The choice to study at university is the most popular one for our Sixth Form students, with 91% of last year’s Year 13 choosing university as their post 18 destination.
Researching the options available starts early for Sixth Form students at Sacred Heart and our dedicated careers curriculum is taught every week through ‘Your Future’ sessions. These sessions include talks from many different career sectors such as marketing, finance, the NHS, law and software engineering to name just a few.
In addition to this, we have the ‘Ask’ Programme delivering sessions on apprenticeships and offering bespoke support to our students who choose this alternative to university as their preferred route after Sixth Form.
Accessing online platforms such as Unifrog and Springpod gives our students further opportunities to explore virtual work experiences, webinars, podcasts, and online lectures to supplement their own research into careers and undergraduate degrees.
The UCAS deadline for applications to Oxford and Cambridge and for the most competitive university courses – medicine, dentistry and veterinary science - is in October, so the start of the year is always a busy one for our Year 13 staff and students! For all other undergraduate courses, the deadline is in the January of Year 13. This year, we have ten Year 13 students who have submitted their university applications this month to some of the most competitive courses at the top universities across the country. This includes applications to Cambridge to read English Literature, and Music as well as applications to Oxford to read English Language and Literature, Politics and History, Psychology and Philosophy, and Medicine. Applications to study Medicine and Dentistry at Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds and Sheffield have also been submitted by Year 13 students this month.
The Sixth Form pastoral team are always on hand to support Year 13 with their applications, or to offer guidance to any student in Sixth Form who is thinking about the next steps in their education or career.