Which 6th Form/College?!!!!!!!!

Original post by iamprettyreckless

I am just about to start the final exam year of my GCSE's (Yr 11) and starting to look into where I should study my A-levels. I am planning to do the full 2 years and want to do courses which will advantage me in my career choice (veterinary officer in the Army). From personnal experience i have found that a private education is what I am looking for, primarily boarding. Colleges/6th forms which excel in the sciences, offer horse riding as an extra curricular and train in Athletics are the ideal. I am academic and my predictions are high (8 A's and an A*). The college would have to be able to offer scholarships & bursary's as my family cant afford tuition fees. It would also be useful for the school to be between and around Wycombe and Anglesey, Wales. Any suggestions would be great, and accounts of personnal experience better!

How bothered are you about location, because with boarding schools it may not matter as much it being close to home, because you don't have to travel back and forth every day?? If this isn't a major factor, you should look into Queen Ethelburga's College? It's a boarding (and day) private school in North Yorkshire, and is probably the best school in the UK for horse-riding as it has the Royal Court Equestrian Centre, which is internationally renowned and even has an Olympic eventer as a coach! There's recently been a renovation of the science block, as well as a massive investment in new sports facilities, including a brand-new running track and loads of other stuff (I'm not really sporty so can't help you too much there, sorry!) As for scholarships, there are very generous ones offered for high academic achievement. Hope that helps!
P.S. Sorry if I sound like an advertiser for the school, but when I read what you were looking for I just thought that it would be almost perfect! :smile:

Reply 2

OP

Ahaha sound just a tad like an advertiser! I've been looking Into and contacting QE for a while, they seem a really good school and have all the facilities, but Ive also heard they had a bad reputation in some criteria's. They've said I qualify for an 100% boarding scholarship, but apparently, according to another thread, its non existent. This is why I'm looking Into other schools. :smile:

Thankyou

Reply 3

Original post by iamprettyreckless

Ahaha sound just a tad like an advertiser! I've been looking Into and contacting QE for a while, they seem a really good school and have all the facilities, but Ive also heard they had a bad reputation in some criteria's. They've said I qualify for an 100% boarding scholarship, but apparently, according to another thread, its non existent. This is why I'm looking Into other schools. :smile:

Thankyou

Sorry

I'm starting there next week, so I'm rather excited :biggrin:

What thread is that? I can't help you on the 100% boarding front, as I'm a day student, but I've got a 100% scholarship for day fees. I have heard a couple of dodgy rumors about the school, but out of the choices where I live it was the best option for me, so I just disregarded them :s-smilie:

Wycombe Abbey

OP

Original post by Kimiechi

Sorry

I'm starting there next week, so I'm rather excited :biggrin:

What thread is that? I can't help you on the 100% boarding front, as I'm a day student, but I've got a 100% scholarship for day fees. I have heard a couple of dodgy rumors about the school, but out of the choices where I live it was the best option for me, so I just disregarded them :s-smilie:

Awesome! might just see you when you're in your final year then :P If you dont mind me asking, what were your GCSE results like? and did you take an exam for the scholarship? dodgy rumours? - dw about them making me change my mind EVERY school has a bad side. :smile:

Reply 6

OP

Original post by Member737,514

Wycombe Abbey

the best scholarship they do is 5% and although they do bursaries, the site doesnt say much on them. I've lived and have been coming to Wycombe for 15yrs, so obviously I know how prestigious and highly thought of the school is, but I also know how high the fees are. The school's GCSE pupils achieve extremely highly, so competing with them for a place in 6th form, let alone a bursary, would be more than difficult.

