Holyport College’s online University guidance programme for parents and students.
One of the main reasons students choose to come to Holyport College Sixth Form is because we offer a pathway to top universities. Our stated aim as a Sixth Form is to provide an academic education which will enable the majority of students to access top courses at Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group Universities.
UniPort is designed to be an online programme with a series of presentations, information sessions and an online hub for everything regarding the university application process. There is a dedicated section of the Holyport College website with useful videos, links and tips on how to make your university application as strong as possible. This is all in addition to the support received in person at school and the huge amount of support we receive from our partner school, Eton College.
We believe that Holyport College is unique in the country and certainly unique amongst state schools in developing the first coordinated University Application Series for students and parents.
Unlike most schools who simply run a one-off session for parents with occasional support from teachers, Holyport has created a full-on series that allows both parents/carers and students to be involved in the university application journey from the first half term of sixth form right the way through to A Level results day (and beyond).
The key difference is that we involve the Parents and Carers throughout the entire process. Evidence suggests that students are more likely to make a well-informed and well-supported decision if parents/carers feel like they are involved in the process. It also helps students to explain to parents their own thinking and decision making process.
A Sixteen Session Series
The whole course is designed as a 16 session series which runs over the course of the two-year A Level programme. Most sessions will be live online (Via Google Meets) with a video recording uploaded to the website for those who want to watch later. In some sessions, it will be encouraged to join us ‘in person’ in school but these will also be streamed live and a recording uploaded. Not all sessions will be relevant to all students and parents/carers but you can read about the sessions below and decide which ones apply to you or your son/daughter.
The UniPort Programme 2020-21
Session
Year
Time
Event
1
Year 12
Sept
Unifrog Launch
2
Oct
Introducing the Supercurricular
3
Jan
Making the most of Open Days and Uni Fairs
4
Mar
Higher Education Evening
5
Apr
Applying to Oxford and Cambridge
6
Apr
Applying for Medicine and Healthcare Courses
7
May
Admissions Tests
8
May
UCAS Account Setup
9
June
Writing an Effective Personal Statement
10
June
Portfolio and Audition Subjects
11
Year 13
Sep
Parents/Carers Q&A
12
Sep
Taking a Gap Year
13
Nov
Preparing for Interviews
14
Feb
Accepting Offers
15
Mar
Student Finance
16
Apr
Preparing for Results Day
Please note:
This programme is designed to be ‘in addition’ to the physical ‘face-to-face’ help that students will receive in the College
Outside speakers will continue to come to the college and deliver support and advise to students
Sixth Form Tutors, Mr Hardee and Mr Alford will still be in touch with parents in the usual way about all aspects of university guidance and academic progress
Eton will continue to provide support, especially for things like Oxbridge and Medical Interview practice and Admissions test sessions
Whilst this is primarily aimed at the vast majority of students who will be applying to the UK for university, we recognise that for a few students this will not be the case. We have an external expert who works with our US candidates, and that process needs to start early. Please contact Mr Hardee to discuss this further
For other non-UK applications a dialogue needs to be set up between the school, students and parents to make sure we are all on the same page
Session 1: Unifrog Launch
All Holyport College students are signed up to an external online platform called Unifrog to help them manage the university admissions process. This platform is a very powerful, ‘one stop shop’ to help students collate the information needed to make informed decisions and a competitive university application. This session will launch the platform and take you through some of the amazing capabilities.
Session 2: Introducing the Supercurricular
About five years ago the word ‘Supercurricular’ entered the vocabulary of most Russell Group UK universities (it was originally an Oxford University term). This session explains what the Supercurricular is and why we want Holyport College students to engage in it if they want to make a serious application to top universities.
Session 3: Making the Most of Open Days and University Fairs
By this time in the academic year, students should be starting to think about what courses and what universities they might be interested in. This session coincides with the annual UCAS fair at Surrey Sports Park and is designed to help prepare students to use this fair (as well as university open days) to ask the right questions and get the best information.
