UWS, BA Hons Education Interview, Ayr Campus

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Please see link above, video from the Programme Leader

Before the Interview

Prepare a short (2 minute) presentation on something personal that has had a positive impact on you. This could be a book, picture, podcast, movie, or poem that has had positive or meaningful impact on your life, values and/or thinking. During the interview, you present to other candidates (4-6 students) and an interviewer. You are not required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. We advise you to prepare well so you do not need to use notes.

Read the short article (at the end) entitled School uniform guidance: key principles for Scottish schools. Part of the interview process includes a group discussion on this topic.

The Interview Process

If your invitation is for a 1pm interview, we advise you to arrive on campus at 12.30. At 1pm, a member of the B.A. (Hons) Education Leadership Team welcomes you, gives a short presentation, and explains the process for the afternoon.

You are allocated to a small group of candidates (4-6 students). In this group, you complete three tasks/activities:

1. Presentation

You present the presentation that you have prepared (on something personal that has had a positive impact on you).

Your interviewer is looking for you to

· be clearly well prepared to deliver the presentation

· share appropriate content and relates to the instructions provided

· be articulate when speaking

· show good verbal and non-verbal communication.

2. Group Discussion

You and your group discuss the topic of the article on school uniform that you read before the interview.

Your interviewer is looking for you to

· contribute constructively to the conversation

· respond to others and shows active listening

· justify and explain ideas and opinions

· be appropriately persuasive.

3. Group Task

You and your group engage in a problem-solving task. This is explained by your interviewer. You do not do advance preparation for this task.

Your interviewer is looking for you to

· display evidence of engaging with the text

· identify and share key points of the text

· recognise and respond constructively to different viewpoints

· demonstrate wider knowledge of the area

· justify personal opinions and viewpoints.

This process lasts approximately one hour.

Interview Decisions

Decisions are not conveyed to you at the time of interview. You are contacted through UCAS following your interview.

Offers and conditions are considered on the basis of your performance at interview, the qualifications you have gained, and the qualifications you are predicted to gain. Some candidates receive an offer very quickly. Other candidates have to wait until nearer the deadline. This is to ensure we are able to make the appropriate offers required, and those who are interviewed at a later stage are not disadvantaged. To support our process, please accept or decline any offer as soon as possible.

Applicants who do not fully meet the conditions may still secure a place on the programme. This is done using a robust and transparent system. For example, applicants who do not meet the exact conditions, but who have the points equivalent, are offered before those who gained one point less than required. Final offers can be made for a number of weeks following the publication of exam results in August 2025, particularly if there is a delay in candidates accepting offers. If applicants decline, we have other places to offer those who did not meet their conditions.

We look forward to meeting you at your interview session.

Jennifer Ellis

B.A. (Hons) Education Programme Leader

Division of Education

Email: [email protected]School uniform guidance: key principles for Scottish schools

There’s no legal requirement for pupils to wear school uniform, but national guidance sets out key principles around affordability and equality

Guidance on school uniform and clothing has been published today by the Scottish Government. It stresses that there will continue to be no legal requirement for pupils to wear school uniform. However, the guidance includes key principles that are expected to be applied in all schools. These include that school uniform and clothing policies should:

· Be informed by pupils’ views, but also those of parents, carers, teachers and other school staff.

· Minimise costs - for example, “branded items of uniform and blazers should not be compulsory, nor promoted or encouraged by schools”

· Commit to fair and environmentally sustainable approaches.

· Support an “inclusive, welcoming and equitable school culture”.

· Promote equality around belief, race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, and pregnancy and maternity.

· Remove barriers to pupils’ participation in school.

· Apply to all school clothing, including PE and the senior phase (years S4-6 in Scottish secondary schools).

· Take a practical approach around, for example, weather and “seasonal needs”.

· Encourage pupils to observe school uniform and clothing policies, while recognising their individual needs, circumstances and identity.

The NASUWT Scotland teaching union has welcomed the guidance - particularly “the focus on ensuring uniform rules help promote equality and the inclusion of all pupils” - but said that “stronger action is also needed to tackle the rising cost of education”.

Mike Corbett, NASUWT national official for Scotland, said: “It is disappointing that at present this guidance is not statutory so there is no obligation on schools to follow it.” However, he noted the Scottish Government’s intention to review this statutory status and urged ministers to do so as soon as possible “so that there are legal powers to compel all schools to do the right thing by pupils, families and carers”.

The guidance was welcomed by Dr Rachel Shanks, Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen School of Education and Director of Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity, who in 2020 published research that found that almost a fifth of state secondary schools in Scotland specified an exclusive supplier for school uniform. She said: “This is the first guidance on school uniform in Scotland and provides clarity about what can and also what should not be expected in terms of what pupils should be asked to wear at school.” Dr Shanks praised “greater clarity” around affordability and the expectation of making “pre-loved” school clothing available. The guidance was also “a positive step forward in terms of recognising children’s rights following incorporation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child”.

Mark Priestley, Professor of Education at the University of Stirling, tweeted that the new guidance was “largely sensible, despite starting with the unsupported assertion that uniforms improve school ethos”. He added that, internationally, “school uniforms are uncommon and even non-existent in most education systems, including those touted as high-performing”.

Education Secretary, Jenny Gilruth, said that the guidance “makes clear that schools are expected to do all they can to limit school clothing costs for families as part of our wider aim to reduce the cost of the school day”. It also “encourages schools to develop flexible and inclusive policies which promote generic items of clothing and do not include compulsory branded items, supporting our efforts to be more sustainable”.

Henry Hepburn

12 September 2024

Event Venue

Ayr Campus, University of the West of Scotland (UWS), University Avenue, Ayr, United Kingdom