Reply 7

Original post by iamprettyreckless

Awesome! might just see you when you're in your final year then :P If you dont mind me asking, what were your GCSE results like? and did you take an exam for the scholarship? dodgy rumours? - dw about them making me change my mind EVERY school has a bad side. :smile:

You never know, if you come visit the school I might be the one showing you round! (I'll have to learn my way round first though - it's like a maze!) I got 9 A*s and an A :biggrin:

Yeah, I had to take two exams, as well as give a presentation and interview with the headmaster. They had a scholarship selection day back in January, where all potential scholarship candidates came to do this.
The rumours were just mainly about how they may or may not have used slightly unorthodox means to get around planning permission (this girl said that she'd heard (from her cousin's friend or something) that they'd 'accidentally' burnt down part of the school so they could rebuild it as they couldn't get planning permission to renovate. I doubt this though! :s-smilie:

Reply 8

OP

wow okay that'samazing - i can barely compete with your results! :s-smilie:

Im trying to get good results but I just have too many out of school commitments so im averageing A's instead of A*s. Do you do sport as well? Do you have any advice for studying/revising? Im coming to the open day this weekend, see you there? Well that's not bad - my current school has a worse rep than that! Im extremely glad that that's all cleared up. :biggrin:

Reply 9

Original post by iamprettyreckless

wow okay that'samazing - i can barely compete with your results! :s-smilie:

Im trying to get good results but I just have too many out of school commitments so im averageing A's instead of A*s. Do you do sport as well? Do you have any advice for studying/revising? Im coming to the open day this weekend, see you there? Well that's not bad - my current school has a worse rep than that! Im extremely glad that that's all cleared up. :biggrin:

Thanks

no, I'm terrible at sport!! Lol :tongue:

Yeah, I'm one of the tour guides showing people around, so you never know, it may be me you get to show you around! As for studying, I would advise you to get a copy of the specification as early on in the year as you can, and use that to revise from. In the run up to the exams I made really detailed notes based around each specification point, and used that as a basis, 'cos they can't test you on anything that's not on the spec! Also shop around with revision guides to see which ones suit you best for certain subjects - I found CGP were good for sciences, but their maths one was terrible and I much preferred the Letts one, for example. Good luck!! :biggrin:

Oh, and as regarding your earlier post about 100% boarding scholarships not existing, they definitely do 'cos I have friends who are on them!! :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 10

OP

That's cool, now Its the matter of achieving the scholarship :L somehow it seems unlikely, but its worth a try anyhow. Are the boarders there nice? (seeming as I'd have to live with them), I've had my fair share of bad boarding life and looking to get to the greener side. What are you studying? What do you aspire to be? ... Whats your actual name? - mine is JJ :smile:

Reply 11

Original post by iamprettyreckless

That's cool, now Its the matter of achieving the scholarship :L somehow it seems unlikely, but its worth a try anyhow. Are the boarders there nice? (seeming as I'd have to live with them), I've had my fair share of bad boarding life and looking to get to the greener side. What are you studying? What do you aspire to be? ... Whats your actual name? - mine is JJ :smile:

Yeah, the boarders are really nice :smile:

word of warning: many of them are Chinese, but in a way that it good because the English people seem to band together, and you get to know people really quickly :smile:

the boarding apartments are really cool, too (i was in my friend's yesterday after-school) Plus, if you like horses the corridors look over the indoor eventing arena :smile:

it's likely you'd end up sharing with a chinese person, cos they like to get people mixing, but they're all really nice and speak good english :smile:

I'm studying English Lit, English Lang, History, French and Beginner's Spanish :smile:

ideally I'd love to go to Oxford and study History and French, then become either a historian (specialising in french history), or a history teacher :smile:

my name is kim :smile:

Reply 12

OP

Sounds like my current school, I don't mind though as long as I get on with them. Is there a big separation between yr12 and 13? I'm on my way to the open day :biggrin:

. My English isn't good enough to take further. I would love to learn another language however with my other studies, its one of my lower priorities (i study French GCSE) with the right commitment I could probably get an a* but... You know the rest. Will you be there today?

Reply 13

Original post by iamprettyreckless

Sounds like my current school, I don't mind though as long as I get on with them. Is there a big separation between yr12 and 13? I'm on my way to the open day :biggrin:

. My English isn't good enough to take further. I would love to learn another language however with my other studies, its one of my lower priorities (i study French GCSE) with the right commitment I could probably get an a* but... You know the rest. Will you be there today?

