6th Form Open Evenings....

[Sparklingbrook]

DS1 (Year 11) goes to a great school. It has a 6th Form. He is not interested in looking at the local 6th form college or any other schools that have a 6th form, he is adamant he is staying where he is. The Open Evenings are all in the next few weeks.

He also has no idea what he wants to study post GCSE.

I have no idea whether I should be dragging him round against his will or just let him stay where he is.

Undertaker?! I guess we'll always need them

Yes, most seem to be doing mocks before Christmas.

DD is planning on History, Econonmics, Psychology plus either Eng Lit or Art. Art is in favour at the moment as she is worried about so many essay subjects, but Art is very time-consuming If she gets the results at GCSE, of course! Some sixth forms won't look at anything less than an A, which is setting the bar quite high.

I regret not having dragged my DS to see a few other schools rather than just drifting into his school sixth form.

I am also about to write a letter of complaint, because their school's sixth form "open evening" is useless for the undecided who want to choose between lots of subjects, because of the way its organised.

DD has been to 4 College open events, a very alternative school sixth form one, but may not make her own school one as it clashes with other things and is so limited. (She may or may not apply anyway.)

Is he definitely going to get the grades that will admit him to his school 6th form to do A levels?
Will his grades definitely be good enough for his A level choices (e.g. a B in German to continue with German).
Does he definitely even want to do A levels?

If you can't answer yes to all the above then you should be looking around so you have Plan B and Plan C covered.

There are new subjects he may not have thought about, and non A level courses that might be good. It is well worth going I would have thought.

(My DD will be applying to 3 colleges for 3 very different courses - keeping her options open depending on how the rest of y11 goes).

Yes, he wants to do A Levels. Re the results, yes, on paper he should get the grades. In reality, on the day, in the actual exam who knows?

I know my situation is different as my DS's school had no 6th form but my DS was adamant that he was not going to the open evening of one local college. I made him go as I said he needed to compare. Although as I said earlier this college was plan B but he picked this one over another local one. Plan A had been a college out of county.

Hope that makes sense.

Plan A (stay where he is) is a school 12 miles away. A bit of me was hoping he may do 6th Form a bit closer to home.

Other option is the school he left in Year 8, which is very local. 6th Form College is a half an hour bus ride away as well.

Forgot to say we are now dealing with the same problem over uni. He has picked the local uni and does not want to consider others.

We went to dad's sixth form opening evening at the beginning of the week and I'm so glad I did. We walked in knowing only two of the four A levels that she wanted to do and with five options for the other two. Each subject had a talk about what to expect and a brief outline of the course by the time we left she was very clear about which four to go with. In our case de should get the required grades (a & A* x 5 and b x2) but if she doesn't then the fact that the teachers know her should help us convince them to take her on. One of her teachers said as much.

If he is thinking of going to uni it's worth looking at their courses now to see what the entry requirements are. Some will want certain subjects at A level.

We have a choice of sixth form colleges - both very good. Ds and dd in turn were both absolutely sure they knew where they wanted to go and dismissed the other college. I persuaded them to go and look at both colleges for comparison. To be fair to both of them they were both surprised at how much they liked the college they had dismissed and saw that it had strengths. In the end they both went with their first choice (based on individual subject availability and syllabus) and ultimately have been reassured they made the right choice.

Its also a good idea to read this when choosing A level subjects

NeitherHereOrThere - thanks for posting that link. I had read the old version, but the new version is quite reassuring for my DD - who wants to study one facilitating subject and a number of "new" ones at A'level. For what she wants to do at University this looks okay, which I wasn't sure about.

Thanks for linking to that Neither
I'd always been a bit about the whole RG thing, considering I to be a marketing ploy, but that's a really fair and useful document. It's heartbreaking to see students picking A Levels which will not let then go on to do the course they want.

There is also an interesting thread under High Education about the issue of students being given the right advice that you may want to read.

Thanks for the link will have a read. I have no idea about University TBH, he says he wants to go but no idea what he will want to do.