Student Futures: A window into student support in Year 13

Our Year 13 students are busy exploring university destinations worldwide. Many have applications well underway, whilst others are busy researching and finalising their university and degree options. There are many decisions to be made as to the choices out there are wide and varied. We currently have students researching higher education opportunities and commencing the application processes to universities in the UK, The Netherlands, Portugal, the US, Canada, Ireland, Italy, France and Spain to name but a few! - To support each and every student with a personalised approach our three university advisors, Ms Netcher, Mrs Sousa e Sá and Mrs Blanchard, are working with Year 13 students on an individual basis. 
Students are able to book meetings with their designated advisor during their study periods, lunch periods and after school. So, we warmly invite parents to join these meetings also!

A few of our students have worked hard in completing early applications, such as those who are applying to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge in the UK, for medicine in the UK and for Early Applications in the US. These students have been working with the support of Mr Tutton, our Oxbridge advisor and Ms Bradley, our advisor for aspiring medics since Year 12.  We congratulate these students and are excited to follow their progress in the coming months. In terms of individualised support, we’d also like to point out that Mrs Burridge, our Head of Art, is supporting and advising candidates who need to submit (often quite extensive!) art portfolios in addition to going through the usual application process. 

To complement the individualised advice and guidance from our Student Futures team, we are offering systematic Student Futures lessons, which take place during tutor periods and scheduled Health & Citizenship time. These give students the time and resources to research, plan and prepare for their applications with the support of their tutor. In these sessions, our students have completed planning documents that will help guide them through the deadlines and requirements of this process and have been introduced to the ‘brag sheet’ in which every student is encouraged to document their academic and extracurricular achievements. These will go on to be a good resource for admissions essays, personal statements and references. We are excited to introduce the careers platform Unifrog into school and will do so as soon as all parental consent for student use of this platform has been gathered.

Over the next few weeks, we are pleased to be offering drop-in lunchtime support sessions for all Year 13 students, in which we will be sharing advice and practical tips on how to write application essays and personal statements, giving insight into opportunities and application procedures to The Netherlands, Portugal and Ireland, which are three destinations growing in popularity amongst St Julian’s students. 

We look forward to supporting St Julian’s students and Families in this exciting time. Please do not hesitate to contact the Student Futures Team if you have any further questions or concerns. 

Helena Blanchard
Student Futures Coordinator