Categories
General Information

End of Autumn Update

I hope you are keeping well and looking forward to the Winter Term.

I have now sent the retake notifications for this term’s exams and coursework. If you have received this email (titled ‘RETAKE NOTIFICATION’), then please read it carefully and make sure that you attend/resubmit as required. If you need to retake the EAP exam, I have sent you the sources in an additional email. If you did not receive this email, then, to the best of my knowledge you are safe and can relax for the rest of this week.

However, not so fast. Please make sure that, as you promised in your Application Summary Page, your UCAS application is linked to the school with the buzzword, and is complete and accurate.

As you know, we are planning to release final results for this term next Friday 2nd December. Once we have these results, I will be holding 20-minute tutorials with everybody to discuss your applications. In the meeting, we will discuss:

  • Your Choices, with reference to your Term 1 results
  • Your Personal Statement
  • Your plans for the vacation

Please check your emails to see the date and time for your meeting. All meetings will take place on my Zoom (link in the email).

Please make sure that you attend this session for personal advice and feedback on your application. I look forward to speaking to you then.

Categories
General Information

5 Updates for Winter

Well, here we are: the end of your first term. I am writing with five (5) important updates as we go into Winter. Please read all of them carefully and let me know if you have any questions.

1. Application Workshop Portfolio

Please remember that the deadline for this is 14:00 this Thursday 17th November. As always, please make sure you submit it in the correct PDF format with the approved filename to the usual address.

You should be using the template downloaded from the website, which already includes the Cover Sheet, so there are no excuses for missing this.

Please make sure that you have completed all sections of the Portfolio. All parts must be completed in order to pass this module:

  1. Application Summary Page
  2. Discovery Tasks 1 and 2
  3. Personal Statement

Remember that this is not your final application to university, so your choices here are not set in stone. However, it is a vital part of your thought process which I will refer to when we come to the Winter Tutorials in a few weeks (see below).

As you sign the Declaration in the Application Summary Page, please make sure that it is accurate: i.e. that you have indeed filled in all sections of the UCAS form accurately and that your application (including and especially the Personal Statement) is all your own work.

2. Autumn Term Exams

I sent you the timetable for these on 2nd November. The first exam is at 09:00. Most of you will have your exams at King’s Centre, Osney Mead; if you are travelling to the external exam hall, please check the location and plan how you will get there in advance. This includes checking how long it will take you to get there and allowing extra time in case of traffic and/or getting a bit lost.

I will send everyone a reminder email about exams at the end of this week.

3. Winter Term Modules

I have sent you an email which states the pathway which I expect you to be on, and consequently the specialist module you will take in the Winter Term. Please check this email. If your plans have changed or you think that this is incorrect, please speak to me as soon as possible before the new term starts.

Everyone will study the Core Modules Q&Q Research Methods and IELTS Preparation next term. You can find out more about all the modules on the Foundation Year on the website.

4. December Academic Cultures

The Academic Cultures module continues to run for the duration of your course to give you ongoing support with different key skills and key events throughout the year. For the first three weeks of the Winter Term (until Christmas), we will have a series of special sessions in the Lecture Room at 11:55 on Wednesdays:

  1. Booking IELTS – Please bring your laptop, your passport and your payment card.
  2. Welcome to Winter – Facing and adapting to the challenges of the Winter Term.
  3. IELTS: An Examiner’s View – Insight into the exam from a professional IELTS examiner.

5. Winter Tutorials

As you know, we plan to release your Winter Term results on Friday 2nd December. In the two remaining weeks before the Christmas break, I will hold one-to-one meetings with each of you. I will send you your meeting time by email in the next couple of weeks. The meetings will take place online to aid the efficiency of time and sharing resources and each meeting will take approximately 15-20 minutes.

In the meeting, I will use your Application Workshop Portfolio as a starting point to discuss your university choices and Personal Statement. We will look at your university choices and application strategy in terms of what is realistic in the light of your Term 1 results.

If you have any questions about what to expect in the coming weeks, please do not hesitate to ask me.

I look forward to seeing you all at the HE Fair on Wednesday this week.

Categories
University Events

HE Fair 16th November

I hope you are keeping well and looking forward to showing off what you can do at the end of term.

As I mentioned before, we are looking forwards next week to the biggest university event of the year: next Wednesday 16th November, we will be holding the annual Higher Education Fair in the Lecture Room from 12:00-14:00.

We will have representatives from some of our closest partner universities, representing a wide range of university styles, locations and entrance requirements. This is your opportunity to speak to different university representatives one-to-one, to find out more about entrance requirements and university life, and to ask any individual questions you have.

