It is very important to us that when students leave our Sixth Form they have a plan for their future, be that a place at university, a job or an apprenticeship. Whatever the preference, each student receives individual advice and guidance to help them make the correct decision for their next step.

Progression support is provided for university applications through the UCAS website, and for job and apprenticeship applications.

A range of support websites are available to students; UCAS, the National Apprenticeship and unifrog.

We have a number of speakers in assemblies who talk about the different opportunities available to students.

The Year 12 Destination Day is used to launch the university application process and apprenticeship opportunities and the school runs visits to universities and career fairs.

Next Steps

UCAS

Start Early!

The key is start early! It is vital that you do lots of research about your university application and the earlier the better.

You need to research:

• Courses: content and modules
• Universities: big/small campus, town/city?
• Grades needed: points/grades? Can you realistically achieve the grades required?
• Do you need work experience?

If your course(s) need work experience it may need to be over a period of time not just a single week so you should use your school holidays.

Some of the courses that may need work experience include:

• Teaching
• Medicine including radiography, paramedics, midwifery, physiotherapist
• Social work

Key points

Attend all Form time sessions; tutor time, seminars and assemblies. Form time during the final term of Year 12 and the first term of Year 13 will be largely devoted to UCAS applications. You will be given lots of important information via your tutors so attend form time!

Research courses and universities

Register with UCAS and complete the application form – personal details, GCSE grades, employment, course choices.

Write your personal statement – make sure you draft and re-draft it a number of times. It will be worth it!

Speak to your tutor about your reference

Speak to your teachers about your predicted grades

Support provided

Head of Sixth Form - Mrs Moore

Sixth Form Manager - Mrs Norman

We have five dedicated Sixth Form tutors. Your tutor is the first point of contact regarding any concerns or information you may have that we should know. You will be paired up with an appropriate tutor where possible, depending on your subject preference.

Our sixth form tutors:

• Miss Davey
• Miss O'Connell
• Mrs Taylor
• Mr Thompson
• Mrs Waldron

Support Networks

We have several support networks available in the College that you could take advantage of:

• Bursary - If you have a household income of under £20k the Bursary can help with purchasing books, transport, school lunch etc. See Mrs T Brown for details or visit our Bursaries page for more information.
• Academic Mentor - Mrs Glen can offer tailored and personalised help and support to specific students and can help with anything from issues with organisation to helping students get things off their chest.
• Career support – Mrs Pollard is always on hand to help students that are unsure about their career paths.
• Dedicated UCAS support – We will make sure our students know when and how to apply and will give dedicated personal statement support.
• Medical/Oxbridge applications – Students who would like to apply for Medicine or to an Oxbridge University will receive extra one to one support from our outstanding subject leaders to help them through the tricky application process.
• Clearing support on results day – If things don’t go quite as our students planned, we will be on hand to help them put things right again on results day.