There's not as big a separation as you might think with some schools, since we have mixed forms and also for example in English Lit we have two Year 13's who are taking the AS alongside their other A2's. You could always take a language as an extra-curricular, if you don't want to do A Level. How did you find the open day today? I only ended up doing one tour (I was on morning shift and the tour I did was two hours long, so by the time I finished it was time to go home).

Reply 14

OP

shame :/ my tour guide spoke little english (but enough to get by), I felt sorry for her though as my mum and I took her completely off her timetable/order of things. :P. The day was good though, we were really impressed by the school and the headmaster was lovely. We were there kind of a bit (well a lot really) longer than we initially planned for.
That's a good way of doing things, rather than keep the years completely seperate in lessons etc. I could, that would be awesome, maybe then doing as a non-compulsary topic, I'd enjoy it a bit more, and do a lot better. Talking about languages, I have my GCSE french oral to learn by Tuesday :O!!!!!! I really dont have the focus to sit down and LEARN it off by heart.
Sorry for the late reply, it's been a while since i logged on.

Reply 15

OP

Original post by Kimiechi

There's not as big a separation as you might think with some schools, since we have mixed forms and also for example in English Lit we have two Year 13's who are taking the AS alongside their other A2's. You could always take a language as an extra-curricular, if you don't want to do A Level. How did you find the open day today? I only ended up doing one tour (I was on morning shift and the tour I did was two hours long, so by the time I finished it was time to go home).

shame :/ my tour guide spoke little english (but enough to get by), I felt sorry for her though as my mum and I took her completely off her timetable/order of things. :P. The day was good though, we were really impressed by the school and the headmaster was lovely. We were there kind of a bit (well a lot really) longer than we initially planned for.
That's a good way of doing things, rather than keep the years completely seperate in lessons etc. I could, that would be awesome, maybe then doing as a non-compulsary topic, I'd enjoy it a bit more, and do a lot better. Talking about languages, I have my GCSE french oral to learn by Tuesday :O!!!!!! I really dont have the focus to sit down and LEARN it off by heart.
Sorry for the late reply, it's been a while since i logged on.

Reply 16

Original post by iamprettyreckless

shame :/ my tour guide spoke little english (but enough to get by), I felt sorry for her though as my mum and I took her completely off her timetable/order of things. :P. The day was good though, we were really impressed by the school and the headmaster was lovely. We were there kind of a bit (well a lot really) longer than we initially planned for.
That's a good way of doing things, rather than keep the years completely seperate in lessons etc. I could, that would be awesome, maybe then doing as a non-compulsary topic, I'd enjoy it a bit more, and do a lot better. Talking about languages, I have my GCSE french oral to learn by Tuesday :O!!!!!! I really dont have the focus to sit down and LEARN it off by heart.
Sorry for the late reply, it's been a while since i logged on.

Yeah, some of the internationals are better at english than others! :/ yeah, it does take a while to go round everything: the tour I did was over two hours long! Yeah, I do both types of language (A Level French and Beginner's Spanish as an enrichment) and Spanish is a lot less work but it is really enjoyable and you get a qualification at the end of it, which is good! :smile:

Oooh, I remember having to do that, I was walking round the house reciting French for weeks, I think my family got a bit sick of me!! :tongue:

Reply 17

OP

might not be able to go to QE :frown:

(((( its too expensive without a scholarship, and I will struggle to get all the A* necessary, its still a dream though.

Reply 18

Original post by iamprettyreckless

might not be able to go to QE :frown:

(((( its too expensive without a scholarship, and I will struggle to get all the A* necessary, its still a dream though.

Awww

think positive - you can get a scholarship!! I have a friend who only got 1 A* GCSE and she is on 100 boarding scholarship, so it is possible! :biggrin:

Reply 19

OP