The universities who have confirmed that they will be there are:

BirminghamBradfordBrightonHultKeele
LancasterLeedsOxford BrookesRoyal HollowaySurrey
SussexUWE BristolWestminsterYork–

Now that you are coming to the end of your Application Workshop module and to submitting the portfolio for this (Deadline 14:00 on Thursday 17th November), this is the perfect opportunity to follow up on what you have already found out about the universities and courses, and to get some extra insight which can inform your final portfolio as well as your application decisions.

This event will take the place of your Academic Cultures class next week and attendance will be taken. Please make sure that you ‘check in’ with me during the event so that I can mark you on the register. You do not need to arrive right at the beginning or stay for the full 2 hours, but you must attend and spend some time making the most of this valuable opportunity.

Not only is this an opportunity for you to learn more about these universities, it is an opportunity for you to make a good impression on them. Please treat this event as you would an interview for the universities or for a job. To help you, here are some top tips for impressing universities:

  1. Do your research. Look at the university websites in advance (links above) so that you can ask good questions and don’t waste time with information already easily available to you.
  2. Dress smartly. There’s no need for a suit but try to look professional and presentable.
  3. Allow plenty of time. Don’t try to rush round in 5 minutes: make sure that you can have a proper conversation with at least most of the universities.
  4. Ask questions. The more you show an interest and some background knowledge of your subject and your university options, the more you will appear as an enthusiastic and diligent candidate.
  5. Speak to a range of universities. Even if you hadn’t planned to apply there. This will give you more information about the range of options available to you, including some unexpected gems, as well as better contextual knowledge to assess the universities higher up your list of interest.
  6. Take every university seriously. They all have some great things to offer and any of these institutions could play a valuable role in your application, so look at them in the best light and they can see you in your best light.

Let me know if you have any questions ahead of this event. I look forward to seeing you there.

Categories
University Events

Birmingham University 9th November

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we will be visiting the University of Birmingham next Wednesday 9th November for their annual Explore event: a kind of special open day designed to give students a real insight into studying at this excellent university.

The Explore event has been a highlight of the year for many years, in which a number of schools are invited to attend a day of demo lectures, subject fairs and campus tours at one of our most popular partner universities. The University of Birmingham is also a member of the Russell Group, and has a beautiful campus on the edge of the second largest city in the UK. In the last few years, Birmingham has regularly been one of the top 2 destinations for our students, especially in Science and Technology, for which it has an especially strong international reputation, although it also has an excellent reputation across the board (e.g. it has one of the top Linguistics departments in the country).

We will need to leave Oxford by coach at 08:45 on Wednesday. Please be ready at the end of Pullens Lane (opposite Oxford Brookes) at this time. If you are late, we will leave without you. We expect to return to Oxford around 17:10.

Remember that Open Days are an opportunity both to learn and to present your best self to the university. This means that you should:

  • Dress smartly and professionally.
  • Pay attention in presentations and lectures.
    • This means not looking at your phone or chatting.
  • Bring pen and paper to make notes.
  • Come prepared to ask good questions.

Please remember that this visit is only available for students on the Science or Social Science Pathways. Classes will continue as normal in school for other students, but you will receive attendance on this trip, as well as learning about a great university and getting some special insight into your subject.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Categories
Exams and Results

Autumn Exam Week Overview

I hope you are keeping well and getting well prepared as we enter the second half of term and the run-up to your Autumn Exams.

As you know, exam week will be Monday 21st November to Friday 25th November.

The overall layout of the week will be as follows:

  • Monday 21st November: Main Exam Session at The King’s Centre, Osney Mead (near the station).
  • Tuesday 22nd November: ALS Speaking exams in school in the morning.
  • Wednesday 23rd November: Fail notifications released by email at the end of the day.
  • Thursday 24th November: Art class presentations/Term 1 evaluation.
  • Friday 25th November: Retake exams in school and resubmission deadline.

I will send you more details, including a specific exam timetable, nearer the time.

As you know, your final assessments will be:

  • ALS: 120min written exam in the Main Exam Session. Speaking exam on 22nd November
  • EAP: 60min written exam in the Main Exam Session. Coursework submitted 10th November
  • Maths Fundamentals or Language in Society: 90min written exam in the Main Exam Session
  • Art: Assessment of term’s work continuously and on 24th November
  • AppW: Portfolio submitted 17th November

If you fail any of these assessments, you will have one opportunity to retake them on 25th November. Retakes will be capped at a maximum score of 40% (a minimal pass).

We are expecting to release Term 1 grades the following week on Friday 2nd December.

The Term 1 assessments combine to form approximately 1/3 of the grade for Year (9 month) courses and just over 1/2 of the grade for Semester (6 month) courses.

If you have any questions or doubts about what to expect from the Autumn Exam Week, please do not hesitate to speak to your teachers or to me.