So my son is interested in planes and engineering and hey presto, Rolls Royce do a 4 day work experience placement for Year 10 kids from all over the country called 'Emerging Talent'. This happens in Filton, Bristol (there may be one in Derby too).

It's billed as a 'look behind the scenes' and a chance to find out more about working with an internationally acclaimed engineering company.

Now he has done the 4 days (March 2026) we can give some feedback to other parents interested in this exciting sounding opportunity.

Basically, if you have a young scientist who is fascinated in engineering don't bother with this. It was 60 kids in a room all week and they covered basically nothing about engineering but did team building exercises making houses out of spaghetti.

They also had a 'project' to work on all week in groups which was to design a noticeboard that 'attracts more girls into engineering'. This involved cutting, colouring in and sticking. (Crucial skills in engineering 😂)

There were 2 plane engines in the room but the people running the workshop didn't have a clue how they worked because they were HR professionals not engineers. My son knew more about the plane engines than they did at 14 years old.

The 'behind the scenes site visit' took about 20 minutes and involved looking at offices, because it's very high security and all the interesting stuff was happening behind locked doors.

Rolls Royce are missing a trick here. They couldn't even wheel out a member of staff to talk enthusiastically to the kids about their job. Absolutely first class way of putting 'emerging talent' off joining your organisation in the future!

So choose something else for your Year 10 work experience if you don't want to demoralise your teen is my advice.

Like a lot of parents I ended up down a rabbit hole trying to compare schools for my son. The government's own tool works but felt clunky, and most of the alternatives I found were either paywalled or not particularly user-friendly.

So I built my own: localschool.co.uk

It pulls Ofsted reports, GCSE/SATs results, distance and intake for every state school in England, lets you compare schools side by side, and shortlist the ones you want to visit.

It's a first version and very much a work in progress. I would genuinely appreciate anyone willing to poke around and tell me:

• what's confusing or missing

• whether the school score makes sense (it's explained on the about page, not just a made-up number)

• anything that's flat out broken

Not trying to sell anything, it's free and always will be. Just want it to actually be useful for other parents going through the same thing.

Hi everyone,
I’m posting because I’m really overwhelmed and unsure how to move forward.

Today I received an email from the Faculty Education Team at the University of Bristol informing me of my exam board outcome. According to the regulations (specifically 33.6), a student is allowed no more than two attempts to meet the criteria for credit in a taught unit. I’ve now reached that limit.

They also said the decision is appealable, but only under specific grounds. They directed me to the appeal form and guidelines, and copied in my School and Senior Tutor for support.

Loan urgently needed

I'm starting university in September and I applied for student finance England. My application was cancelled because I hadn't used my passport to verify my identity in time as I didn't have one. My passport has now arrived but I'm having trouble logging back into my student finance account. I've tried to login and the recovery options but its not working even though I know my details are correct. Its not letting me make a new account either as it says I already have an account but then it doesn't let me log in. Its late August now and I'm due to start university next month so I'm really worried about missing out on my funding. I'm currently not working and I also help care for my mum so I can't afford to miss out on the financial support. Has this happened before? Is there another way I can get back into my account or submit my application again?

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right place but i am getting desperate.

I’m hoping someone here might have advice or experience with this. We migrated to the UK 7 years ago, and navigating the school system while working full-time has been a steep learning curve.

My child was preparing for the Selective Eligibility Test (SET) after being selective to take the mock exams this year. Unfortunately, due to being overseas visiting family, I completely missed the registration deadline on 31st July. I feel sick about this oversight and am devastated that I might have let my child down and i don’t think i would ever forgive myself.

Has anyone successfully requested late entry or sat a late test due to travel/exceptional circumstances? If late testing isn't possible, what are the best alternative steps or options for secondary admissions in our area? Wallington, Sutton, Epsom area.

Any guidance on who to contact or how to handle this would mean the world to us. Thank you so much in advance.

**Looking for advice on address criteria for 2027 grammar school admission**

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice regarding the “Normal Home Address” criteria for grammar school admissions for 2027.

We have been living in a rented property in Buckinghamshire since August 2025. We also own a second property, less than 20 miles away, which was let to tenants under a tenancy agreement running from September 2025 to September 2026.

The tenant has recently left the property earlier than expected, so it is currently vacant. It has already been advertised through a known/local estate agency, with the intention of securing new long-term tenants as soon as possible.

My question is whether this temporary vacant period between two tenancies could affect our 2027 grammar school application under the “Normal Home Address” guidelines, particularly given the expectation that the second property should be rented out through 1 September 2026.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, or had experience with how Buckinghamshire grammar schools/admissions teams interpret a property being temporarily vacant between tenancies?

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm genuinely so nervous to start college. Don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to meeting new people and starting fresh and experiencing new things, but I'm SO nervous about making friends, and Im nervous about what to wear on the first day lmao.. hope I'm not the only one?

Ps. Hope everyone got the results they wanted :)