didn't want to go to university. It wasn't until the last day of the upper sixth that a teacher bothered to ask her what she would be doing next.

Clearly with so many teachers coming and going Piggy's Ds's school has lost the plot rather...

Piggywaspushed · 26/11/2018 18:31

I think they have quite a good support for students who want to do apprenticeships, to be fair. It's the in between undecideds who they seem to allow to flounder. I don't think that is unique to DS's school, sadly. But the level of communication incompetence is pretty stratospheric!