Should we care that 50% of state schools didn't produce any medicine applicants in 3 years?

[legallady]

Well if no one from those schools wanted to study medicine then maybe not but if they are not achieving the grades to be able to apply or are not being given the correct advice then maybe we should.

Certainly it seems wrong that half of applicants in that time frame came from independent and grammar schools. It suggests that our qualified doctors a few years down the line will come from a very narrow demographic - similar to our lawyers and politicians - and that can't be good for our society.

What (if anything) is going wrong?

Mr Mitchell was a MFL teacher.

Ah, yes, and of course MFL teachers are known to love teaching in rough schools, unlike science teachers.

I think this is another example of an unmerited lack of parity of esteem.

There's no fundamental difference between the social conscience of STEM grads versus MFL grads. It just comes back to numbers again. Having a greater volume of STEM grads (and MFL grads for that matter) in teaching, will give you a broader range of personalities, so it stands to reason that you'll get more of the Mr Mitchells of this world, in all disciplines.

"A lot of people who go onto medicine from state schools have gone to private 6th forms because they did so well, that they got bursaries etc for their A-levels. What section of the data do these kids get put into?"

My understanding of the medical schools who offer extended medical degree courses for state school kids, is that they ONLY consider applicants from a particular type of school - non-selective state school, and they have lists of 'feeder schools' that their applicants must be from.

Ds's friend's father is a consultant who interviews for (Russell Group) medical school. both ds's friend and his older brother are set to follow in father's footsteps.

I was talking to this man and he said that fancy work experience is of no interest, eg shadowing consultants. They are more interested in those who volunteer regularly eg in care homes. Ds's friend pushes the WRVS trolley round the hospital. He loves it. These "opportunities" are open to anyone.

I think as someone mentioned upthread the full house A at GCSE thing does rule out most people from the start. It's tough to know you've fallen at a hurdle you had to jump at 16 or in many cases 15 years old. 7As is pretty good but not apparently good enough for many medical schools.

Head teachers who are good at turning around poor schools come from all sorts of backgrounds. One thing they no longer do is actually teach. They will be earning in excess of £100,000 though so it makes a lot of sense to get out of the classroom if you have real leadership potential. I wonder how many children from Dewsbury get to be Doctors?

A five or six year medicine degree is also very expensive. Vacations are short so no time for that summer job and the course is very intense so paid work at weekends plus the travelling to different placements. Perhaps potential medical students from less financially well off backgrounds are put off by this and are less likely to apply.

Brenda, the lowest GCSE requirement I've seen is actually 6As! Candidates need to do their research.