Who writes the UCAS forms.........?

[RTKangaMummy]

Is it Head of biology or teacher or Head of science?

ie who does it and so is it the most senior in each dept?

You mean the school's UCAS reference?

I think that most schools have some sort of system that gathers info from all the subject staff together and then one of your DC's teachers writes the reference. There is no reason why it should always be the most senior - but IMO it should be an appropriate person who knows the student.

Some smaller 6th forms may have the head of 6th form do them all?

It varies hugely. In some places it may be a personal tutor, a head of year or even the head teacher.

Bigger schools/colleges often have them put together by a senior tutor but along the lines of:

" Robert is a highly motivated student who contributes to all areas of School life. Her are a range of his subject tutors' comments...." so individual teachers' views are included.

School UCAS refs are pointless anyway. We only check them to make sure there's nothing negative (e.g. Robert's self-confident manner may be perceived as arrogance.")

I thnk it was the personal tutor at the 3 schools my older three were at or it might have been the senior tutor or someone. I think it probably varies. I know my second daughter on being shown hers pointed out some very obvious factual inaccuracies which were changed but they did not change something that she felt was very wrong about her but was subjective.

DD1 and 2's personel tutors wrote thier UCAS referances.
DD2 has now decided to take a year outand aply for university agsin next year,
Does anybody know how she should go about this and who should she get to write her references?

I think you can either apply now this year at school with deferred entry which I suspect is the easiest way or you can apply whilst you're away but if they're in the depths of Borneo that gets quite hard. I think even if they do a gap year and apply in that year the school will still help.

Form teacher, but checked and actually signed by head teacher - so he is the final point of reference in my school.

DD2 has already applied for university this year ,so has a refernce from her form tutor.
She has not got into any of universities that she really wants to go to.
She wants to do musical thertre and although she has had auditions she has not got through ( she is good,but it is very hard to get into.).
So now she has decided she wants to take a year out and apply for different universities next year,,
So when she registers again she will not still be at college. So what I want to know is will she have to get another reference from someone else or will the college one still stand. Or could she still ask a college tutor to do a reference although she will have left.
Hope you understand all this.

In my school subject teachers provide relevant info (predicted grades, stengths in the subject, are they proactive, motivation etc) to form tutors who then write the reference drawing on these comments as well as their own knowledge of the pupil.

Yes I know that. But what does she do if she is applying for university after she has left college?

She rings up her previous Head of Year and asks them to do a reference for her. They then have to check her application online, her predicted grades or whatever etc and put their reference in. I think in the past I have had the student sit next to me to do this so I can access their online application. I did this a couple of times in the past.

Thank you leo. She did apply this year but as she has not got on to the courses she wants to do she has decided to not carry on with this years application. But to completly start again in September and apply to start in September 09.
She has got a reference from her tutor for this year, can she put this reference on next years application or will she need a new one?

If you go on the UCAS website, there is a section that deals with reference writing after pupils have left school or college. You can ask the tutor from when you were at college to write another reference (may need to be updated with what she has been doing in 'year out' etc) or I think you can get a 'professional' colleague or whatever (if at work) to write one. The UCAS website is very useful or you can phone them and they will probably tell your daughter how to go about it.

Thank you Leo. She did apply for university this year so does already ahve a referance from her tutor. She has decided not to continue with her application for this year. So she is going to completly start again in September and apply for University to start in September 09. Can she still use the reference she has or does she have to get another one?

The reference has to confirm predicted or actual grades and so presumably if there is no change in terms of either of these details then the reference can still be used. It would also need to state why there has been a gap year and what was accomplished during this time. She will have to contact the tutor to make sure it is ok to use the reference.

It depends. Form tutors usually write the main refernce where I work. Subject teachers write a short report, which is fed to the form tutor, whoo uses that information.

I have had a few students ask me to write their report, which I was more than happy to do (as their subject teacher). I just checked first with the head of sixth form and tutor that this was OK.

Its quite touching to be asked