UCAS and January start students in Canterbury

A very Happy New Year to all of you! Students have completed their UCAS forms ready for final double checking by the college before submission. Many forms have already gone in with some great university offers for our students already! University offices are now shut until 5th January so no further offers are likely yet, and students do need to realise that they have to be patient. Some universities will not make offers until well into the New Year and as some of them have been here for 900 years, they will not be rushed....! 

We take in many students in January who do a full three terms of A level or Foundation course which takes them up to August when Foundation results for these students come out at the same time as A level results. As it is a later start, those students wanting top universities such as Kings do need to move very fast to get their applications in. Other universities are quite happy to wait longer to get the applications from January start students. Our Director of Higher Education for the CATS Colleges is based in Canterbury and is very happy to advise and support as needed. January start students also need to move quickly to get involved in extra activities to support their applications - leadership awards, competitions, on line university courses etc. These are all really helpful particularly for entry to top universities who really want to see more than academic grades! On arrival in Canterbury students will be given a booklet with all this information in to help them.

Students keen on law and medicine need to be preparing for LNAT (law) and BMAT and UKCAT exams. There are weekly sessions for potential lawyers here in Canterbury and also for potential Medics students. Please see Dawn Merriman if you are not already registered for this support in January!

Remember in Canterbury there is plenty of support for all the different paths you want to take and I am easily available after school for any student who wants to talk to me - and lots of other people are here to help as well. Do make the most of these amazing opportunities!

With my very best wishes for the New Year

Awards and Activities

Well, it's been an amazing start to the year at CATS Canterbury. We were presented with a crystal trophy for excellence in IB results and our students not only won the engineering contest working with the team from the fastest car in the world, but also won best logo and best branding strategy at the Young Dragons contest at BAE systems. It's amazing how proud our young people can make us become of them! All of them have taken part in Business Challenge Activities at the college and been interviewed one to one by a local Business leader and over 80 of them signed up for our Leadership Training Day.

There are over 100 different activities on offer at the College and students are busy signing up and really getting involved! Our IB students have been on a residential camp to get to know each other and activities and meetings have been happening in all our Houses with House Parents and Senior Tutors supporting them all.

For so many young people so far from home it is really amazing. Only at the college for two weeks and they are already in the thick of it and having a great time. It can be a worrying time for parents, but if you could see them all here now you would be a proud as I am of them all. They do all of us much credit and reflect so well on all the different nations they come from.

Trying out UK Education

Students from all over the world have been converging on CATS Canterbury for the summer UK taster courses and the summer academic course on Business, Law and Finance. It's a great chance to try things out and see what the UK has to offer. At CATS you can have the amazing formality of Graduation ceremonies, but also the rest of the year is informal with the Principal living just opposite the college and always available to students along with a wide range of other friendly staff waiting to help and support. We encourage students to tell us what they think and have a great student council. - not only taking with us about academic issues, but also visiting the United Nations in New York to debate with American students each March. Our Leadership Awards are really popular as is the Key Professions Programme which give all students a chance to join in many extra activities linked to their future degree aspirations. Come and join us one summer to find our what it's all like!

International school links

It was a real delight to visit St Stephen's College in Hong Kong today. Situated overlooking the sea in a beautiful location, they are doing excellent work with a lot of students in the area and beyond. As an IB World School we have a lot in common with them and have been exploring ideas for closer links to join with our current links with schools in France, Kazaksthan, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

International school links are so important to all of us as we drive to make all of our students genuinely international citizens ready to face the challenges of the 21st Century. St Stephens has a long and proud history and under their Principal Carol Yang have even more exciting times ahead. The photo is of the member of staff in charge of exchange programmes at the college.

We share a strong commitment to international education and doing the very best for our students and hope we can develop good links together in the years ahead.

