Ysgol Friars

Standards and progression
Outstanding teaching
Advanced Level Performance Systems
(Alps) prepared A level performance
reports on Gwynedd and Môn
schools and Colleges of Further Education
in 2014 and 2015. The 2014
Alps report graded A level results in
Ysgol Friars as ‘Outstanding’ and
placed the school in the top 5% of
the 1,164 schools and colleges in
the full Department of Education national
database of 685,377 A levels
taken by 241,036 students in 2,578
A level providers across England
and Wales. Many individual subjects
in Friars were ranked in the top 10%
of all providers, especially in the ‘facilitating
subjects’ recommended by
the Russell Group of Universities,
with Chemistry being ranked as the
best in the country in 2014. The
2015 T-score for Ysgol Friars has not
Partnership courses
With the exception of Music from
2015, all the courses described in
pages 10 to 17 of this prospectus
are taught at Ysgol Friars and lead
to an AS qualification in the first
year and a full A level qualification
in the second year of study. It is
also possible to study one or two
vocational subjects alongside your
A-levels through the local consortium,
a partnership of local schools
and Coleg Llandrillo-Menai. Details
of these courses are available online
or on request from any of the
Arfon and Anglesey schools, including
Friars, or from the college.
Some of these partnership courses
lead to a BTEC level 3 qualification.
BTEC level 3 can be a very good
qualification for those intending to
enter the workplace at the end of
Sixth Form studies, or for progression
routes in a further education
college.
It is important that students intending
to progress to university
check carefully with university
admissions tutors that a BTEC is
accepted as an entry qualification
for their preferred university
course before opting for one of
these partnership courses in
year 12.
yet been received, but performance
in many subjects was again classed
as ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Excellent’ with
six subjects being ranked at the top
of all providers in Gwynedd and Môn
on the basis of their three year average
Alps score.
A level subject
Further Mathematics
Chemistry
English Language and
Literature
Mathematics
Business Studies
Fine Art
University Entrance
ALPS score
1 - outstanding
2 - outstanding
2 - outstanding
2 - outstanding
3 - excellent
4 - very good
Many students regularly gain the
highest possible A*/A grades in three
or four A level subjects and progress
to some of the most prestigious universities
in the country including
Oxbridge, Durham, Imperial College,
UCL etc., studying a wide range of
subjects such as medicine, dentistry,
engineering, mathematics, natural
sciences, politics and law. On average,
we have three students progressing
to Oxford or Cambridge
each year. In 2015 three students
gained admission to Cambridge to
study medicine or natural sciences.
This year we have one student with
an offer of a place at Cambridge to
study medicine, and two students
with offers from Oxford to study biochemistry
and geography.
Information from the universities
The universities produce a booklet
called “Informed Choices:
A Russell Group guide
to making decisions about post-16
education” to assist students in
making the right choices for particular
progression routes into university.
This guide is available on
request from the school, and is
widely available on the internet.
Informed
choices
9
Jun, Angus and Callum gained places at
Cambridge University for September 2015.
For September 2016, Kevin Tan has a place
in Cambridge, and Megan Buckley and
John Spill have offers for Oxford University
A Russell Group guide
to making decisions about
post-16 education
2011