Virtual Open Evening

Welcome to our Virtual Open Evening.

Here you'll find lots of important information about our fantastic community at NUAST. We would have loved to meet you all face to face as we have in previous years, but hopefully you will find the presentations and resources we have included here useful in making a decision about whether NUAST is right for you.

NUAST is a really exciting, diverse and successful Sixth Form. Our students are incredibly ambitious and join us because they want to achieve well, not just in Science, engineering or mathematics, but in a wide variety of subject areas.

We pride ourselves on our excellent business and university links, and while making the most of these has been challenging under COVID restrictions, this is an aspect of our school that we aim to rebuild as life hopefully returns to normal over the next 18 months.

Thank you for joining us on our virtual open evening. Whether you are a parent/carer or a student, please feel free to ask anything you like in our live Questions and Answers session or get in touch with us if there is anything you want to know later.

Andy Edwards
Head of Sixth Form

Let me introduce myself: I am Andy Edwards, the Head of Post 16 at NUAST. I have been at NUAST almost since we opened and have had the pleasure of seeing many very successful year groups achieve their ambitions with our support. I am really looking forward to helping you to achieve your dreams and be successful. Please see my short introduction below to our fantastic sixth form.

Katie Jones
Head of Year

I have been working at NUAST for the past three years and really enjoy being part of the Sixth Form team. Working alongside such talented students is always a privilege; supporting and guiding you through your A-Levels and beyond. As a teacher I am a mathematician, as I know many of you will be too, and lots of you will be spending many hours of your time in the maths corridor of NUAST! I very much look forward to meeting you all and working with you in the future. 

Please watch the Head of Sixth form’s presentation to parents and students about our school below.

Please click below to see our fantastic record of achievement.

Achievement Record

Please click below for some information on where NUAST students go after they complete their studies.

Destinations Data

Our school ethos is built on three pillars:

  • Achieve success
  • Develop excellent personal and professional skills to engage effectively in the working world
  • Develop good people who contribute across all communities

Originally developed in partnership with the University of Nottingham to be a STEM education centre for the whole of the East Midlands, NUAST has become so much more than that. We offer subjects covering a wide curriculum range and have almost as many students wanting to be lawyers and psychologists as we do doctors.

NUAST has always strived to retain that specialism in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and computer science. Our expertise, our links to the University of Nottingham and local businesses and the incredible drive to succeed that our students have ensure that we remain the destination of choice for students who want to build careers in STEM, as well as young people across Nottingham who want to study in other areas.

We pride ourselves on developing professional students. Our sixth formers wear suits and professional dress, which makes them look and feel professional; we train them to be confident, to talk about themselves and others well; to be ambitious and to do the right thing, not just the easy thing. We are incredibly proud of our young people and the journey they take with us.

The majority of each student’s timetable is filled with lessons working towards a variety of A Level and BTEC qualifications. However, students will also benefit from non-contact time within school that should be used for personal study.

There is also the option for sixth form students to remain on site for extra academic support outside formal lessons from Monday to Thursday after 2.30pm. On Friday the chool day finished at 2.30pm. 

For this reason, punctuality is considered to be one of the key professional skills we wish to engender in our students. This is a key aspect of life here and you will be under the same expectations of punctuality (and attendance) as any employee in the workplace.

Our website is full of useful information for parents and pupils. Here are a few links to some of the most important for new Year 12s.

NUAST is a small academy and we make sure we know our students and understand their needs as young adults and as learners. We understand the importance of a pastoral system which will support students as and when required. Students will be assigned to a tutor group and will see their tutor a minimum of twice during each day. The tutor will be the first contact for all pastoral concerns for you.

Students will have access to the Head of Sixth Form and Careers, (Mr Edwards) and students should not hesitate to see him if they need support with either pastoral or careers guidance. Students also have access to their head of year (Mr Nicholls for Year 12, Miss Jones for Year 13), their dedicated tutor, our Pastoral Support Officer, subject staff, our SENCO if required and Designated Safeguarding Leads. NUAST has established excellent links with outside agencies to supplement the pastoral support we can provide and we are aiming to be able to provide some in-school counselling for the 2020-21 academic year through our close collaboration with the University of Nottingham.

Andy Edwards
Head of Sixth Form
Jason Nichols
Head of Year 12
 
Katie Jones
Head of Year 13
 
Sally Fountain
Safeguarding Lead
 
Georgina Turgoose
SENDCO

At NUAST, we promote an inclusive educational environment in which we support and encourage all pupils to achieve their potential. Quality teaching is vital and NUAST’s belief is that all students attend all lessons. However, for some pupils there are occasions when additional SEND support inside or outside of the classroom may be required to help them achieve their targets.

Our teachers have put together a series of short lesson segments for you to be able to see a little bit of what A Level and BTEC teaching at NUAST is like.

Some of these taster lessons show us teaching directly to the camera; some are sections from lessons this summer with socially distanced classes. These are unusual situations, so while the atmosphere in the classroom might not be exactly as it would be in a normally distanced classroom, you can get an idea of what lessons might be like. The teachers will introduce their lesson to you at the start of each video.

Unfortunately, we were not able to include taster lessons in all subjects, but hopefully most of your favourites are here.

Biology

BTEC Applied Science

BTEC Engineering

Business

Chemistry

Computer Science

English Literature

Further Maths

Geography

History

Mathematics

Physics

Psychology

Sociology

Meet some of our fantastic students as they tell you what a day in the life at NUAST looks like and offer their own advice for students looking to start A level study.

