APEX Saturday workshops - FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I have a place?
The schools are informed by email weekly about the allocation of the Saturday workshop places. Places are allocated about 10 days before the event with an exception at the beginning of term the school week does not start Monday. One email is sent for each workshop. That ensures schools don't get details of workshops for which they have not applied, and school admin can print out and pass to the teacher specifically involved without having to edit, which saves them time. Each school has a different way of handling emails and where children and young people are concerned we want to make sure there are as few holes for information to fall through as possible; a separate email for each workshop sent to the school, which is copied to the staff involved with delivering the workshop is the way that seems to work the best for the most at the moment. Many apologies for the irritation this causes when schools recieve a number of seperate emails in one go.
Why do I only hear a few days before the workshop I have a place?
There are exceptions at the beginning of a term but we now generally send out allocations Monday which gives 10 days notice. School systems vary; some schools apply for workshops in one go, others do it week by week. From experience and experimentation we have found sending allocations out too far in advance meant information was more often getting parked or lost. We keep trying to improve the system and welcome ideas on how to.
Why do I have to apply through school and why are certificates not given out at the workshops?
The APEX workshops contribute to the school's provision for it's pupils and it is important that children, parents and teachers see the connections between the different contexts of learning; education is more than the sum of its parts. What is encouraging at the moment is that this is explicitly recognised in many of the DCFS strategies: Gifted and Talented Education, Personalisation of Learning, Study Support, Extended Schools... APEX contributes to that understanding asking schools to give certificates to pupils who have participated in APEX workshops, or however they choose to recognise the educational experiences their pupils engage in beyond the curriculum and beyond school; it is a visible link for the pupil between school and life outside. Some schools use it as a way of demonstrating how they value the experiences the children bring and some use it as a point of conversation for the child with their teacher or classmates. APEX provides a certificate as a template which schools may choose to use, individualise with their own school name etc, or not use at all. Some schools expect the child to share some of their experiences in different forms and sometimes pupils have run their own workshop for others.
Why dont we get places when we apply?
The workshops are often very oversubscribed. There can sometimes be over 80 applications for one workshop. Places are allocated first to children schools have told us should have a priority place. If that child can or will only go to the workshop if they go with a friend, the school applies for a place for that child as well and they are also allocated a priority place. Other places are then allocated with a view to giving a balance of gender and to enable the children to meet and work with children from other areas. We try to give those who havent been before a priority over 'old timers' if the school has identified them but even so unfortunately some children have to wait a long time to get a place.