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Course Clear? – How Schools Can Support Their A Level Students On Results Day

One of the country's largest clearing centres tells us what schools and colleges can do to help their A Level students on results day if things haven't gone entirely to plan…

Sarah Gordon
by Sarah Gordon
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If, come A Level results day this Thursday, some of your students haven’t attained the grades they were hoping for, they may want to opt for clearing – but what can schools and teachers do to make the process smoother and more likely to benefit students in the long term?

Sarah Gordon, head of recruitment and admissions at London South Bank University, has some words of advice…

Set aside space In order to support students, particularly those who don’t achieve what they were expecting, set aside some spaces where students can go and talk through their options with a teacher, get some advice and work out what to do next. If you can make some PCs and phones available, all the better. All universities have a dedicated clearing line and lots of resources on their websites.

Encourage students to prepare a ‘plan B’ Always make sure that the student has an alternative plan in place and a clear idea as to what they want to do and where. It’s possible that a student’s plans might have changed during the main cycle – having applied to do engineering, for example, they might have since decided that they want to move towards architecture or quantity surveying.

Use resources On the LSBU website we have lots of video resources and short guides on how go through the clearing process and what to expect. It’s worth making those types of resources accessible to students somewhere that’s quiet while you guide them through the process of calling clearing lines and applying.

Make sure your students are prepared and organised See to it that your students have a pen and paper ready and their UCAS ID number to hand and their grades in front of them. Before they make their calls, talk to them about whether or not the courses they’re about to apply for one are right for them.

Explore the alternatives If things really haven’t gone to plan and there isn’t a degree course available to them, students need to know that there are many alternative opportunities. If a students has applied to do a full BA Hons. programme, they could perhaps start thinking about applying for an HND instead, for example.

Help them focus on what they what they want to do, and make use the many trained experts that will be ready and waiting on results day. At our own clearing centre, for example, there will be 120 trained experts who know the system inside out ready to offer their expertise online and over the phone.

Don’t rush! That said, there can be a lot of panic and stress around on A Level results day, and a lot of pressure on students to pick a course quickly, get a place and get it done.

Our advice would be somewhat the opposite – to not rush, and instead be certain they make the right choice for them. There can be lots of pressure from parents and friends (and sometimes from teachers) on students to move really quickly, but while are obviously some time pressures, it’s equally important for them to think carefully about where they want to go and what they want to do when making their decision.

A lot of students apply a little later for the clearing process, sometimes using the Thursday to think about what they want to do before taking action in the days afterwards. We’re one of the largest clearing centres in the UK, and over the years we’ve seen many who feel that pressure to rush. This year we’ll be running our clearing line for 48 hours for the first two days, from 7am on Thursday until 7pm on Friday, so that even at night students can give us a quick call and have us talk them through the whole process – the pros and cons, what options will be best for them, and so forth.

People use clearing for different reasons The biggest myth about clearing is that the only people who apply are those who did badly in their exams, be it A Level, or B-Tec. We know that simply isn’t true – in many cases it’s because a student hasn’t received any offers they’re happy want to try the clearing process to explore their options.

We know from experience that students who have enter higher education through clearing do just as well, if not better, than those who enter through a degree application.

The London South Bank University Clearing number can be contacted on 0800 923 8888; further information about the university’s clearing services can be found here, or by following @lsbu

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