new UTC to good to be true?

[Stoneagemum]

We have a new UTC opened in our area this year, but not on site til January.

My ds is in year 11 and the set up and courses from the prospectus propaganda look like a great fit. He is on track for 12 A's at GCSE's is this a good idea?

For what it's worth this UTC is affiliated with a Russell Group University.

Please give me experiences and opinions please.

Avoid avoid avoid. UTCs don't have a good reputation, most are for kids with low aspirations and aim for them to achieve vocational not academic qualifications, regardless of who the sponsor is. A few are suitable for academic kids, but unless yours has a track record of academic achievement it's not worth the risk imo.

I thought these colleges were aimed at young people who are unsuited to the school environment or who are best following a vocational pathway.

What courses is the UTC offering that your DS is interested in?

If your DS is on track for 12 A grades then the pathway that would give him the most choices in the future is probably A-levels in facilitating subjects; is the UTC offering these?

The one near us has been open 2 years and has had excellent results and been graded 'outstanding' by Ofsted (not that that means much!).
It lets students take a totally academic route (4 A Levels), vocational (extended B Techs) or a combination. It aims to attract those who are interested in computer science or engineering, turns out it'd be no use to dd as she wants to do Civil Engineering and they focus on Electrical & Mechanical.
The students I know there are convinced they made the right choice, focus is on work not messing around. Go and visit, ideally not on an Open Evening so you and ds can get a feel for the place.

Yep, the one near us is only for academic students. They do triple science, further maths and engineering GCSEs almost as standard and have stolen (so to speak) a lot of very academically able students from up to 20 local schools as their offer, facilities and industry links are unparallelled.

The one DS attends is just entering its third year and is due an OFSTED inspection any day now. There are both academic and practical pathways and the general feeling is that it is great as long as students put the effort in. In a city that retains grammar schools, some of the pupils have left them to attend -- which says something!

This one is offering different pathways, my ds is looking at the a level maths, a level physics & diploma in engineering, as the 4 a level pathway does not include engineering and from the a levels on offer there is no 4th that interests him. (He would like to do Chemistry at a level as a 3rd.)
The 3rd pathway is an extended diploma in engineering with either maths or physics a level.

All 3 pathways end up with the student gaining the equivalent of 4 a levels so I would think it is being aimed at the more academic student.

I would say avoid. But maybe this one is amazing.

Agree with Twink - one near to me with exactly the same profile although I have heard of others that are awful. I am teacher and the only student I know to go onto a UTC was extremely academic and interested in Engineering, unfortunately very recent so nothing to report.

I'm a maths and physics A Level teacher, an ex-engineer and I was impressed on Open Evening but if dd had wanted to go, I'd have asked to look around during classes so I could see the reality rather than the staged