Birchwood High School

"It’s difficult for students to comprehend the huge number of different courses that are out there, but Unifrog throws up ideas that they would never have thought of."

Judith Crimes, Sixth Form Administrator

 

Bird’s eye view

“From my point of view as Careers Leader, Unifrog is amazing as it gives me a bird's eye view of a whole year group. It enables me to pinpoint students who aren’t making sufficient progress with the applications process, and I can then easily target those students and make sure they are given extra support.

Because I can see what they’ve been searching for Unifrog also helps me to see what subjects students are interested in. Then when I get information and opportunities coming through for a particular subject area - medicine is an obvious example - I can pass it on to those students directly.”

 

Early entry

“Using the filtering system on the Teacher side is very helpful for highlighting students who want to do early entry courses (Oxbridge, medicine, veterinary science). It helps me to find them easily, so that I can give them the support that they need in time, and make sure that they are making the necessary progress at an earlier stage.”

 

Categorising

“For students, Unifrog is very good at categorising universities so that they can see which are aspirational, which are solid and which are safe. We encourage students to have at least one aspirational choice, which can help them to be more ambitious.

Our students don’t always get the idea of having a safe option as an insurance, so Unifrog also really helps by spelling this out to them. The three categories make it very clear which universities they should apply to as back up, and which they can aim for if they want to push themselves.”

 

Possibility

“I think Unifrog gets students to think more widely about what they might want to do. When they’re in year 12, they often have a limited idea of what subject choices are out there. They’re still thinking along the lines of A level subjects.

It’s difficult for students to comprehend the huge number of different courses that are out there, but Unifrog throws up ideas that they would never have thought of. It makes it easy for them, as everything is in one place, and they don’t have to spend hours trawling through endless prospectuses.”

 

Apprenticeships

“The apprenticeship tool is great, and is so much more helpful than the government website, as it helps students to rank apprenticeships into three categories (intermediate, advanced and higher). It’s intuitive and visually appealing, as they can see the different levels on the screen, and know which column they should look at.

The fact that the layout of this tool echoes how the university tool looks is also good because it encourages them to think of apprenticeships and university as pathways worthy of considering side by side.”

 

Opportunity

“For us, Unifrog has particularly helped students who have been a bit reluctant to engage with the whole application process. Some have felt that maybe university wasn’t for them, that they weren’t good enough. Unifrog is really useful in demonstrating to them that university is a realistic option that they can consider. It allows them to put in their grades, and demonstrates that they can go to university if they want to.

I had one particular student last week who had said that she wasn’t good enough for university. She was reluctant to seriously consider her options, and hadn’t engaged with the application process at all. I persuaded her to log in to Unifrog and have a look. The next day, she came back to me and said ‘Oh, perhaps I might be able to go to university after all!’ She had found courses that she was interested in and felt that she was capable of doing. It has made a big difference to her outlook and motivation!”