A Royal End to the year

Beginnings and ends of years are really important for students. In September, January and other points of the year we give a warm welcome, but in June and August we have very special celebrations as students leave us. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent will be presenting certificates to all our graduating students this week and we have just had a great Prom with hundreds of students relaxing and celebrating with buffet, dancing and loads of photos. Many staff were also present as we start to say our farewells for June.
On top of all this , today on the Queens Birthday came an amazing end to the term with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth honouring the college and our students by making the Principal a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The photo shows the Queen in the robes of the order.
It's an amazing end to the year, which reflects honour at the highest level for all our students  in Canterbury and reflects the quality and excellence of so much that we do here. It makes me very proud to be the Principal with such amazing students and staff around me

Jonathan

Looking after you at CATS Canterbury

Its really important for us that all our students feel really looked after and cared for. We have a new Welfare booklet which shows you who all the key people are who support our students. We have full time Welfare Officers, a College Counsellor, House Parents, a Student Support Officer as well as our very experienced team of Senior Tutors - the Senior Tutors meet with students every week and are available every night from 4-5pm if you need to talk to them.
The booket shown here is available in College for any of our students and also can be obtained from any of our CATS staff overseas or by emailed by the college directly - we are always happy to help.

For any of our students we have a great 'Tell Us' button system so students can tell us on line what they think about things, as well as coming to see any of us at any time. The Principal is available most nights from 5pm onwards for students to see, but will often see them during the day as well when he is free. Its important for students to see us and talk with us, particularly when they are under pressure, and remember we are always here to help you.
I have chatted in another blog about the activities we do to help support student university applications, but we also have a booklet with all our other activities we offer outside lesson time - again these are available to all students from our Activities Manager, Claire, or from Senior Tutors - you can see a picture of it here. Its great to get involved and feel part of the college!
Jonathan

Your future subject choices at Canterbury

When you come to select your subjects for A Level or IB or Foundation - it can be a challenge! Remember we have a series of A5 booklets which explain what all these subjects are and you can look and see what really fits with your future. There are some special subjects you will need to take if you are heading to LSE, Imperial, Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge so do check with us and we can always help. In your first weeks of term there are lots of chances for you to have special academic counselling in September - we are always here to help! 

If you would like copies of the booklets please ask your CATS staff in your home country or you can email the college and we are always happy to help too.

With very best wishes for all your future plans as you consider the exciting changes ahead!

Getting to a top university in the UK and overseas

Top Universities increasingly are looking for students who show a clear commitment to the subject area they want to study. 

Here at CATS Canterbury we have launched our new booklet on the Key Professions who list all the different activities you can be involved in which will really support your university application for the future. 

We also have a range of other activities from horse riding to football which its great to be involved in so its good to look at all the options you have - enjoy yourself but also be really well prepared for your university future. Staff at the college and overseas have copies of this they will be very pleased to let you have.


All the best

Jonathan

Celebrating the IB in Canterbury

An exciting day today as we welcome Mary Langford a top IB speaker to the college and many guests from all over the world. IB is the fastest growing pre university programme in the world, now offered by most of the top schools in the UK. This afternoon its the students turn with students talking about their experience of IB to guests and how the year has gone for them. Students are always amazing ambassadors for the college. They really grow in knowledge and understanding during their time with us and we aim to really create global citizens ready for the world.

On a quite different level, in the middle of this bulldozers have started work builidng our new 95 bed residence in the heart of the college which will continue to expand our campus which is all in the same place on New Dover Road surrounded by trees and near the centre of town. Its an amazing place to live and I always feel very privileged living oppostite the college to be in such an amazing historic and cultural location.

Remember you are always welcome to visit us here, and a warm welcome will always await you.

Jonathan

IB Conference in Canterbury

We are all preparing for our exciting IB Conference this week when we will welcome a large number of agents and staff to meet our IB students and spend time in Canterbury. We are highly regarded as an IB language centre in the South of England, offering 26 different languages with IB and all our students have the option of taking the bi-lingual Diploma. We also have a wide range of leadership courses our students take and we have won awards for the quality of our work here. It will be great to meet everyone and show them exactly what we do here with introductions to boarding at Canterbury, IB, activities, extra courses we offer here and how we can be a really good choice for international students taking the IB with us.

