Bristol contextual offers: anywhere else to look at with similar?

[Frenetic]

DS should meet their criteria by attending an 'aspiring state school'. He would not meet any individual criteria, and the school must be meeting this due to results not Polar quintiles or anything. I am not saying he deserves special treatment (I really don't think he does!) but obviously it is good to know what is out there. We cannot see anything similar elsewhere, but obviously haven't looked at every institution. Are Bristol just out on their own in this regard?

Here is Bristols list of schools eligible for contextual offers. Birmingham have something similar.

www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/study/documents/Aspiring%20Schools%20and%20Colleges%202023%20cycle%20(England%20Wales).pdf

Thanks, yes, I obviously wasn't clear, we know he's on the Bristol list of eligible schools.
Birmingham seem to have a scheme that is only for West Midlands schools?

I think Leeds and Nottingham may do this but he may also need another extenuating factor. Probably worth a look anyway.

Thanks. Yes, he definitely wouldn't qualify for Leeds and with Nottingham I don't think he could because he wouldn't get a place on any of the schemes they mention - because he wouldn't meet their criteria either.

Most unis will have contextual offer schemes, but not all apply it to all courses and not all are completely transparent with it so I wouldn’t spend too much time on it. Maybe when he has a long list of courses, check through contextual offers then.

Can I ask why certain schools would be on this list but not others? For example, one out of 3 comps in our town are on that list. It’s the one that I would say gets the highest grades or is if based on catchment areas?

@Tulipvase not a clue. Bristols contextual data is a mystery to me. Some v v good schools on that list !

St Andrews do this. My DD had a minimum entry grade offer for biochemistry (ABB rather than the standard offer of AAB) based purely on the sixth form college she attended - we didn’t meet any other WP criteria. There doesn’t seem to be a list of schools but you can go in on the website, put in a few details and it will tell you which entry grade offer applies.

Thanks any way. It’s all new to me and I’m just getting a head start as my eldest is getting her GCSE results next week.

It also happens to be my children’s school that is on the list.

Just tried St Andrew's as PP suggested and, yes, it comes up with Minimum requirements rather than Standard. So they must be using school alone.

But it is also useful to know where you might even consider in the first place. There's aspirational and then there's pie-in-the-sky! Bristol give an offer two grades lower.

Don't attempt to understand Cardiff's contextual offer system - we even phoned them and they admitted they couldn't tell anyone in advance! It's an algorithm that gives a value from your UCAS form and then categorises you as eligible for contextual or not!

Sorry to gatecrash the thread, didn't seem worthy of starting a new one.

Just looked at Newcastle, for example. DS is eligible for a contextual offer on post code. It says 2 a level grades lower...

So does this mean if the offer is AAA this means AAC or ABB?

Most likely ABB. DD got one contextual offer when applying, based on our postcode, and that's what it was. Anecdotally they may be more inclined to be flexible on grades on results day too, but that's not something anyone should count on.

Thank you, we'll off that thinking.
It's a funny thing, these contextual offers. Manchester offer one for Maths, but doesn't seem to for Economics, but am assuming this is because the grades needed for Economics are already lower.

My DD (state school) got a contextual offer of ABB for her course at Bristol. The standard offer was AAB. Newcastle and Birmingham did not make her contextual offers, which I found baffling. Their offers were AAB.

Presumably he has some idea of what he wants to study and the sort of grades that he is likely to be predicted? He could use something like the UCAS search tool to see what universities offer a course that he is interested in, with various min / max entry requirements, then look at the places he fancies to see whether they also make contextual offers.
digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/results/courses?studyYear=2023&destination=Undergraduate&postcodeDistanceSystem=imperial&pageNumber=1&sort=MostRelevant&clearingPreference=None

What actually constitutes 'pie in the sky' for him - anything above BBB?, 3A*? ???