Fuming - no guidance for Yr 12s at all

[BrendaBlackhead]

Ds attends a large sixth form college. He is doing extremely well academically, but with regard to the future he is on his own.

I was looking at a few public school websites and their pupils are entering essay competitions, olympiads, following a recommended reading programme etc etc and I saw on one that the school will arrange suitable work experience for all med and vetmed applicants. Plus of course people from Oxbridge/top Russell Group coming to the school.

There was a notice at ds's school that those wishing to apply to top tier universities could join a group. Ds's tutor confused it with Sutton Trust and said it was only for low-income/those with non-university parents, when in fact it turned out it was for all students. This was a completely self-selecting group and no one, however able, was targeted. If Gail Trimble/Ted Loveday were at the college no one would have mentioned it to them.

Ds's friends have arranged their own open day visits and summer courses. Ds who is extremely backward in coming forward has said he wants to opt out of the whole thing.

I know that higher education is supposed to be all about self-motivation blah de blah, but when I see that other schools are guiding, smoothing, facilitating their students' paths, I feel really cross on behalf of ds. The History Boys it ain't.

[cricketballs]

Whilst I agree op the college could be more proactive, I would imagine that there would be posters, leaflets etc with this information as the get sent to all 16+ providers - has your DS not paid attention to them? How did the other students know about the trip to Cambridge?

[BrendaBlackhead]

I quizzed ds and he says there has definitely been no mention of open days. There was one meeting for interested students, and ds didn't think he qualified so didn't attend. I think that was the "sign up" as it were, and now information gets posted on a closed part of the college website about open days etc. As I've said, I think this is ludicrous because there must be many able students being ignored. Obviously they can apply come UCAS time, but they won't have been to any open days/summer schools and wotnot.

[hellsbells99]

Hi Brenda - I think with most schools it is up to the student & parents to sort out the open days although our school did take the students to a Ucas fair. I will pm you a link to a booklet that DD's school issues.

Other posters - you have me worried about the Headstart courses! DD is going on one this summer and she is definitely from a comp. The science teachers tell them about courses like this. 1 of DD's friends has just done a masterclass at Cambridge but researched this herself.

[BrendaBlackhead]

Thank you, hellsbells. Although, at the moment, ds is on the point of chucking the whole thing in and becoming a poet... He wants to be Yeats crossed with Morrissey

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Dd1 is at a grammar school, and they do get a lot of talks about universities and UCAS, but I'm not sure how much information they get about pre-university courses etc.

Dd2 is at a comp and has basically had nothing. But we've had some info from dd1's school, and I've been reading sixth form/uni threads here for a while, and dd2 has done lots of research.

I really don't think tertiary education is "increasingly the preserve of the rich and well connected" - with everything being on the internet, all the information about these courses, summer schools, taster days, and so on is available for everyone to see. That's assuming you know that anything exists, I guess, but if you looked for anything, you'd see that there was more.

[SecretSquirrels]

hellsbells99 Headstart courses are open to all and DS1 went on a Maths one. He was one of only 3 state school students. He said that most were "sent" by their schools in order to put it on their PS and weren't really interested. Nevertheless he enjoyed it and got plenty out of it.

DS2 has also got a Headstart course lined up for the summer. Applied for independently but endorsed by college.
He didn't get his first choice of subject but it's at a uni he might be interested in so that's one less open day.

[spinoa]

There is quite a lot of information on the website of the college. This says that they will have many admissions tutors visiting in June to July, plus advice on the UCAS process, an evening for parents about university admissions etc. It's shame that their HE+ programme wasn't made available to all, though, and I know from personal experience that they don't publicise opportunities for residential courses or masterclasses well. (Being a big college it is standard for universities to send them fliers about such things but the uptake from the college is sometimes small.)

One thing to be aware of is that it is known that they are not keen on authorising students to attend open days or offer holder days on weekdays, so you should try to book Saturdays where available.

[Waitingaround]

Brenda is your large sixth form in Winchester?? or am I thinking of someone else's Ds?

[hellsbells99]

Thanks Secret - DD was fortunate to get her first choice but didn't apply for an Oxbridge one as she said they looked too lecture-based - so she probably picked one that was less popular.

[DontBeAMeanie]

Secret I wonder if DC4 (comp school ) was at the same Maths Headstart course. She found it extremely useful.

DC4 did a headstart 'DRAGONFLY' residential course at the end of year 11. I don't know if it still applies as I can't see anything on the website but by attending a 'dragonfly' course my DD automatically got 'very high' (guaranteed?) consideration for a end of year 12 Headstart course. Considering how popular and how useful the Headstart course was this was very useful.

