Pupil guide to Reach Tayside

This guide includes all the information you require as a Reach pupil to get the most out of the project as you embark on your senior phase at school and transition to University study.

Additional resources

Find resources for your chosen subject.

Dentistry Resources

Dentistry Resources

Dental Insight Dundee

Dental Insight is a programme run by dental students at the University of Dundee, and provides a work experience programme for S4 and S5 school pupils interested in a career in Dentistry! Have a look at their Facebook pages, and like and follow them to see updates and more information.

General Dental Council - Standards

The GDC's Standards document outlines what it means to be a good dentist. It describes the expected values and professional behaviour expected of practicing dental professionals in the UK. We cannot stress how useful it will be for you to read this document! Not only will it give you an understanding of what is expected of practicing dentists, but it will also really help when it comes to the Situational Judgement section of the UCAT and at interviews later on. Again, use your Reach Reflective diary to try and identify any examples of observing these behaviours/values/expectations in dental professionals. If you haven't had work experience, think about interactions you have had with your own dentist, or with dental students at Reach events – they should all be following this guidance too.

Other online Dental and Health Resources

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online courses aimed at an unlimited number of people which can be accessed online through certain online learning platforms. They allow you to learn in a flexible way, and can help you to expand your knowledge and connect with educators across the world!

MOOCs don't involve as high a level of studying as your school subjects; they can take up a few hours per week and normally run for between 2-6 weeks. However, you can access all the materials in your own time at a time that suits you best.

A high proportion of MOOCs are completely free for you to access and learn. Some courses will charge additional fees for you to be given an accredited certificate of participation. However, for the purpose of broadening your own understanding of different topics in law, you DO NOT NEED TO PAY extra for this. You can simply keep a note of any courses you do and make reference to these in your personal statement, if you find they are relevant for this.

Suggested MOOC's

 

Other resources

Law Resources

Law Resources

Core values and attributes

The following links will give you an idea of the skills and qualities needed to be a solicitor as well as the variety of careers available within the legal profession. Not only will this help you gain a further understanding of what the profession requires, but it will also help you when it comes to writing your UCAS personal statement – how have you developed some of these skills and qualities? What attributes do you have that make you suitable for a career in the legal sector, and how can you demonstrate these attributes through your school commitments, or extra-curricular activities?

Keeping Up to Date

The following links are a good way of keeping up to date with all that is happening in Scottish legal world.  They can also count as career exploration as you get to see the wide variety of roles available.  Make sure you keep up with the national & international news in general too! 

Other online learning oppportunitites

The Open University offers flexible part-time study, and they have lots of free courses which could be of interest to you, and give you a good introduction to some key legal concepts, processes and theory! If you have some free time, why not try a couple and develop your understanding?

Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and we encourage you to search for other free courses too! Most don’t need a huge amount of time, and may also give you some suggested further reading if you are keen!

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) 

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online courses aimed at an unlimited number of people which can be accessed online through certain online learning platforms. They allow you to learn in a flexible way, and can help you to expand your knowledge and connect with educators across the world!

MOOCs don’t involve as high a level of studying as your school subjects; they can take up a few hours per week and normally run for between 2-6 weeks. However, you can access all the materials in your own time at a time that suits you best.

A high proportion of MOOCs are completely free for you to access and learn. Some courses will charge additional fees for you to be given an accredited certificate of participation. However, for the purpose of broadening your own understanding of different topics in law, you DO NOT NEED TO PAY extra for this. You can simply keep a note of any courses you do and make reference to these in your personal statement, if you find they are relevant for this.

Suggested MOOC courses

Other resources

Professional bodies

Like all professions, Lawyers must register with professional bodies in order to practice. In Scotland there are 2 main professional bodies: the Faculty of Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland. 

 

Virtual Internships

These are all free programmes which you can do in your own time and are self-assessed, so your work won't be graded.  You can complete tasks then compare your work to that of an actual solicitor or lawyer – a great opportunity and something to reflect on in your UCAS personal statement.

Aimed at current Law students, so they will be a bit ahead of where you are just now, but they can still give you a useful insight into working for these large firms. 

 

Visiting Courts

We would normally be running our Sheriff Court visits during the summer and autumn, to give you the chance to see court procedure in action and learn more about the Scottish Judicial system. However, this may not be possible during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we thought we would give you some other resources to help you explore this area. 

Medicine Resources

 

Medicine Resources

Core values and attributes


The Medical Schools Council (MSC) has produced a document setting out a non-exhuastive list of the core values and attributes needed to study medicine.

Take some time to familiarise yourself with these, and try to reflect on these when undertaking any work experience, voluntary work or career exploration – how did the medical professional demonstrate these attributes and values? Remember, you will already possess lots of these skills and attributes too! They can be drawn from a wide range of activities - they don't need to always come from medical-related work experience. Think about how your hobbies and extra-curricular activities have helped you to build up these skills and values – this will come in really useful later down the line for your application!

General Medical Council - Good Medical Practice

The GMC's Good Medical Practice document outlines what it means to be a good doctor. It describes the expected values and professional behaviour expected of practicing doctors in the UK. We cannot stress how useful it will be for you to read this document! Not only will it give you an understanding of what is expected of practicing doctors, but it will also really help when it comes to the Situational Judgement section of the UCAT and at interviews later on! Again, use your Reach Reflective diary to try and identify any examples of observing these behaviours/values/expectations in medical professionals. If you haven’t had work experience, think about interactions you have had with your GP, doctors or healthcare professionals in hospital, or with medical students at Reach events – they should all be following this guidance too.

Let't talk about health lecture series

Let's Talk About Health and Disease is a series of plain speaking public lectures which run annually at the University of Edinburgh from October through to March.

The talks are aimed at senior school pupils interested in studying medicine, veterinary medicine or the life sciences at university, as well as interested members of the general public and health professionals.

The series allows scientists pioneering new research at the University of Edinburgh to share their latest ideas and discoveries with the public and provides attendees with the opportunity to advance their knowledge of health and what happens in disease.

Each lecture includes a Q&A session and refreshments, many also include the chance for S4-S6 pupils to meet young researchers in the field through lab tours and interactive workshops.

You can find out more about upcoming lectures or view previous lectures.

Massive Online Open Learning Courses (MOOCs)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online courses aimed at an unlimited number of people which can be accessed online through certain online learning platforms. They allow you to learn in a flexible way, and can help you to expand your knowledge and connect with educators across the world!

MOOCs don’t involve as high a level of studying as your school subjects; they can take up a few hours per week and normally run for between 2-6 weeks. However, you can access all the materials in your own time at a time that suits you best.

A high proportion of MOOCs are completely free for you to access and learn. Some courses will charge additional fees for you to be given an accredited certificate of participation. However, for the purpose of broadening your own understanding of different topics in medicine and healthcare, you DO NOT NEED TO PAY extra for this. You can simply keep a note of any courses you do and make reference to these in your personal statement, if you find they are relevant for this.

There are a number of MOOCs on a variety of healthcare and medical-related topics.

Some of the courses may have certain start dates, so check each course for details on this if you’re interested.

Medic Insight Dundee

Medic Insight is a programme run by medical students at the University of Dundee, and provides a work experience programme for S4 and S5 school pupils interested in a career in Medicine! Have a look at their Facebook pages, and like and follow them to see updates and more information!

Other Online Health & Medicine Courses 

As well as the MOOCs, listed above, there are other online courses that you can take part in for free to enhance your understanding of key concepts in medicine and healthcare.

 

Virtual Work Experience