Soldato
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Went to college, am thick, theory confirmed
6th form for the smart and college for thick people ?
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Soldato
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Sounds like a line from a Pulp song?
When I was in secondary school (1990s) yes, the line that was often trotted out by career advisors, school teachers and so on was that clever people should stay at school and do A levels and then go to University, less clever people go to college, get an apprenticeship or get a job.
Of course the truth is it's all rather more complex than that, but at the time that's how things tended to be broadly generalised.
I think it's great that we have moved away from this and got better at helping young people do what they want to do and are suited to do.
Of course the truth is it's all rather more complex than that, but at the time that's how things tended to be broadly generalised.
I think it's great that we have moved away from this and got better at helping young people do what they want to do and are suited to do.
I think it is / was a wide held belief, certainly back in the late 80's and 90's. I don't think it is the same today as there is much more scope and variety available from what I can see (and with two daughters in high school).
It is also very much horses for courses and at that age you are very much influenced by parents, careers advisors (or whatever they are called now) and your peers. I would suggest very few people at that stage have a clear view on what they want to do and how to achieve it. Some don't like the formal school / college / whatever routine and want to be out in the workplace, some want to sit about and do as little as possible, some have just "outgrown" school.
That was certainly the case for me. Enjoyed school but was very much ready to leave at 16. Had no idea what I wanted to do but didn't fancy more study and exams, or not as a full time option.
I was "lucky" in that I was offered a YTS position at a small local company and went from school, summer off into a paying job (£25 a week!) With day release and evening classes to get an ONC then HNC over 4 years. Didn't even get my GCSE results until after I started work.
Then after 4 years went to uni and did a degree. My work experience and ONC/HNC meant I could start on the second year, but only found this out the day I enrolled but went into the first year exempt from all but 1 class. That was early Tuesday evening and clashed with Fresh Prince Of Bell Air so didn't make that lesson much ....
I wouldn't class myself as thick by any stretch but went
School (GCSEs / until I was 15) > ONC (Technical College) > HNC (Technical College) > Degree (Uni although even that was stigmatised as an "Old Polly")
Don't think it did me any harm, had good work experience and life skills going into Uni. Got a full student grant as I had worked for 4 years and found most of uni "not too bad" work wise - worked very well for me
Long post but in summary it's an outdated but widely held view (or was) I didn't do 6th form and turned out OK but still no Gucci Belt (thankfully)
It is also very much horses for courses and at that age you are very much influenced by parents, careers advisors (or whatever they are called now) and your peers. I would suggest very few people at that stage have a clear view on what they want to do and how to achieve it. Some don't like the formal school / college / whatever routine and want to be out in the workplace, some want to sit about and do as little as possible, some have just "outgrown" school.
That was certainly the case for me. Enjoyed school but was very much ready to leave at 16. Had no idea what I wanted to do but didn't fancy more study and exams, or not as a full time option.
I was "lucky" in that I was offered a YTS position at a small local company and went from school, summer off into a paying job (£25 a week!) With day release and evening classes to get an ONC then HNC over 4 years. Didn't even get my GCSE results until after I started work.
Then after 4 years went to uni and did a degree. My work experience and ONC/HNC meant I could start on the second year, but only found this out the day I enrolled but went into the first year exempt from all but 1 class. That was early Tuesday evening and clashed with Fresh Prince Of Bell Air so didn't make that lesson much ....
I wouldn't class myself as thick by any stretch but went
School (GCSEs / until I was 15) > ONC (Technical College) > HNC (Technical College) > Degree (Uni although even that was stigmatised as an "Old Polly")
Don't think it did me any harm, had good work experience and life skills going into Uni. Got a full student grant as I had worked for 4 years and found most of uni "not too bad" work wise - worked very well for me
Long post but in summary it's an outdated but widely held view (or was) I didn't do 6th form and turned out OK but still no Gucci Belt (thankfully)
Caporegime
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I don't know how it has worked out in your circles but most of the school friends that have done well in life are not who you expected them to be.
I have plenty of people who got straight A's and haven't really done anything with their lives yet people who were in middle sets have gone on to become very rich.
I did both 6th form and college and college felt far more grown up.
I really do not like the idea of 11+ however. We have a really good high school with around 600+ students and then a normal school that is 2000+. My daughter missed out by a couple of points and our appeal failed whereas if she was a boy she would have easily got into the grammar school.