HEADSTART dragonfly couses. There are currently spaces on the Warwick year 11 Dragonfly courses for students that live within an hour of Warwick.

[twentyten]

Hi Brenda. It would be worth booking some summer uni opendays now to get your dc interested in where they might like to go. Book loads then go to the ones they fancy. It all gets a bit manic in the autumn.

[SecretSquirrels]

hellsbells99 DS not looking at Oxbridge but he didn't want engineering and applied for Chemistry / Biology / maths. They always say the Headstart courses are the same regardless of location. I was just relieved he didn't get the one in Belfast because it would have been difficult and expensive to get to he thought it would be an adventure.

DontBeAMeanie it was 2013 when DS1 was in Y12.

[Charis1]

I very much doubt all this information is being with held from students, it is more likely that your DS is simply tuning out. There is so much of it it inevitably becomes very boring/repetitive.

[Woody47]

My DS's grammar school has a self-selecting Oxbridge group but they don't really do anything with them except take them to an Oxbridge convention and offer them a 2 night trip to Oxford and/or Cambridge open days.I think Sutton trust is mentioned at school but Most stuff is researched by the DC themselves
Oxford and Cambridge don't care less about summer schools and open days.They care about grades, potential and your demonstrable interest in the subject eg evidence of reading .

[Woody47]

OP-once exams are over they will no doubt talk to the students about uni applications.

[BrendaBlackhead]

Yep, Waiting, it is large and it is in Winchester...

[TheWordFactory]

In an ideal world, young people who might head towards the most competitive courses and the most selective universities, would start receiving information/guidance pre sixth form.

But obviously, this is tricky when schools don't have one; there's just no internal push for it.

And sixth form colleges are slightly hamstrung in that they don't know the students well enough in early Y12 and their internal push is to get veryone settled in and sorted IYSWIM.

[Waitingaround]

brenda I. the college careers office is very useful and the advisors are happy to meet one on one with the students for an hour each week if requested, the intranet also had info available etc
I think the college expects the students to seek out the info but it is there.
I have one Dc in yr 13 who loves the college and is achieving well but for my lazy clever yr 10 I think a more nurturing college is needed.

[Molio]

Moomin that's great (if it helps) but unusual in the state sector, at least if it mirrors the lengthy amount of 'Oxbridge Prep' that certain independents give.

[Molio]

Brenda maybe Charis is right, that your DS is tuning out or not passing info on. My DC have never come back from school telling me about any HE info they've been given, although I know for sure that the guidance and advice is given.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Talking of Hampshire sixth form colleges ... We looked at Farnborough. Very impressive. They have a G&T programme and try to identify potential high-assuming students as early as possible. All sounds good. But their formal schedule of events doesn't start until March of y12, by which time the UNIQ deadline is long gone, and Sutton Trust summer school applications closed this year on 9th March. Cambridge masterclasses are already well underway by March. So you just can't rely on being told about stuff; an ambitious student will have to take the initiative themselves.

[senua]

Sorry to be rude but I don't think that you can blame the College. In your OP you said that "DS's friends have arranged their own open day visits and summer courses". If they managed it, why not him? Does he not talk to his classmates, does he not know what they are up to - my DC went to Open Days in a car-share with mates.
He can still go to Open Days - they cannot turn him away from a public space like a campus! - but he may miss out on pre-booked lectures. Or he may be able to sneak in, in place of no-shows.

However, he can stick his head in the sand for the moment if he wants to. There is no law that says that you have to go to University directly from school. Perhaps he needs that year out?

[TheWordFactory]

Chance are that those friends of OP's DS had pro active parents who were knowledgable about the process and what things are available.

But there are lots of parents out there with previous little understanding. And that's where schools need to step in.

[BrendaBlackhead]

He really does need a year out, I think, for a number of reasons which I won't go into. But really I was just having a rant about the college being, well, college -like. Not many 16-year-olds in my experience are mature self-starters. And also, asking someone to research open days is obviously feasible and acceptable, but it appears that this notion should have struck them months ago. Who knew that these things existed, let alone that you had to be chomping at the bit ready to book up at the earliest opportunity.

The college has a parents' information evening about universities at the end of June. I blithely supposed that this is when it all kicked off.

[addstudentdinners2]

Am I missing something here, why can your DS not arrange these things yourself?

I arranged all my own open days, did my course research and sorted my student finance myself. And this was about 5 years ago so not way back when!