Exam advice: Relax, and go with the flow

Relax, and go with the flow from Antony Seldon, Master of Wellington College in this week's Telegraph.

Open Days - fashion, scuba diving and volunteering

Fancy making a statement with your gap year and making it not only memorable but worthwhile?


You could work with the Bahamas National Trust to survey the Island's valuable reef and its inhabitants and become a trained PADI scuba diver while you work.  Other opportunities available are trekking in Borneo, working on medical projects in Ecuador or training to become a ski instructor.


Some inspiration from Gapforce (see their blog for first hand accounts) could help you decide what you want to do or sign up for their open day on 4th June in London.


Or you could meet VSO this evening in London and talk to volunteers and staff about what opportunities are available on their open evening.  The VSO has two youth programmes aimed at ages 18-25.

If fashion is more your style, then the Fashion Retail Academy has an open day on May 18th where they aim to provide truly vocational education through full time courses and work placements right in the heart of London's fashion arena just off Oxford Street.


Please make sure you register online for any of the open days.

The Siena Society: Summer Term Events

Our list of summer term speakers is now available.  

Please click on the flyer below for more details.

Please click on the flyer above to zoom

Universities announce fees for 2012

Universities are starting to publish their intended tuition fees for 2012 and courtesy of The Guardian a full list is available here (this link will download a spreadsheet).

The maximum amount a university can set is £9,000 and an increasing amount of universities are willing to charge this. It is interesting to note that all 123 universities and university colleges in the UK will charge at least £6,000 per year to full-time undergraduates.  Universities must publish an access agreement with Offa detailing financial support and targets for widening student applications from all education sectors and backgrounds in order to charge more than the new basic fee of £6,000 per year.

Some interesting universities to note are in Wales: Welsh undergraduates wishing to study at Aberystwyth University will only be charged £3,375 per year but any students from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will have to pay £9,000 maximum. This move could set a trend for all Welsh universities.

Full figures will be confirmed by Offa, the independent watchdog after they have been approved on 11th July 2011.

Offa website

Siena Society holds inaugural lecture with renowned explorer, Fran Sandham, on Thursday March 10th.

A new St Catherine's venture, the Siena Society-whose ambition is to expose our students to a wealth of varied and exciting speakers- is delighted to invite Fran Sandham (explorer and writer) to present our inaugural lecture. On Thursday, March 10th at 4pm in the Drama Studio, Fran will recount some of the experiences he encountered on his epic, solo walk from the Skeleton Coast in Namibia to Zanzibar in Mozambique. No one else has ever walked across this notoriously barren and unforgiving stretch of wilderness (some 3000 miles) and this talk promises to be truly awe-inspiring.

St Catherine's students to attend Festival of Leadership at Wellington College

A group of 4 senior girls selected from Years 11 and 12 will attend a pupil-led conference on leadership at Wellington College on March 11th. The conference is open to students (Years 11-13) from any school in the country and offers the unique opportunity for participants to re-think what it means to lead others.
A rich and diverse programme, including workshops run by students from Wellington, KCS Wimbledon  and Dulwich College, will allow our pupils to evaluate themselves as leaders, and there will be plenty of opportunities for them  to meet students from other schools to discuss the values that real leadership entails.

Russell Group universities definitely favour 'hard' subjects

The UK's top universities recently published a guide which acknowledges officially for the first time that they favour students who study traditional subjects at A-level.

The guide, produced in collaboration with the Institute of Career Guidance and compiled by the Russell Group, a group representing Oxford, Cambridge and 18 other leading universities, confirms rumours that they favour 'harder' subjects over 'softer' ones such as Media Studies or Sociology.

The guide also reveals a clear preference for Science and Maths subjects at A level – even for apparently unrelated degrees. Similarly some Russell Group universities require a language at GCSE, even if your degree is not in languages.

The publication makes it clear that many degrees at competitive universities will closed to you unless you study at least two of the following subjects in the Sixth Form – Maths, English, Geography, History, any of the three Sciences, a Classical or Modern Foreign Language

"If you plan to take more than one perceived 'soft' subject, some caution may be needed," the guidebook warns.

See www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/04/university-places-traditional-subjects-a-levels for a fuller report.