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.

I am assuming they will grant an extension, but she would like to submit on time iyswim?
She is OK, sort of, but struggling to walk without support (!? )

Draylon
OK BTEC used to be BEC or TEC, the business education or technical education councils.

Over the years there have been mergers and changes and BTEC is now owned by Pearson AKA Edexcel.

There used to be OCR National Certificate and BTEC National Certificate, the same with diplomas.

OCR is a different examining board and has recently started calling it's certificates and diplomas 'CTEC' or Cambridge TEC.

So the qualifications are equal just provided by different examining bodies.

So the question is which has the options that are best for your son.

Both qualifications are made up of a number of modules/units, some are compulsory an others are options, however 'option' is slightly misleading as the options are chosen by the school/college and often reflect the teacher's abilities/expertise rather than what is best for the students.

Yes I totally get the wanting to get it on time, I think DD felt like that. Your poor DD (and you),that must be scary. DS was unable to walk one morning at First school as he had irritable hip. I remember the trip to hospital well still.

Fingers firmly crossed for a quick recovery.

Great post Shh, that's a big help for all of us.

Sashh has explained it perfectly Draylon. You can find a table via Google which lists the UCAS points received by having each grade. My DD's 2 unconditional offers and bursaries were because she has achieved DDD, in fact one of the Uni's has been bombarding her with phone calls and emails because they really liked her on her taster day and want her to make them the first choice. They have also upped the bursary so Uni's are quite happy with BTEC, in fact one of them said they liked BTEC students because they have already been studying some of the modules and have a good computing knowledge when they join rather than having A-Level's that are not linked.

Hi Draylon My DD tells me it is an OCR IT Level 3 Extended. Here is the link from the college website which may help, but I can't see the examination board mentioned on there:

www.mkcollege.ac.uk/courses/find-a-course/detail/136956

Hi Draylon My DD tells me it is an OCR IT Level 3 Extended

The exam board is OCR then

EYV Sounds like your DS is being very mature about it all and the university is the other end of the country to you and it could be hard. My DS isn't 18 until the August so I do get it. If DS's friend (who has been a brilliant influence) wasn't going to the same uni I would probably be suggesting a year out.

DS thought the exam was ok which is worrying (his words not mine)! There was a question connected with Bear Gryls which students were tweeting about. DS is talking about retaking if he fails

Draylon Sounds like DS is getting into it which is good as it will hopefully motivate him to work. I would look at some universities who are asking for higher grades as it could motivate him more.

My DS had a mixture of GCSEs ranging from A (As being BTEC sport under the old system and the A was systems and control which he had a very good mark for coursework) to E so not a high flying academic. As has been the case with my DS you may find he settles in well with it all and achieves better than you think. My DS is now expecting finals grades of DDD* (although I do also credit his friend for being a good influence!).

First open day for DD on the 28th.

Gas You still need to learn to put spaces with your DS's predicted grades don't you? D D D* or whatever.

I know T & T - I forget every time. Yes it is D D D*

How is your DD?

She's a little better at walking, the pain killers are helping, but can't go more than a few feet unaided. Thanks for asking.

She got all her assignments in on time, except a distinction criteria that was only part done. She has submitted as is, and asked for feedback/extension, and if good enough will complete and if not good enough (likely as she hasn't met a written distinction yet) she won't bother.

She needs to be in Monday for a short time, and then not for the rest of the week luckily.

I should have more faith . DD has got the distinction even though she didn't finish the distinction piece, because her merit piece accidentally covered the distinction stuff!

The information required for these BTEC assignments completely confuses me sometimes. She is either told she is not writing enough detail, or far too much.

excellent T&T, really pleased for her and also for you as I know how hard this year has been.

Gas those grades are brilliant, a big well done to him too.

We're getting there. Year 12 nearly over. Found out yesterday DD finishes on July 15th, so about a week earlier than I thought.

I'm wondering what IT assignments are likely to be like?

Do you expect them to be essay based 'Write down the 16 protocols recommended for firewalls and review why they are necessary'
or more practical 'Create a database with the following features' ?

(If you have no idea then looking at the unit descriptions and the relevant pass/merit/distinction criteria may help). I wonder if it will be different between the OCR and BTEC specs.

I think they will be a mix as DD's have been eg. Describe the function of a firewall. Describe and evaluate the recommended protocols. Design a database and explain how you implemented these functions. Evaluate the effectiveness of the firewall the database you designed. Disclaimer, I am not techy and know nothing about firewalls and am probably totally wrong about the type of BTEC content.

Well done to your DD Teen for both getting the assignments in and for the distinction. Is she penalised for writing too much?

DS's predicted grades when he first started college based on GSCE results was something like MMM so he will have contributed to the colleges's added value in the league tables!

Draylon Your DS will get used to how it all works but he does need to ask if he is unsure. I am curious to how different OCR and BTEC are or more so how the grading works

ds came home yesterday saying college have told them they have missed some things out and as a result there are now 7 more assignments to do They were meant to be breaking up next friday Looks like they will be going in during the staff admin weeks and won't be done now until around the 8th July.

The college is going through a major restructuring and the grim reaper is carrying a rather large axe so all the staff are permanently fed up and stressed out I hardly think they are going to deliver high quality lessons at this late stage of the term if they have a P45 waiting in their inbox. They have already given ds a hard time for wanting to take a gap year - it won't appear on thier progression stats now. Only he and one other applied to uni in the end and it has unfortunately marred his last few weeks in college when this should be a time to enjoy and celebrate their time there together.

eat That's terrible! Seems seriously incompetent!

DD needed to go in to college today as she hadn't got quite the right spin on her Merit task for the final unit - much huffing and puffing last night, but we said you are getting the chance to tweak it so you should, and not just be happy with a Pass. So I drove a 1 hour round trip before 9am and another 1 hour round trip coming up at lunch time to collect her (legs still weak).

Eat That happened every year throughout my DD's 3 years at college! Even this Monday evening one of my DD's friends was having to finish an assignment they were only told about that afternoon by the next morning - which meant working all night. After being caught out the first year, I always booked our summer holidays late to take into account any um 'workshops' that needed to be held after the end of college. One of the many reasons I don't want to send DD2 to college and would rather she stay on at school for A-Levels. I have nothing against the actual courses which are really good, but the teaching and lack of admin has left so much to be desired, especially as both girls went to private school which was really hot on admin. Huge culture shock!