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Children's Nursing 2015

Despite getting bad AS results, I'll be applying for child nursing at: Nottingham, Southampton, King's College, City & South Bank

I'm currently writing my personal statement but i'm struggling with it.
Does anyone have any advice or tips?

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Reply 1
I currently got my place at Salford university for children's nursing.

Advice and tips, I would say just be truthful and honest. Discuss all the things you have done that relate to children's nursing that may make your application stronger. This could range from work experiences to caring for children in the family. Talk about why you want to be a nurse and what skills you already have that you will be able to use. Then discuss what skills you hope to gain from this course and the experience. A strong personal statement will definitely give you a better start than the rest of the students even if they have better results! Good luck, I hope this helps! X


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Reply 2
Original post by iysx__
I currently got my place at Salford university for children's nursing.

Advice and tips, I would say just be truthful and honest. Discuss all the things you have done that relate to children's nursing that may make your application stronger. This could range from work experiences to caring for children in the family. Talk about why you want to be a nurse and what skills you already have that you will be able to use. Then discuss what skills you hope to gain from this course and the experience. A strong personal statement will definitely give you a better start than the rest of the students even if they have better results! Good luck, I hope this helps! X


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This has been really helpful
Thank you :smile:
The only problem I have is that I've arranged to volunteer at a specialist school for children with learning disabilities but my DBS check will be done at the start of September so i'd have to start volunteering in October which is quite late. Luckily my work experience starts in September. But I might end up finishing my personal statement in late November/December which is a worry :frown:
I'm applying for child nursing 2015 entry too :smile: haven't decided my choices apart from Nottingham and I like the look of Southampton, York and Leeds and maybe Cardiff, UWE, LJMU - not sure though.

I wouldn't worry about bad AS grades. After I received bad AS results last year I applied to University for Primary Ed ( also competitive) and in my experience as long as your predicted grades meet the entry requirements you can still get interviews and offers. I've just finished sixth form now and have decided to apply for nursing instead.
Reply 4
Original post by Emma Leigh
I'm applying for child nursing 2015 entry too :smile: haven't decided my choices apart from Nottingham and I like the look of Southampton, York and Leeds and maybe Cardiff, UWE, LJMU - not sure though.

I wouldn't worry about bad AS grades. After I received bad AS results last year I applied to University for Primary Ed ( also competitive) and in my experience as long as your predicted grades meet the entry requirements you can still get interviews and offers. I've just finished sixth form now and have decided to apply for nursing instead.


Oh ok, sounds very reassuring
My grades were BDDU (yeah it's bad ) and i'll be resitting some AS exams on top of A2 exams.
If I get predicted ABB then i'll be fine.

What branch of nursing do you want to do ??
Original post by Shanzii
Oh ok, sounds very reassuring
My grades were BDDU (yeah it's bad ) and i'll be resitting some AS exams on top of A2 exams.
If I get predicted ABB then i'll be fine.

What branch of nursing do you want to do ??


Don't Worry I got CDEU, it happens :smile: Also I applied to a few courses which asked for grades higher than my predicted ones and got interviews even for them. I did resits too, not saying it doesn't get stressful, but I improved in all of them so it is doable.

I want to do children's nursing, I'm nervous about how competitive it is though.
Original post by iysx__
I currently got my place at Salford university for children's nursing.

Advice and tips, I would say just be truthful and honest. Discuss all the things you have done that relate to children's nursing that may make your application stronger. This could range from work experiences to caring for children in the family. Talk about why you want to be a nurse and what skills you already have that you will be able to use. Then discuss what skills you hope to gain from this course and the experience. A strong personal statement will definitely give you a better start than the rest of the students even if they have better results! Good luck, I hope this helps! X


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Hey well done on getting a place :smile: Are you already on the course or do you start this year? Do you mind me asking what your interviews were like for Salford and other paces you applied?
Reply 7
Original post by Emma Leigh
Don't Worry I got CDEU, it happens :smile: Also I applied to a few courses which asked for grades higher than my predicted ones and got interviews even for them. I did resits too, not saying it doesn't get stressful, but I improved in all of them so it is doable.

