BTECs starting 2015 - General support thread

[TeenAndTween]

Is there anyone else around whose child is starting a BTEC rather than A levels? Should we stay on this board or move to Further Education?

My DD has enrolled for Travel & Tourism.

Good point T&T. Get her name on the list and then see whether she needs to take it up. There will always be someone else waiting.

I don't think DD will want to, she skimmed over that bit. I'll ask her when things calmer. She's currently freaking out as she'd done the last bit for the project due in this afternoon after me explaining what they are looking for in the evaluation. Then apparently the computer went wrong and took an hour to ge going about so she was freaking out she will miss this afternoon's deadline and is going to fail.

It's gone very quiet her end so don't know what is happening. It has been an incredibly difficult week here and I think I'm getting to the stage where I'm a big numb with it all really. It is just one crisis after another, I'm taking half term off to try and recover.

Well what do you know, after all the high drama coming through my phone it is in, on time, just !!! Please let her pass, it's 2 units.

And he flicked through it and said 'that looks pretty ok actually' so there is hope

Sugar

Sugar

English GCSE is stressing me out. DS missed another lesson (DH said he looked like death warmed up) on top of the teacher not being there last week. To him it's nothing.

HSMMaCM My DS doesn't like on of the teachers but thankfully it's only one unit. I could tell there was an issue when I read his report!

Thanks, has a bit of sleep and feel better. I do find it very tough coping with sick parent and usual teen stuff at same time.

Gaslight I have similar worries about the Maths resit. Rest of work is too full on for her to really have time to do any extra maths.

Apologies for the slight digression from main thread but have had no success asking on Y11 thread.
Y11 dd is trying to decide between full time (extended) BTEC courses at FE college in Graphic Design and child-care (has interview for both in next few weeks) and a mixed A level/BTEC route at sixth form college. It is not possible to take an A level at the FE college. Was wondering what factors your dcs took into account last year?

My DS only wanted to do the extended diploma so no considering involved.

Not sure if it makes a difference but which A levels is she looking at and are they the same whether she does graphic design or childcare?

At sixth form college she would take BTEC IT, Health and social care applied A level and Graphics A level. This would mean that careers in both areas would still be an option post-18. (The BTEC is equivalent to 1 A level).
Whereas in FE college she can only choose one option.

DD was in theory borderline for doing A levels (with hindsight it is clear she wouldn't have coped). She also had/has no idea what she wanted to do as a career. But she was quite keen to try Spanish A level. So we went down the mixed route for her, especially as the A level goes well with her travel & tourism BTEC.

I think that with the 3 you are thinking of you could run in to a situation where she doesn't know enough about anything much. (This is just supposition on my part, no data to back it up).

Things to consider:
So does she have aspirations for university? What courses could she get on to with that combination?
If she goes straight to work, is she going to be up against others who know twice as much about a work area as they have done a 2 or 3 A level equivalent BTEC?
On the other hand, it does mean she know about a number of areas, so isn't cutting off any options.

I know there is/used to be a double H&SC A level. Could that be an option instead of the IT BTEC? Though the IT goes well with Graphics perhaps?

Where do you think her interests lie? I think childcare can be an easy go-to option for girls (my DD considered it). But although she likes playing with children, she isn't really all that interested in child development etc. Much more interested in visiting places, languages and history, which is why we steered her towards T&T.

Sorry, a bit muddled. But the A level-BTEC combination is working well for DD at the moment. Not so overwhelmed with coursework assignments, and the A level breaks things up and gives a bit more intellectual challenge.

(The childcare courses we looked at both had a week on week off structure, whereby one week was in the classroom, alternating with one week on placement. Very different from all the other courses).

If she is looking at going to university the advice is to work backwards as in find some courses and check what the entry requirements are.

Also have a look at the higher apprenticeships to again see what the requirements are.

dd isn't sure about whether to apply for uni. Both colleges would have info about apprenticeships or employment alternatives.
No college or sixth form locally offers double BTEC it's either triple (extended) or single (subsidiary diploma). There is some overlap in that IT has a Graphics unit whereas the extended BTEC may not be (from what I can see) enough UCAS points for uni entry on it's own.
She may consider a degree in Early years education for which Child-care level 3 would meet the requirements. Would also consider becoming a TA.
She may also consider a career in Graphic design (is a degree essential for this) but given that she can also design websites the latter may be a better career option.

I took the view, rightly or wrongly, that it seems relatively easy to gain childcare qualifications later in life (e.g. I have seen various mums do this by starting as volunteers in schools / pre-schools and then doing a college course to gain qualifications to go permanent); so I considered that if there is a doubt it might be better to try the other career first.

Apply for everything and try to sort out various work experiences after GCSEs but before results to try to inform choices?

An extended diploma is the equivalent to 3 A levels so it is enough for university. There are a some courses that want an A level with along with but don't think that is the norm

Of the 2 courses dd seems to be most interested in the extended Graphic Design BTEC. I have checked a few uni websites and it should meet the requirements for a degree (should she wish/be good enough to take one).
I don't think the single BTEC plus A levels has any advantage over 3 A levels other than less exams. It looks though that predicted GCSE grades with work experience would be good enough for a TA course at a later date if the A level route doesn't work out (or if she doesn't achieve high enough grades for teaching degree) so that's a back-up plan sorted.
My main concern about the child-care is whether 0-5 is the best age group for her to work with. She likes children, but am unsure whether she would like working with babies.

If she is keen on the graphic design go for it.

How is everyone doing ?

Well, I'm feeling increasingly stressed and helpless.

DD's course seems to be going OK, but she does not have the maturity to cope with the freedoms of college, though she thinks she is so grown up. I wish her timetable and travel options were different.

I'm sorry T&T, that's a tricky combination. It's good the course seems to be ok though. The travel is a bit of an issue here too, I've just coughed up the summer term instalment which seeing as she's not staying on next year is the last.

It would be very helpful if they put some grades up on the parent portal I feel, there's a glaring absence of any unless I'm missing something obvious. We're all struck down with lurgy so DD not in today, annoying as project that caused a lot of tears due back and I want to know if she passed.

If the grades are not on the parent portal are they on the student portal. If so, will your DD be willing to log on to show you?

How did the project go?

I did ask a court she said they weren't . The good news is she passed both units of the project. The bad is she was off 2 days last week sick, improved and now currently on sofa with another project due in tomorrow.

Is everyone else ok?

Sorry your DD's unwell Sugar .
ps Did you know there's a parents evening in 3 weeks?

DD finally has another assignment so that will keep her busy for a while.

In other news, DD2 got her school place today, I wasn't worried as she was a shoe-in for it, but nice to see it confirmed.

That's good news T&T, agree it's always nice to see in writing. I saw parents evening flash up on the parent portal. DD has a lot of work on the go, there's a project from each tutor.

In other news here, DS got his glasses yesterday as has something called convergence insufficiency and we're waiting for biopsy results as looks like my poor Mother has inflammatory breast cancer on top of dementia. It's all been the final straw and I've given up work for a bit so hopefully will sound more chilled in future.