Jonathan Ullmer

Cutting edge education in Canterbury

It's really important that we are not only good, but are the best at what we do. In Canterbury we are one of the first schools in the UK to pilot new software monitoring the quality of lessons which we share with teachers as they look at the very best way we can serve our students. Up to 15 staff regularly attend 8am training sessions to keep learning more about cutting edge education. The top quality of our staff training was recognised by the College of Teachers with their Royal Charter who validate our work so it can be shared nationwide. Both our House Parent training and teacher training is validated by them.

Another great development was our linking with GL Assessment where staff at CATS Canterbury planned and designed the software to link their evaluation systems with independent schools like CATS. We were the first independent school in the UK to use this great new software linking our evaluations, appraisals and lesson observations into one place with all staff having the chance to participate and be part of it.

We believe strongly is working as a family with staff and students all very much a team in developing great ideas and the latest cutting edge ideas from on line teaching and learning to students in major international conferences in New York and Leadership Training Days here.

Join us as we showcase education for the 21st Century

Jonathan Ullmer

Latest news on UK exams

You may be interested to know that early entry GCSE - typically after one year of study - have fallen from 169,000 students to 31,000 students in the UK this year. It reflects the government drive to stop early entry of students who are simply not ready to get the grades they deserve. You also need to be aware of changes to GCSE and A level to make them much harder in the coming years. With Russell Group top universities looking increasingly at students needing the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), A levels for top students are starting to look more like IB with the differences between what you need for the 2 courses growing a little closer together. We have always stressed for top students 'A levels alone are not enough' . You need to do things from the Key Professions booklet in Canterbury along with things like EPQ to enhance your chances at the very top universities.

We have booklets about all our courses and activities and all the amazing range of extra activities we offer linked to your subject areas and future plans - just ask and we are delighted to send on

Jonathan Ullmer

Proms and Graduation - a great finish to the year

Welcome to the CATS Canterbury Principal's Blog.

Foundation and AS level students are starting their exams while our IB2 students have just finished. But all are excitedly looking forward to our Prom on Friday 13th June. Last year nearly 200 students attended at the beaufiful Abbots Barton Hotel near the college with fun and celebrations on the lawn afterwards. Its a real highlight of the year and here are some photos from last year. Beginings and endings of years are really important as we celebrate the great things students have done with us. A week later on 19th June is our Graduation in the Gulbenkian Theatre with guest of honour the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent who will speak to students and present certificates to celebrate their time with us.

Our students have some amazing achievements. Not only do they get good exam results and have great destinations, but they have really developed into leaders of the future. All of them have had interviews with local businesses, some have set up their own companies while in Canterbury with Young Enterprise and one of our student companies was voted the 'Best Company' in competition against British Schools in the South of England! Other students have done language leadership Awards and Sports Leadership Awards. Nearly 50 have nearly completed the British Boarding Schools Award, with others achieving the Excelsis Award and Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Some have achieved the CATS Leadership Award worth 70 UCAS points - others have worked on Trading Floors in the City of London or marketing seminars with top companies in the South of England. Our students have attended engineering workshops with Oxford University, done on line courses with Kings College London, and trained as buddies learning how to support others and understand the importance in leadership of emotional intelligence.

Our students have much to be proud of as they finish their studies with us. They have won Gold Medals from the Royal Chemistry Society - and they have beaten  football teams all over the area. They have won awards for their work, and the amazing nature of the College in Canterbury was recognised by the Independent Schools Association who have not only given us an Award of Excellence but this year we were also presented with a certificate for Excellence and Innovation.

Unlike schools who talk about their work, we give clear booklets to every student listing exactly what they can do during their time with us and how to get involved - and these are all available to all our staff in the UK and overseas. We are proud of our students and what they do and invite everyone to join in the celebrations this summer as we say farewell at our June and August Graduations to another really geat group of students

.

Jonathan Ullmer