As part of the Year 11 Enrichment Programme, students have received a rotational two hour Higher Education taster session.
The fun and informative event took place in the Sixth Form Café. Students were invited to show their technical skills and create a UCAS Hub account from which they could start to navigate the vast amounts of information available about degree course options. The session also familiarised them with our Firefly Higher Education pages which are designed to support every single member of our Sixth Form in their Higher Education journey. A digital Higher Education Treasure Hunt against the clock also enabled students to ensure they could read the small print when it came to degree course entry requirements and there were a few surprises along the way!
Whilst there were a few students who had a clear sense of what they wanted to do at university and beyond, the overwhelming majority didn’t yet know. The Higher Education team reinforced to them that this is entirely normal and shared the statistic that 70% of employers do not mind what subject has been studied.
Students were fascinated by the array of offers held by current Upper Sixth students, including Urban Planning, Fashion Design, Film and Television Production and Aeronautics and Astronautics. Year 11 were shown that Sevenoaks students embrace courses that offer breadth and those that are niche, they leave us for traditional courses and for cutting-edge courses and the Higher Education Department is dedicated to helping students set off on the path best-suited to them as an individual. It wasalso demonstrated to students how they could spend their time at university studying a subject that they love, whilst simultaneously being proactive and preparing for the competitive world of graduate employment. The concept of the Degree Apprenticeship, with its advantages and disadvantages, was also introduced to them, particularly as this is something that we are likely to hear a lot more about in the coming months and years.
As anticipated, there was already considerable interest in the Year 11 cohort for applying to US and International universities, and our US and international university advisors were able to present the school support available for international university application routes. Ahead of the Michaelmas term Year 11 students also had the opportunity for reassurance that their IB Higher Level subject combination would complement the broad area of university study they may choose to pursue. Above all, the sessions provided an opportunity for Year 11 students to reflect upon and consider what might be important to them in the longer term, as they embark upon the various stages of decision-making.