I want to do children's nursing, I'm nervous about how competitive it is though.


Really ? Most nursing courses require BBB or above so i'm slightly worried still
Did you resit AS exams whilst doing A2 ?

Children's nursing is really competitive as most Unis only have 44 or less places on courses so i'm trying to get as much experience as possible. But don't be nervous, as long as you have experience and you've researched about it then you should be fine
Original post by Shanzii
Really ? Most nursing courses require BBB or above so i'm slightly worried still
Did you resit AS exams whilst doing A2 ?

Children's nursing is really competitive as most Unis only have 44 or less places on courses so i'm trying to get as much experience as possible. But don't be nervous, as long as you have experience and you've researched about it then you should be fine


Yeah, I think during the application process they overlook low grades if the rest of the application is good, of course you'll have to meet the grades they ask for but I don't think it hold you back too much when it comes to getting condtional offers.

Yeah I did AS resits whilst doing A2. I got my grades from CDEU to BCC, I think I was capable of higher grades however I had a lot of personal problems throughout sixth form so I was happy with the grades I did get. It's a bit low for nursing though so this year I'm doing a course at college for extra UCAS points, I emailed Uni's like York who ask for BBB and they seemed fine with me doing that.


Yeah I have quite a lot of experience with children but at the moment I'm trying to get experience that's in a health setting so I'm trying to find volunteering at care homes and some hospital work experience. Hopefully I can get that soon.
Reply 9
Original post by Emma Leigh
Yeah, I think during the application process they overlook low grades if the rest of the application is good, of course you'll have to meet the grades they ask for but I don't think it hold you back too much when it comes to getting condtional offers.

Yeah I did AS resits whilst doing A2. I got my grades from CDEU to BCC, I think I was capable of higher grades however I had a lot of personal problems throughout sixth form so I was happy with the grades I did get. It's a bit low for nursing though so this year I'm doing a course at college for extra UCAS points, I emailed Uni's like York who ask for BBB and they seemed fine with me doing that.


Yeah I have quite a lot of experience with children but at the moment I'm trying to get experience that's in a health setting so I'm trying to find volunteering at care homes and some hospital work experience. Hopefully I can get that soon.


That's still a large improvement though CDEU to BCC even if you had personal problems :smile:

Do you have advice on how to balance AS and A2 revision because i'm stressing about how I'm going to do that ?

So far, I've only worked in a nursery but I've managed to organise work experience in a hospital (with play specialists - I don't know what they do or whether it's relevant to child nursing) and I've arranged to volunteer at a specialist school for children with disabilities. Hopefully, that should be enough experience
Original post by Shanzii
That's still a large improvement though CDEU to BCC even if you had personal problems :smile:

Do you have advice on how to balance AS and A2 revision because i'm stressing about how I'm going to do that ?

So far, I've only worked in a nursery but I've managed to organise work experience in a hospital (with play specialists - I don't know what they do or whether it's relevant to child nursing) and I've arranged to volunteer at a specialist school for children with disabilities. Hopefully, that should be enough experience



Well it might depend on what subjects you take. I asked my teachers because they had different responses but most told me to try to do a little bit each week just to keep it fresh in your mind but make sure you don't let it take priority over A2. If I'm being honest I rarely did that because of the workload for A2, I started revision nearer the time of exams. Start revision earlier than you usually would when summer comes and if you have any coursework then that's a great opportunity to get good grades and part of the course out of the way before summer. Also, you might find resits easier because you've had a year to improve.

Yeah that sounds really good, the play specialists will relate well to child nursing. So far I've volunteered in a primary school and a brownies, I've also done work with younger pupils at my school. I really hope I can get hospital work experience, that would be so useful :smile:
Reply 11
Original post by Emma Leigh
Well it might depend on what subjects you take. I asked my teachers because they had different responses but most told me to try to do a little bit each week just to keep it fresh in your mind but make sure you don't let it take priority over A2. If I'm being honest I rarely did that because of the workload for A2, I started revision nearer the time of exams. Start revision earlier than you usually would when summer comes and if you have any coursework then that's a great opportunity to get good grades and part of the course out of the way before summer. Also, you might find resits easier because you've had a year to improve.

