Daughter wants to be a vet

peachyprice

Has she been selected for triple sciences for her options? Core science won't be enough unless she can get an A/A* then does additional science in Yr11.

Artytarty

My son is a recently graduated vet.
Top science and maths grad es as stated above plus an absolute ton of holiday experience.
Here's what I can remember him doing.
Saturday mornings, early start to help milk a herd on a nearby farm
( we are on outskirts of a city)
Animal shelter volunteer.
Week on a distant relatives poultry farm, they also arranged a visit
To a neighbouring pig farm and abattoir for him.
Official school work experience in our vets.
A week helping out at stables.
Another week in granny's vets
He decided that this is what he wanted to do aged fifteen and never wavered despite people telling him to do dentistry or medicine for the money. Yes, he sometimes complains about the night shift in the hospital he's in. or the early morning starts , but by and large it is what fires him up.

Good luck to your daughter.

trailingspouse

What is it about being a vet that interests her? If you can drill down into how she came to that decision, you will be better placed to manage her expectations and suggest alternatives (if indeed maths and science prove to be a sticking point). There are very many jobs that involve working with animals, and they don't all need the high academic achievement that being a vet does.

But in the meantime - get the extra tutoring, it's never going to be wasted. And if she knows it's for a purpose, that may enable her to power through the difficult bits.

comeandgo

The cattery I use has a young girl helping out, the stables where my daughters used to ride also had young helpers, all working for nothing, just to get a bit of experience with animals.

Hermia

ELLA wrote: »

We are in Bournemouth Dorset, she can't get into a vets until her work experience comes up via her school. I contacted a few local animal shelters and even the rspca before the summer holidays for her to volunteer but half didn't bother even Repliying and the other didn't want to l ow for legal reason as she's still young ��

SHE needs to be contacting them. I used to handle work experience applicants were I worked and one thing that we were wary about was parents contacting us. It often meant the kid didn't really want it and the parent was pushing them. Or it meant the child was so shy and anxious they would be hard to work with or would not get anything out of the experience. We had multiple applicants for one placement and so we would pick the one who had been the most proactive and enthusiastic. I know animal shelters get lots of applicants. It is possible they may have been more responsive if they had got the chance to talk to your daughter themselves.

jackyann

Hermia, can I just make a general point about parents contacting work experience placements?
One of my sons became very discouraged - he could only telephone placements when at home (no-one replied to letters) so he had a window of about 30 minutes on a weekday - by the time you're kept hanging on, that was 2 calls, maximum. No good leaving messages, no-one called back. As you gather, this was prior to emails, but I think the same would have applied.

On a day off, I rang a few likely placements, using my adult skills to get through to the right person. Quite a few said 'we prefer the young person to contact us themselves' so I replied ' If so, what is reason you have not responded to his letters and telephone calls?' I went on to explain that I was 'weeding out' the employers who had no intention of offering a work placement, and that if they were willing to consider him, then please would they respond to the next phone call / letter.

By that method, he got 3 responses, and chose one. His 2 weeks there made him decide never to apply for a job in that field!

Fen1

I am a volunteer for both cat rescue and a wildlife rescue/conservation group.

There are a huge number of jobs that involve animals, animal welfare, wildlife and wildlife conservation. I meet people who are involved both professionally and voluntarily with animals, and I've never heard of some of their job descriptions!

Local wildlife groups should be more than happy to talk to your daughter: red squirrels, bats, owls, amphibians, butterflies, birds...... Your local Wildlife Trust will have a list of local groups.
Perhaps she might like to think about environmental studies, conservation, marine studies, ecology (from trees to river systems to geology; everything depends on everything else). Whether she's interested in animal welfare or science or medicine or conservation, there will be something for her, even if it isn't as a Vet.

peachyprice

I don't know what kind of area you live in but there are quite a few city/community farms here who always have youngsters helping out at the weekend and after school

This type of place:

http://www.wellgatefarm.org/Index.html
http://www.brooksfarm.uk/
http://hackneycityfarm.co.uk/

Maybe you have something similar near you?

krlyr

From the perspective of someone who wanted to be a vet for years as a kid, and never did...

I absolutely adored animals as a kid. Had all manners of pets, grew up next to a farm forever feeding the horses (we even raised an abandoned calf in our garden). Whenever anyone asked what I wanted to be when I was older, I would say a vet, as I couldn't see myself doing anything else I would enjoy as much. But I didn't have the academic drive to go with it. I was doing well at school, I was in the top sets, I was forecast As and A*s for GCSEs...but I didn't particularly apply myself and ended up with a mix of A*s to Cs..still decent grades but not really 'competitive edge for vet school' grades.

I wasn't even sure I wanted to go to college, let alone 5 or 6 years of Uni - I enrolled last minute because I didn't know what else to do, did the same classes as a friend of mine just because I didn't know what else to sign up for (it did include Maths and Sciences, just in case), did fine at them..and dropped out in the middle of the exams at AS level as I just really wasn't feeling it! I ended up working retail for a few years (my mum had a rule of we were either in education or we were paying our way with housekeeping), then ended up stumbling into an office junior job, landing in an accounts department, taking a shine to it, deciding to do the AAT qualification, taking on another role I could develop myself in more, and now studying Management Accounting and preparing the accounts as part of my job.

I certainly didn't see myself ending up here - but at 29 I have a career, about to get the equivalent of a master's degree, no student debt, and I'm doing something I love...and I happen to be working in a dog-related industry where I could bring my dogs to work, too!

So, even if she doesn't get the grades she wants or changes her mind about being a vet, you never know what's around the corner, and it's never too late to retrain or get qualifications

tiz

I'd look for independent animal rescues rather than the big names as they tend to get less volunteers so more space available. Also you are much more likely to get accepted at 14 if you are willing to go too. It's an insurance thing - many places don't have cover for under 14's unless there is a guardian supervising. So if you are able, some family volunteering might get better responses. Also, this time of year look out for open days at rescues - going a long and having a look around is interesting and also a good chance to chat about volunteering in person.

There is a free course here from the Edinburgh Vet School about becoming a vet which might be worth a look: https://www.coursera.org/learn/becoming-a-veterinarian

Their free online courses are very good so if she likes that the others they do would be worth a look.