Daughter best school to get into university

[Teenson]

our daughter is 16 is at a ‘good’ state school, (richer catchment area)done her exams and will apply to uni in September. Teachers think shes naturally talented at her subjects.
all good so far.
trouble is, she has no friends there, it’s a long bus ride, and she’s had a tough few years.
so, she’d like to go to a different state school, her friends go there, it’s a quick bus ride with mates.
I think , she’s had a rough time, she’s probably not going to need to resit anything, she doesn’t need advanced highers to apply, let her have a year of fun.
DH did the same degree. His concern is she won’t get such good teaching. Uni is very competitive. The new school said she could do one subject at her old school if they couldn’t offer it.
also that the uni application will come from the new school, where the teachers don’t know her, which doesn’t have many people applying to university and I’ve seen it in a list for ‘wider access scheme’.
the uni shed like to go to is one of the best in the country for her subjects, so competitive.
I don’t know - I didn’t go to uni.
her current teachers are all very pleased with her work.
help! I don’t want to disappoint her, shes told her mates she’s going
DH says she can see them at the weekends, and he’ll buy her a car to drive to the old school.

Wwyd help!

Just go straight to uni?

If it helps I think the wider access criteria look at home address and not school address / catchment but I could be wrong.

In Lothian we have leaps program which helps those who meet criteria access university more easily. Take a look:

https://www.leapsonline.org/

id imagine other areas of Scotland have something similar. If both you and your husband didn’t go to uni then your kids are the sort of people universities want to try to attract in the widening participation targets. Give the university admissions team a ring (don’t be shy!!!) and they will hopefully be able to help further.

I'd say it depends a bit what she wants to do at uni. If she wants to do eg medicine or she wants to go to a competitive English university she's going to need Advanced Highers and is likely to get conditional offers based on these. In that case she'd probably be best staying at the school that can offer good teaching for her AHs and has a reasonable cohort of kids taking them.

If she wants to go to a Scottish uni course that generally offers on Higher results then I think she's got a lot more choice. S6 is such a flexible year and is good preparation for starting to work more independently and organise your own time. There's also often non academic options that can be really useful for university applications (eg my son will be doing Sports Leadership as well as a couple of AHs / one more Higher, his school also has options for things like volunteering / DofE as a timetable slot in S6.) The social side of it is also really important, and for many it's a nice relaxing year where they can study their interests in more depth, but the academic pressure is off a bit.

The school she goes to doesn't count negatively for applying to uni, they won't 'look down' on her application because it's from a less posh school. I'm not sure how much weighting the school references are given, but the personal statement system is changing from next year anyway https://universitycompare.com/advice/ucas/ucas-personal-statement-changes

I loved my S6 (many years ago -back in the days of CSYS rather than Advanced Highers!) and my son is really looking forward to his too.

One of mine switched but went the opposite way (to higher performing school). Her uni reference was done by her new school who didn't really know her or her plans. She didn't get her top uni choice. If she'd stayed at old school she'd have got widening access and would have had a more personal reference. Not sure that would have made any difference though offer wise.

Would old school do her reference? I wonder if unis might think she's gaming it for widening access. Might need explanation.

My DD found new school much calmer (everyone with 5Hs doing 3AHs and one other subject). Big focus on prep for uni eg academic writing/lab reports and community activities.

Thank you, I hadn’t heard of LEAPS their seems to be so much buried info that Everyone seems to know except me. She doesnt qualify, but the school she’d like to move to does.
shed like to apply to Edinburgh or St Andrews to do maths and physics. It looks scarily competitive on the website.

I would love her to have a bit of fun though!

The course offers on highers and starting in year 1, or advanced for year 2. They need 4As and a B.

This is an excellent guide for parents to all things university too https://jamesgillespies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/uni-guide-parent-september-2023.pdf

Thanks for this!

They might still require more from s6, my son has 5As and still needs an AH at B to get onto one of the 5 courses he has offers for (the rest unconditional).

new school might have the advantage of contextual offers if it’s not as “good”?

my son has just finished s6 and he was saying one of the things he loved was getting to know a wider group better, he is much friendlier with lots more people than he was before he started s6, presumably the time and activities lend themselves to it more than s5.

How do you know she won’t get such good teaching at the other school?

She's 16, let her make her own decisions? Some are already at uni by 16, she should have control over where she studies.

Thank you! I chatted to her current teacher who was wonderful. Said my daughter is clever enough and self motivated enough, So she is going to the other school and she is really delighted. I am too. She’s been a star, and definitely deserves some fun this year. She’ll be studying AHs with her mates, which must be motivating.
thanks for everyone who helped me clear my thoughts.

At my DCs school everyone gets LEAPS regardless of individual circumstances (so widening access) but this only applies to pupils who have been at the school since S1.

Thanks, I’m calling LEAps tomorrow as I’d only herd about it from mumsnet.