Session 4: Higher Education Evening
This session is our traditional flagship event whereby we invite students and parents to come into school and learn about the mechanics of making a university application. This session covers a broad range of topics and looks at issues such as types of offer, predicted grades and how to be strategic with your university options.
Session 5: Applying to Oxbridge
Oxford and Cambridge are two of the world’s leading universities and as such have slightly different requirements to most other UK universities. Mr Hardee (an Oxford graduate himself) goes through what it takes to make a competitive application to either university and outlines some of the extra things that will need to be done by students considering applications to these universities. This is a must for anyone serious about going for Oxbridge.
Session 6: Medical and other Healthcare Courses
Want to be a Doctor? Dentist? Vet? Nurse? Then this is the session for you. A bit like applying to Oxbridge, these courses have very specific and additional requirements. This session will take you through all of these. It will focus on how to go about getting high quality work experience over the summer. An expert from the Science department will also be on hand to answer questions.
Session 7: Admissions Tests
Roughly 12 years ago, Oxford University introduced a few pre-interview admissions tests to help do a first screen of candidates before interview. Now they have become the norm for most Oxford and Cambridge courses, as well as other very competitive courses at other universities such as, but not limited to, Medicine, Law, Economics and Engineering. If you are considering a course or university that requires any sort of test in addition to A Levels, this is the session you need to attend.
Session 8: UCAS Account Set-up
In order to make an application to a UK university you need to have set up a UCAS account. This is a little harder than it might initially seem with lots of information needed to set up the account effectively. This session walks the students (and parents) through this set-up and answers many of the commonly asked questions.
Session 9: Writing an effective Personal Statement
Every student applying to a UK university is required to write a 4000 character (roughly 650-700 word) personal statement. It is designed to convey why a student thinks they are suitable to study that particular course at university. This will provide the starting point and some suggestions as to what makes for a good personal statement and what makes a terrible one.
Session 10: Portfolio and Audition Subjects
Whether considering an Art Foundation course, a Photography programme or perhaps a course linked to Music or Performing Arts, you will need to know what is required when it comes to submitting a portfolio of evidence or preparing for an audition. This session, run in conjunction with the heads of creative subjects, will detail what the requirements are for these courses and how to get a competitive edge by preparing effectively over the summer break.
Session 11: Parents Q and A
This session is designed as a ‘Parents Only’ drop in session. With the long summer behind us, this is the opportunity to come together and ask those burning questions before the UCAS form gets sent off. This session is devoted to answering your questions and Mr Hardee will be on hand to help.
Session 12: Taking a Gap Year
Not all students want to go to university right away and for some a gap year can be an enriching experience. This session takes you through the opportunities and pitfalls of taking a gap year as well as what this means for your university application.
Session 13: Preparing for Interviews
Mostly for Oxbridge and Medical applicants but also anyone who might have a face-to-face or online interview from a university. This will detail how best to prepare for interviews and go through a few of the possible/likely scenarios a candidate might face.
Session 14: Accepting Offers
By this time in the cycle, most students will have received decisions from most of their universities (or at the very least be nearly at that point). This session goes through the next stage of the process and outlines what it means to make a university your Firm or Insurance choice and the implications of these decisions. Do not reply to offers until you have been to this session!
Session 15: Student Finance
This is a crash course in applying for student finance: we will cover what the difference is between tuition fee loans, maintenance loans, grants and scholarships. We will also point you in the right direction for the government websites which help with this aspect and, if time permits, some helpful hints to students on how to budget will be given.
Session 16: Preparing for Results Day
As the exam season approaches, this session is designed to help students and parents prepare for results day. Whilst obviously we hope that all students get the grades they need for their Firm University choice, we know that this sometimes doesn’t happen. This session will cover different results day scenarios and particularly focus on UCAS Clearing and Adjustment as well as how to contact universities to try and negotiate a place. This is a crucial session and well worth coming along to.
Russell Group Universities.