We are delighted to welcome your daughter to the Lower Sixth at St George’s in September. We very much look forward to getting to know her better and want to do all we can to settle her quickly into our school community. Knowing each individual pupil and growing a strong sense of belonging and community is at the heart of our ethos. If there is anything we can do in advance of your daughter’s arrival to help her prepare for this exciting new stage of her education, then we would be delighted to help.
In order to look after your daughter to the best of our ability, it is really helpful to have some key information in advance of her arrival. Please find an information booklet below, the links to online forms and two key school policies and further information for you to read.
Please refer to the Information Booklet below when completing the online forms.
All new forms should be returned by Friday 5 July 2024 at the very latest please.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Admissions Team at
admissions@stgeorges-ascot.org.uk
Online Forms
| Link to Form | To be completed by? |
| 1) Personal Details and Finance Form | ALL new parents |
| 2) Medical History Form | ALL new parents |
| 3) Co-curricular and Sport | ALL new parents |
| 4) Boarding Form | Girls who will be boarding or considering occasional boarding |
| 5) International Pupils | Girls whose parents reside overseas |
| 6) Transport Form | Girls who want to use our weekly or local bus service |
| THESE FORMS ARE FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO SIGN UP FOR PAID EXTRAS IN THE FOLLOWING: | |
| 7) Co-curricular - Extra Dance Lessons | |
| 8) Co-curricular - Extra Music Lessons | |
| 9) Co-curricular - Extra Speech and Drama Lessons | |
| 10) Extra Language Lessons | |
School Policy Documents
Please follow the link below to find all School policies, including the Behaviour Policy and the ICT Acceptable Use Policy for pupils, which are of the utmost importance.
Policies
Here at SGA, all girls in Lower Sixth follow the EPQ or Extended Project Qualification programme of taught skills and produce an EPQ project. It is an independent piece of work that you will decide, plan and carry out yourself, supported by supervisors and teachers along the way. It is a very valuable qualification that helps to demonstrate to universities and future employers that you are able to work independently over a sustained period of time to produce an in-depth piece of work. You will begin your EPQ in September of the Lower Sixth and will work on it until November of the Upper Sixth, when the final project is due in.
In a nutshell, doing an EPQ means deciding on a topic that you are interested in, researching a specific title or question from that topic area, and producing a 5000 word essay on that topic or creating an artefact around the topic, supported by a research report of at least 1000 words.
Here are some frequently asked questions
What skills will I gain by doing the EPQ?
You will gain many skills, most of which will be extremely useful for when you head to university, and also, for completing A Level coursework in many subjects. For example:
- Working to deadlines
- Planning and managing a project
- Decision making and problem solving
- Research skills
- Academic writing skills
- Presentation skills
- Communication skills
- Independent thinking
- Reflective learning
What will I actually have to do?
Here is the information given by the AQA exam board about the EPQ qualification.
Students are required, with appropriate supervision, to:
- Choose an area of interest
- Draft a title and aims of the project for formal approval by the centre
- Plan, research and carry out the project
- Deliver a presentation to a non specialist audience
- Provide evidence of all stages of project development and production for assessment.
So, you will need to research, plan and write an essay or create an artefact about a topic of your choice. You also need to write up reflections on your journey on a special website called ‘Project Q’. At the end of the process you will hand in your product (the essay or artefact and report), your production log (Project Q), and give a presentation about what you have done and what you have learnt.
What is the artefact?
Some students choose to create an artefact, instead of writing the 5000 word essay. This is a fantastic option and could include creating a piece of artwork, a musical composition, running an event, creating a children’s story, or any other activity that is appropriate for your topic. If you create an artefact, it must still be researched thoroughly and you will need to write up a research report of at least 1000 words.
Why is it important? Why do we do it at SGA?
There are many benefits to completing an EPQ during your Sixth Form years, including the following:
- You gain many skills (see list above) that help prepare you for university and future employment
- It gives you both UCAS points (it is worth half an A Level) and a talking point for future interviews and personal statements
- Academic research completed by the University of Southampton has shown that students who complete an EPQ, typically benefit from better scores in their final A Levels
- Some universities give reduced offers to EPQ students for entry to their courses
- EPQ students typically do better at university after completing the qualification
How is the EPQ marked at the end of the process?
Your supervisor marks your EPQ. It is then moderated within the school by the Centre Co-ordinator and Academic Deputy Head. Then, most of the projects are sent off to AQA for further moderation, and final grades are released with A Level results in August.
The supervisor uses a strict set of guidelines for marking your EPQ. They have to mark every aspect, including the project, presentation, production log and any supporting documentation that you submit. They use four assessment objectives to give you your final mark.
AO1: Manage the projects (planning and monitoring of progress, organisational skills, etc.)
AO2: Use resources (choosing a wide range of resources and assessing their value, referencing properly etc.)
AO3: Develop and realise (how you use your research and the actual creation of the product itself)
AO4: Review (how well you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, and your communication skills)
Here are some of the people that will be important to you during your EPQ journey at St George’s School:
EPQ Centre Co-ordinator
EPQ Supervisors
Every student is allocated their own supervisor from the extensive team here at St George’s. The EPQ supervisors come from many different subject areas and are carefully matched with students and their topic ideas at the start of Lower Sixth. The supervisor is the most important member of staff to you as an individual during your EPQ journey. The supervisor is the person who will help you explore topic areas, narrow down your title or question and give you guidance on each step of the research journey. You will meet with your supervisor every 2-3 weeks as an individual or in small group tutorials throughout the whole journey of your EPQ. The supervisor is also the person who marks your project at the end of the process.
