Starting Year 13 - September 2015

[hellsbells99]

Welcome to Year 13!
Their final year of school;
Applying for university/college/work/apprenticeships;
A year of 18th birthday parties;
Going to their first nightclub (unless they already have fake ID!);
The year they turn into adults!

DD2 has been back at school for 3 days and has lots of work already.

DS has got offer - first one in his 6th form but then he's the only one to have sent form in yet - and yes it's from Warwick.

Great relief - nagged asked DS this morning (he was out till late last night 'til after we went to bed ) if he knew yet when the school would have everything for him to submit because the fucking deadline is 15th. He said, oh yeah, sorry forgot to tell you, it's submitted and I've had an ack from UCAS.
And... breathe...
I am not normally (really! ) paranoid, but was thinking if the school burnt down.. etc etc..

and breathe MrsU....... .

DD2's form went off yesterday morning, and had an offer back this afternoon (Warwick again), so she's a touch excited. Warwick ideally will be her insurance, so fingers crossed for the rest to reply quickly.

Wow - fantastic MyVisions - good on her!
I am a supply teacher and today was in a school teaching Y13s. One of them mentioned Warwick as an aspirational choice, and I urged him to apply soon!

oh wow, are these standard Warwick offers? ds still doing his PS.

I've started a thread here for any advice about accessing DSA/Learning Support at uni. (I couldn't find any other for this specifically)

DS submitted his yesterday, so hopefully school will do their bit on Monday. He is on a field trip Wed and Thurs and it seemed to be getting a bit last minute!

UCAS form submitted, TSA booked - I'll be sat in the dentist's chair whilst ds is sitting the paper, argh!! Acknowledgements received from all four other Universities - let the waiting and agonising begin. Good luck everyone.

Warwick make offers for maths to all applicants predicted A. The offer used to be AA*A plus STEP, don't know if it's same this year.

DS offered AAA and 2 in any STEP paper for Maths at Warwick which is standard offer. Don't remember any mention of contextual offers at open day.

DS excited to find his school is on contextual offer list at Bristol & is urging his friends to apply there.

Haven't had an acknowledgement from Bristol or Imperial yet.

DD Warwick maths offer is any of :-
-Amaths, AFM , A, plus any step grade 2
-A* maths A in FM A plus any step at grade 1

• A maths, A FM ,A*
• A maths , AFM, A, A

I think it is a standard offer

Yes. this is the standard offer.
I kind of like the fact that make offers, and indeed the same offer, to everyone.It feels very fair.

Just asked DS he said he's got all those other combinations as well for Warwick. It's their way of making it simple - make really high offer & take the best, I don't think they bother reading PS. I think they said at open day that about 25% of those they take haven't quite met the offer.

Where do you find the list of contextual schools? Is it she same for all universities? Interested because I work in several schools (supply teacher) in deprived areas so might encourage more applications.

DDs Warwick offer was their standard AAB for Psychology

Warwick making that their standard offer for maths obviously ensures they don't take students from poor comps! A lot of comps do not offer further maths and a student from a deprived area/poor comp will probably struggle to self study FM.

If that is the case, then it is not Warwick excluding poor comps, but those poor comps failing their pupils, by ensuring their pupils are ineligible for Warwick - blame the schools not the universities. Or should all universities dumb down their course to make them accessible to pupils who have not covered the required work?

I don't think self teaching FM alongside just maths and 1 other a level should be that difficult.Loads of students self-study some maths modules.Why would it be more difficult for a kid from a poor comp?

..and there are lots of good quality free online resources specifically to help FM self-studiers.I think if students have not got the get up and go to do this, then they are not cut out for the top maths unis.

Don't forget pupils have to study 3 A levels at school to be counted as full time so the FM would have to be self studied as an additional A level. A school can only teach a subject like FM if they have enough pupils wanting to do it due to funding issues (and that's assuming they have the teacher available).

I think hellsbells was making an observation, not blaming either schools or universities.

However, the fact is that however bright and self-motivated you are, you are likely to be in a better position if you attend a school, state or private, which teaches FM in a class situation and has the resources to support you, than if you attend a struggling comp which doesn't.

Thank you Morvah. Oxford and Cambridge will accept pupils who haven't done the full A2 in FM. Unfortunately not all pupils come from equal backgrounds or schools.

Several pupils at my dcs school self study their third a Level in school time.they must get round the funding issue somehow. Although Oxbridge say they will admit those without FM, the admissions statistics tell a different ztoryt
Story

Brioche - my DD is self studying FM at AS level but we are in the fortunate position that I am able to pay for a tutor for an hour a week. She is having to do this as an additional subject outside of school time (obviously she can use her frees too).