Higher Education programme

Making decisions about the future is a complex and daunting task for anyone but the key to success lies in making an informed decision. To enable girls to choose a course, a career or an alternative pathway, Downe House has put into place a comprehensive higher education and careers guidance programme that begins in Remove (Year 7) and builds progressively throughout the school years, with a four-year programme supporting the girls from Lower Fifth through to Upper Sixth years (Years 10 – 13).

Meet the team

The Higher Education and Global Initiatives team offers specific expertise to help each girl make the best choices for the next stage of her educational journey as well as taking up once in a lifetime opportunities along the way. Find out more about the team who run the Higher Education programme.

World readiness

The World Ready programme includes talks from external speakers (alumnae, parents and leading specialists) about a wide variety of careers and university or course-related topics as well as regular one-to-one guidance sessions, a Higher Education Day which focuses on making UCAS applications and writing personal statements, Academic Conferences, a Gap Year Fair, the Elective Programme which extends the scope of learning outside the curriculum, various societies and activities to develop skills, and talks on student life and finance. To make applications stand out, the girls are encouraged to take part in super-curricular activities and are introduced to the world of work through finding placements for work shadowing and internships, many of which are provided by Downe House alumnae.

DH LINKS

The popular DH LINKS initiative provides networking events which connect girls in the Fifth and Sixth Forms with alumnae and parents in a specific sector to provide them with contacts and an understanding of different career pathways. Recent events have included a focus on fashion, hospitality, property, engineering, architecture, finance and law.

Higher education guidance in Lower School

The programme starts in Remove (Year 7) when girls are familiarised with the range of different careers and roles, and they start to find out more about the skills that employers look for and the requirements of industry in general. This programme is delivered by the PSHE team.

Girls are encouraged to visit their parents’ workplace for a day and return to School to share their experience with their peers. For many, this will be their first glimpse into the world of work.

In Lower Fourth (Year 8) girls explore the world or work further and are introduced to the concepts of work, leisure, training, career, education, work-life balance etc. They learn some useful decision-making skills using the ‘Real Game’ and they are taught financial terms, such as budget, income, tax and mortgage, and this is their first introduction to managing money in a virtual world.

Higher education guidance in Upper School

The Upper School programme is delivered in a variety of ways including formal lessons with PSHE through presentations, our lecture series, one-to-one appointments and psychometric profiling with the help of My Future Choice Ltd. These years are crucial, not just in terms of learning more about the real world, but also in terms of discovering oneself and making the right choices for I/GCSEs in Upper Fourth (Year 9) and A Levels in the Upper Fifth (Year 11). Girls are also introduced to UNIFROG to start looking into the world of Higher Education early on.

The programme starts in Lower Fifth (Year 10). There is no doubt that the application process for university requires very careful thought, over a sustained period of time, and we develop, in our girls, an understanding of the importance of starting to think beyond Downe House, when they enter the Lower Fifth.

Higher education guidance in Sixth Form

The Sixth Form programme comprises a very comprehensive set of processes whereby guidance is on offer, not only on university admission but also on internships, finance and gap year activities. Specialist guidance is on offer from our Head of Oxbridge & Medicine Applications, the Overseas Universities Advisor, the Creative Courses Coordinator and the Higher Education (HE) team. Tutors follow girls’ progress carefully throughout the two years and the HE team gives guidance at every stage. In the Lower Sixth, girls attend several dedicated university preparation days which include talks from university admissions tutors, professionals and external agencies, Oxbridge & Medicine applicants are assigned mentors to guide them on each aspect of their application – entrance tests, essays, interview preparation, personal statements and wider academic reading. We work closely with partners and outside agencies, including university admissions tutors, UNIFROG, Oxbridge Applications and the Medic Portal to provide the most current and up-to-date guidance.

Overseas universities application guidance

More and more girls are looking at higher education options abroad and our Overseas Universities Advisor has extensive experience of the application processes in higher education institutions around the globe and offers a bespoke programme to support each individual with their application. We work with an external company, A List Education for our SAT tuition which has proved a fruitful partnership. Preparation for students applying to any overseas university begins in the Upper Fifth where general information is supplied through assemblies or one-to-one meetings for those who already have quite a clear higher education pathway planned. A more formalised programme of meetings start in the Lower Sixth alongside a 10-week SAT/ACT preparation course, culminating with weekly support in the Upper Sixth. We have hosted a number of visiting admissions staff from US Colleges who have given talks providing further guidance.

To date, girls have gained places at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, USC, Penn, Wesleyan, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Northeastern, Barnard, Trinity Dublin, Wake Forest, Richmond, CalTech and Miami. Girls have also pursued arts-based courses at Parsons, the Lee Strasberg Institute, the New York Film Academy and the Institute for the Arts, Chicago. Scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $80,000 have been awarded, and one of our students won a full merit-based scholarship to Duke University in North Carolina, and two others from Georgia Tech.

Post-qualification application help

When girls leave Downe House, they find that they are still fully supported by the excellent ‘Post Applicants’ programme which gives alumnae the same level of careers advice and guidance as they received when they were in School. They are invited to regular DH LINKS networking events which gives them the opportunity to meet parents and other alumnae working in the same sector.

The overall aim of the Higher Education team is to help each girl make the best choices for the next stage of their educational journey.

Keep up to date with news and views from the Higher Education and Global Initiatives team by following them on Twitter.