The school is basically the only one in town and is oversubscribed due to the weighted nature of foreign migration in my town. She has undoubtedly suffered because of this despite how much extra we give her as parents.
My niece is at Uni right now. She got C's and D's at GCSE level and went to college to get there. When I was at school I got mainly A's and B's. A's in maths and Science and pretty much anyone below that struggled at 6th form.
I guess it is a bit different now.
I have plenty of people who got straight A's and haven't really done anything with their lives yet people who were in middle sets have gone on to become very rich.
I did both 6th form and college and college felt far more grown up.
I really do not like the idea of 11+ however. We have a really good high school with around 600+ students and then a normal school that is 2000+. My daughter missed out by a couple of points and our appeal failed whereas if she was a boy she would have easily got into the grammar school.
The school is basically the only one in town and is oversubscribed due to the weighted nature of foreign migration in my town. She has undoubtedly suffered because of this despite how much extra we give her as parents.
My niece is at Uni right now. She got C's and D's at GCSE level and went to college to get there. When I was at school I got mainly A's and B's. A's in maths and Science and pretty much anyone below that struggled at 6th form.
I guess it is a bit different now.
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Who said anything about an alternative vocational subject?
My school had a single small physics lab, and combined biology and chemistry lab. My college had 3-4 of each with far better equipment.
My school had a single "IT suite" (basically a room full of aging office PCs.)
My college had 2 floors dedicated to IT/computing, including a build and networking lab, and a 3D scanning and modelling system running SLI 6800 GTs bought from OcUK (I know this because I specced it for them
).A school which stops teaching at A level isn't going to have the budget (or justification) for facilities like that, because they simply aren't required, but because the college teaches up to degree level, they do. Even if they aren't strictly required for A level teaching, the fact the equipment is available opens up the option to use them.
The 2nd year of my A levels at college was significantly more interesting and engaging than at my school in part because of the better facilities.
Yeah, it's an interesting perception to have, since I was accepted directly into the 3rd year of my degree based purely on my "thicko" college qualification
As you say, thankfully we seem to have moved on from that (maybe it's just that people have realised we need more plumbers and electricians than media studiers, sports scientists and psychologists?)
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Likely doesn't mean your not "clever" it likely means that the learning styles of exams and sponge-like learning isn't for you. There's a tonne of skills that aren't taught at school of college. Take it from a guy who went to university, I've not once used any of the teachings from uni, definitely used some of the extracurricular learnings though.
Same as many people I know. Picked BS degrees based on what made them feel good, not intelligence. Now they are working in crappy jobs, they could have got without wasting money on an pointless degree.
Absolute bobbins. I went to 6th form after my O levels, but academic ability ≠ being smart/intelligent. Vocational qualifications are just as valid as academic ones.
Out of my peer group, the person who left school with no qualifications is now the one in the most high profile and best paid job. Intelligence comes in many different guises.
Oh yeah, I’m not putting myself down or anything, it was more a comment on the attitudes of the early 90’s really. In our school and our social circle, the cleverest kids went to the main college to do A levels, then on to university. The less ‘boff’ish kids went to the technical college were some went to university afterwards. The rest of us got jobs, or not in some cases.
In my opinion apprenticeships are the best way forward, some of the banks give them out nowadays and starting salary is amazing even when an apprentice and you come out of it with a job, a degree usually and no debt.
Not the 60k debt I came out with and still paying back 12 years later
Not the 60k debt I came out with and still paying back 12 years later
But that's what the government wants. Keep you in "education" as long as possible to run up debt for potentially an worthless degree.
Apprenticeships are the way forward but they are becoming less and less as the government had cut backs.
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Isn't college and 6th form the same thing? I.e. you do your 3 A-levels in both? Sounds like it isn't but never really appreciated they were different things. Always assumed people just called it different things.
It is nowadays. Only difference is 6th form is typically an extension of secondary school, so you're probably more likely to be continued to be treated like a child. Versus college is a completely separate entity, and you can have anyone who's 16+ attend.
I remember when I did an A level in computing, there was a 40 year old guy who was a taxi driver who had decided to study an A level. You wouldn't get that in a 6th form.
Man of Honour
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That does make it quite different then having multiple age groups in one class. Learn something new!
When i was growing up this was the attitude.
My sister went to the best grammar school in the area we lived in and i think it would have been frowned upon if someone had gone to college from there post 16
What is YOUR view? You stated that you were lead to believe, not what your actual view is.