Yeah that sounds really good, the play specialists will relate well to child nursing. So far I've volunteered in a primary school and a brownies, I've also done work with younger pupils at my school. I really hope I can get hospital work experience, that would be so useful :smile:


I'll be doing biology, chemistry and psychology for A2. I'm dropping maths since I got a U in it :frown:
Ok, thank you. I'll try that
Really ? that's good to hear since I didn't know what play specialists did
All the experience you've done is great so far. Try contacting a local hospital to see whether you can get work experience. You do have to be persistent so that you can get it
Original post by Shanzii
I'll be doing biology, chemistry and psychology for A2. I'm dropping maths since I got a U in it :frown:
Ok, thank you. I'll try that
Really ? that's good to hear since I didn't know what play specialists did
All the experience you've done is great so far. Try contacting a local hospital to see whether you can get work experience. You do have to be persistent so that you can get it


They're really good subjects for nursing :smile: I wish that I had taken biology although I've heard it's pretty difficult
I contacted the hospital in July and I was told they aren't considering anymore work experience until September so to email them back then. Now I'm just waiting for September. I also emailed the local GP Surgery about work shadowing a nurse there and hoping I'll get a response for that, fingers crossed.
I'm starting my personal statement at the moment but it's difficult when I don't yet have all the experience that I want to write about.
Reply 13
Original post by Emma Leigh
They're really good subjects for nursing :smile: I wish that I had taken biology although I've heard it's pretty difficult
I contacted the hospital in July and I was told they aren't considering anymore work experience until September so to email them back then. Now I'm just waiting for September. I also emailed the local GP Surgery about work shadowing a nurse there and hoping I'll get a response for that, fingers crossed.
I'm starting my personal statement at the moment but it's difficult when I don't yet have all the experience that I want to write about.


They're good but are really hard :s-smilie: biology is more about remembering large amounts of information and key words which is annoying at times. Email them as soon as it hits September so that you can get work experience early. That's a really good idea, I think shadowing a nurse would be a great way to see what they do on a daily basis.

As for your personal statement, you already have experience with children so you can write about what skills you've learnt from those experience and how you can use these skills whilst training as a nurse. When you get more experience, just add it into your personal statement. But it's better said than done as I still haven't done that myself and i'm still struggling to do so
Original post by Shanzii
They're good but are really hard :s-smilie: biology is more about remembering large amounts of information and key words which is annoying at times. Email them as soon as it hits September so that you can get work experience early. That's a really good idea, I think shadowing a nurse would be a great way to see what they do on a daily basis.

As for your personal statement, you already have experience with children so you can write about what skills you've learnt from those experience and how you can use these skills whilst training as a nurse. When you get more experience, just add it into your personal statement. But it's better said than done as I still haven't done that myself and i'm still struggling to do so



Yeah I was thinking the same, I've already wrote the email in my drafts ready to send :smile:. I'm a bit worried about what date it would be organised for though I want it to be as soon as possible but I'm also not sure if I would be able to get the time off college if it was during term time. Yeah it would be great but I think I'm going to have to chase them up a few times on it.

Yeah it's really difficult to get started isn't it? I've actually made a start, it's very unorganised though I've just written separate paragraphs. There is quite a lot so far about 30 lines, but it will need a LOT of redrafting. I'm starting to think that I'm going to run out of lines/characters before I even do extra experience though.

Also, as for play specialists I don't know much about it but I think they try to help children help cope with hospital and make them feel more comfortable by use of play. That will be really useful experience because that's something that would also be done as a nurse :smile:.
Reply 15
Original post by Emma Leigh
Yeah I was thinking the same, I've already wrote the email in my drafts ready to send :smile:. I'm a bit worried about what date it would be organised for though I want it to be as soon as possible but I'm also not sure if I would be able to get the time off college if it was during term time. Yeah it would be great but I think I'm going to have to chase them up a few times on it.