School Librarian
Mrs van der Weg supports the development of research skills for the EPQ. She delivers several key taught skills sessions during the Lower Sixth, during which she helps students to learn how to locate academic sources. Mrs van der Weg also helps teach referencing skills and is always happy to help students in the library with their EPQ projects. Mrs van der Weg is also an important member of the supervisor team.
The EPQ journey is supported through a series of taught skills sessions. These workshops, talks and seminars will help you to develop skills in research, referencing and IT and put you in the best position to complete your project to a high standard. These sessions are also super helpful for preparing for university study skills. Here is a sample EPQ taught skills programme:
Week | Taught Skills Session |
|---|---|
1 | Introduction to EPQ: Getting Started |
2 | Workshop: Exploring ideas and developing questions |
3 | Workshop: Getting organised with IT |
4 | Research skills 1: Selecting resources and assessing reliability |
5 | Library Induction & Skills Session 1 |
6 | Workshop: IT to support research |
Half Term | |
7 | Refining your question and making a proposal |
8 | Research skills 2: Print resources |
9 | Research skills 3: Using online resources |
10 | IT focus: collaborative working and communications tools to support progress |
11 | Planning for next steps |
12 | Drop In session |
Christmas Holidays | |
13 | Planning workshop 1: Time management and working to deadlines |
14 | Planning workshop 2: IT skills to support planning |
15 | Planning for artefacts |
16 | Ethics and using primary research |
17 | Library skills 4: referencing and bibliographies |
18 | Managing data and statistics in academic research |
Half Term | |
19 | More about the research journal |
20 | Preparing your planning review |
21 | EPQ assessment |
22 | IT skills for managing data |
23 | Looking ahead to the mid-project review |
Easter Holidays | |
24 | Library session 5: More on referencing and bibliographies |
25 | Structuring your report or essay |
26 | What is plagiarism and how to avoid it |
27 | Descriptive vs critical writing |
28 | Drop In Session |
29 | Creating convincing conclusions |
Half Term | |
30 | Exams week |
31 | Reflective writing |
32 | Presentation skills |
33 | Preparing for next steps over the Summer |
34 | Finalising your project |
Before you start at SGA Sixth Form in September, it is a good idea to spend some time thinking about your EPQ and what you might choose to do. Here are some activities to get you started.
ACTIVITY 1: Find out more about the EPQ
Use these links to learn more about the EPQ:
AQA video: Be Seen with an EPQ
AQA video: Using the EPQ beyond the Sixth Form
ACTIVITY 2: Start thinking about choosing your topic
Starting your EPQ, in fact, starting any project, can be quite daunting as you are expected to choose a topic which is entirely of your own choosing.
It is great to be able to pursue something that you are passionate about, but it can be overwhelming trying to narrow this down, or even to figure out what options you have in the first place.
The key thing is not to worry too much about how ‘academic’ a topic is but to begin with something that you have a genuine interest in.
Through the Taught Skills Programme in the Lower Sixth, and with the guidance of your supervisor, your area of interest can then be sculpted and worded into a top quality question or statement of research intent.
You will often hear people refer to their EPQ ‘question’ but it does not need to be a question in the traditional sense. For example, ‘Why did Henry VIII kill so many of his wives?’ could also be worded along the lines of ‘An investigation into the factors which may have influenced Henry VIII to kill his wives?’
Now where do you start?
Complete the ‘My Profile of Interests’ table.
You may wish to think about the following:
Hobbies and Extra Curriculars
- Do you have any unusual/interesting hobbies? E.g. are you a secret member of the magic circle
- Is there any particular ‘hot topics’ in your hobby? e.g. women in sport and pay?
- Have you reached a particular level in your hobby where you could teach someone about it?
- Are you a passionate reader? Could you channel this into a literature based topic
- Have you developed your own version of your hobby? E.g. do you design escape rooms?
- Is there a hobby that you have wanted to learn more about but have never had the chance?
- Do you want to bring your hobby to a particular audience? E.g. golf to St George’s
Current Affairs
- What is that one thing that always makes your blood boil when it comes on the news?
- Is there any topic that has really changed over a certain period of time?
- Is there something about the media you could look at?
- Is there a cause that you are already championing?
- Is there a cause that needs to be championed more?
- Is there something you can research that will bring social benefit?
- Is there anything you frequently debate with friends and family?
University/Further study
- Do you even know what you want to study?
- What A Levels are you currently studying?
- If you do know, do you just have a general idea of specific? E.g. ‘a science’ versus ‘biomedical sciences’
- What is it about this subject that makes you want to study it beyond school?
- Is it a subject you have never even studied before?
- Is it vocational? Would it be worth considering an artefact for this?
- Are you maybe even considering different post-school options (e.g. apprenticeship v Uni)
Career Aspirations
- Do you know what career you’d like to do in the future?
- Is there something within the career that would make a good EPQ? Medicine and law are great examples of this.
- Are you not quite sure but you have a career interest that makes you want to explore more?
- Do your relatives have careers which would provide a good EPQ question?
- What about future jobs and careers that might not even exist yet?
- Are there any specialist skills you will need to gain in your chosen career?
- Is there any broader issue you’d want to explore about employment in general?
ACTIVITY 3: Start thinking about finding some resources
For a next step, do some basic searches online. Choose one of your possible topic areas to research and look for the following types of resource. How many can you find? Make a note of anything that looks useful! Do the same for another one of your topic choices.
Using this document to record your findings.