A Levels Accessing a top university
‘What subjects should I choose for GCSE? What should I do for A level?’ these often agonised questions from 14 and 16-year olds have frequently been met by the benign and well-meaning response: ‘Choose what you are good at and what you like’. There is much wisdom in this, but how well-informed is it? Not all subjects are equal. Some are more equal than others, to misquote George Orwell.
Students will be bombarded with advice from teachers, parents, aunts and uncles – by all sorts of people who have been through the system. Schools should be offering dispassionate advice, but they may be having an eye to latest pressure to meet Government expectations.
As soon as Michael Gove, Minister for Education, entered offi ce he announced a new initiative (they always do). This was the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) designed to infl uence the pattern of GCSEs studied by students. It is constituted from the following: English, Mathematics, the Sciences, a Humanity and a Modern Language. Already this is
infl uencing the pattern of entries by schools which implies that students are being guided towards these. The fi gures are 22% for 2011; 33% for 2102 and 47% in 2013. This may
put pressure on the students who wish to
study Art or Music, which will not count towards the schools’ statistics, but which may well be right for the individual, especially the creative and artistic. At the moment universities do not ask for the
Ebacc as an entrance requirement, but they do look carefully at the GCSE scores which are a signifi cant tool for selection.
Which are the top universities? They are known as the Russell Group and signifi cantly in February of 201l they produced a seminal document called Informed Choices (available online). Designed to improve students’ chances of being considered by the top universities, they identify what they call facilitating subjects which bear a striking resemblance to Gove’s Ebacc core, because they provide the skills they
need for a large number of competitive courses. They are: English Literature, Mathematics and Further Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography and History.
So, anyone who is asked by a puzzled 16 year old what they should study at A level should be asking them whether they want to apply to a top university; and schools giving advice should be directing them and their parents to this important publication. Keith Barron, Senior Master Eltham College, Grove Park Road, Mottingham, London SE9 4QF 020 8857 1455
www.eltham-college.org.uk
6 l education guide
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