Yeah it's really difficult to get started isn't it? I've actually made a start, it's very unorganised though I've just written separate paragraphs. There is quite a lot so far about 30 lines, but it will need a LOT of redrafting. I'm starting to think that I'm going to run out of lines/characters before I even do extra experience though.

Also, as for play specialists I don't know much about it but I think they try to help children help cope with hospital and make them feel more comfortable by use of play. That will be really useful experience because that's something that would also be done as a nurse :smile:.


You should contact them and ask for when you can do the work experience and talk to your college about it. I'm sure that they'll encourage and sort out when you'd be able to do it. You should pester them as much as possible so you can do it but make sure you don't annoy them :wink:

I've only done 25 lines as I haven't written about my voluntary work at the nursery but the process of writing a personal statement is really hard, I agree. Haha i'd say write about as much as you can and when redrafting, cut out all the irrelevant stuff.

Oh ok, that sounds really good so I think i'll go Google up play specialists to find out more about what they do.
Original post by Shanzii
You should contact them and ask for when you can do the work experience and talk to your college about it. I'm sure that they'll encourage and sort out when you'd be able to do it. You should pester them as much as possible so you can do it but make sure you don't annoy them :wink:

I've only done 25 lines as I haven't written about my voluntary work at the nursery but the process of writing a personal statement is really hard, I agree. Haha i'd say write about as much as you can and when redrafting, cut out all the irrelevant stuff.

Oh ok, that sounds really good so I think i'll go Google up play specialists to find out more about what they do.



Yeah that's a good idea, I just want September to come and to start college so that I can get all this stuff sorted out. Last year I didn't send my application off until mid December but I've started the application earlier this year and really want to get it sent off as early as possible but without rushing it.

25 is really good :smile: Yeah I think I'll have too , I'm not looking forwards to trying to cut things out but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

What university is your first choice?
Reply 17
Original post by Emma Leigh
Yeah that's a good idea, I just want September to come and to start college so that I can get all this stuff sorted out. Last year I didn't send my application off until mid December but I've started the application earlier this year and really want to get it sent off as early as possible but without rushing it.

25 is really good :smile: Yeah I think I'll have too , I'm not looking forwards to trying to cut things out but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

What university is your first choice?


I want to try and send mine off as soon as possible also. At least you've started so you won't be rushing to do the final redraft.

I had Nottingham as my first choice but then I got my AS grades so i'm undecided now. I really want to apply for Nottingham's undergraduate master course for child nursing but they ask for AAB minimum and my predicted grades might be ABB if i'm really lucky :frown:

What university is your first choice ??
Original post by Shanzii
I want to try and send mine off as soon as possible also. At least you've started so you won't be rushing to do the final redraft.

I had Nottingham as my first choice but then I got my AS grades so i'm undecided now. I really want to apply for Nottingham's undergraduate master course for child nursing but they ask for AAB minimum and my predicted grades might be ABB if i'm really lucky :frown:

What university is your first choice ??


Yeah Nottingham is my first choice I think but I'm not sure if I can even apply there yet when I emailed lots if uni's about combining my qualifications, lots came back saying I could, Manchester said I couldn't but I'm still waiting for Nottingham and a few others but if they come back with good news then they'd be my first choice. York and Southampton's facilities look really good too so it's not the end of the world if I can't apply to Nottingham.
Reply 19
Original post by Emma Leigh
Yeah Nottingham is my first choice I think but I'm not sure if I can even apply there yet when I emailed lots if uni's about combining my qualifications, lots came back saying I could, Manchester said I couldn't but I'm still waiting for Nottingham and a few others but if they come back with good news then they'd be my first choice. York and Southampton's facilities look really good too so it's not the end of the world if I can't apply to Nottingham.


Southampton may end up being my first choice as Nottingham is a hard Uni to get into for nursing and Southampton are higher than Nottingham on the league tables. I think you still could apply to Nottingham coz you never know, they could offer you a place :wink: York is really good for nursing as well.

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