NUAST takes pride in our careers guidance and have an excellent track record of ensuring high ambitions in our students. Each year we support students in applying for the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. In addition each year we have applications for medicine and dentistry, with a number of successful applications that puts us among the very best state schools in Nottinghamshire.

We have dedicated sessions to teach students how to apply for UCAS, as well as a programme for medicine students and for Oxbridge students which include, where possible, mock interviews. We take part on the Cambridge HE+ scheme, WAMS (Widening Access to Medical School) and IntoUniversity, who support our widening participation students. We encourage our students to take part in online webinars in their chosen subjects and advertise these frequently, while many of our students take part in masterclasses at both local universities.

All our students have the opportunity for at least one individual careers interview with an independent careers advisor, and job interview practice with real local STEM employers is offered through our annual careers convention.

We operate a work experience window of 12 months for students to find a valuable placement and are happy to support as much work experience as students are able to find.

NUAST uses a powerful careers package called Unifrog which gives students access to up to date information on university courses and apprenticeship vacancies, as well as extensive access to MOOCS, a careers library and software to help write the UCAS personal statement or apprenticeship applications. We are also using the KUDOS software this year to guide students who may not entirely know what they want to do.

Please find below a list of some of the most frequently asked questions we would normally expect to be asked on a face to face open evening- hopefully you may find some answers here!

Q: How many students are in the Sixth Form?

A: NUAST has expanded in student numbers exponentially since we opened in 2014 with just 19 students. We now have around 320 students in Post 16, with around 180 in Year 12 and around 140 in Year 13. It is impossible to project how much interest we may have next year.

In 2019-20 we received almost 600 applications, and we conducted around 360 interviews.

Q: How competitive is it for places?

A: We do not really look at things this way. We will interview anybody who books one with us. We offer a provisional place to a high percentage of our interviewees who have the required predicted grades. Our grade requirements are high and challenging, because we expect high standards of the young people we offer places to.

We will then ask you to accept a place with us, and those who do so before our cut off date (which we will inform you of) will have priority for confirming their place with us after results day in the summer.

Q: If I am offered a place, does that mean I am guaranteed a place?

Not guaranteed, no. You will need to meet the minimum grade requirements for the courses you want to study. We do also have limits on the number of students we can take, and we will offer more places than can actually fulfil; just as with universities, a percentage of students we offer places to will not choose to take that place up, and how high that percentage will be is difficult to predict.

It is possible that we may become completely full and have to turn some latecomers away. This is why it is important to accept your place with us early to make sure you have priority for enrolment, and to enrol with us as soon as you can after you get your A-Level results to avoid disappointment.

Q: How many students are there in a class?

A: This depends on the class. Sizes range from around 5 to a maximum of 28, which is rare. Most classes are in the high teens- low 20s.

Q: What is the percentage of A*-A grades in [subject]?

A: Please see the breakdown of this in our achievement section.

Q: Is there any transport available?

A: Unfortunately, there is no council or school provided transport as our school is not eligible for this and our students come from all over the East Midlands. There are fantastic transport links to NUAST via the tram network and most areas of Nottingham are connected to the QMC by a bus route.

Q: Can I get any financial help with transport costs?

A: We take part in the 16-19 bursary fund scheme, so if your family meets the income threshold for this you can use your bursary for transport.

Q: What is your link to the University of Nottingham?

A: We have a close partnership with the university, who provide a wide variety of outreach activities and access to lectures, labs and other facilities other schools may not have access to. Our students have traditionally been able to join the university gym for the same rate as their students and our students, pre-COVID, could join and borrow books from the library.

Q: What sort of businesses are you linked with?

A: We build links with a wide variety of partners. We have had excellent links with Rolls Royce, who traditionally take ten of our students on work experience per year. Siemens are based just behind NUAST and are one of our original partners, taking part in mock interviews and workshops. We aim to build links with many more local companies as well; our Engineers recently went to visit VRCO in Derby who have designed a flying car; Swiftool Precision engineering last year took on five of our students as apprentices. We are building exciting links with a local software company, Ideagen. Meanwhile, we have links with individuals, including a highly experienced forensic scientist who has lent us his expertise in workshops for the past two years.

Our Live Q and A with Andy Edwards, Head of NUAST Post 16, Katie Jones, Head of Year 12, and Jason Nichols, Head of Year 13 will take place from 18.00-19.00 on November 26th.

 

Please follow the link below to join

Live Q and A link November 26th

 

When you click on the link, it will offer you the chance to either download the Teams App or watch via the web. It is easier to watch via the web if you have not used teams before. Once you have joined, you will see a notice for Q and A and if you click on this, it will invite you to ask a question. When lots of people join we can get hundreds of questions, so please be patient as we try to answer them all

Please see the link below for full entry requirements. For A level study, the standard is five subjects at grade 6 or higher, although some subjects such as maths have their own individual requirements and it is important that you look at these. Our BTEC qualifications have lesser requirements; please see these individually on our website.

Entry Requirements

We very much hope you will wish to apply to us.

The process is as follows:

  • Apply via our website
  • Complete the online form
  • Book an interview date and time
  • Come to the interview with your latest school report that shows predicted grades (even if this is from year 10)
  • If you are offered a place and want to join us, you should then accept that place online- your offer letter will tell you how to do so
  • Take part in our July Transition day
  • Come and enrol with us as soon as you can on GCSE results day to avoid disappointment!

Apply now!