Changing Schools at Sixth Form Pros and Cons?

BTW my dd is at excellent state Cathedral School, and hope she will stay there for Sixth Form, although she will have to get at least Bs in subjects she wants to continue with in order to do so. So, though we're hopeful of this, it's always interesting to hear of a variety of possible options.

I think I'm with you though vimonoff - I think Sixth form years are possibly the most important ones in which to have really good teachers and teaching. After that, at Uni, it really will be more down to you.
( Except of course, Early Years, which I've always worked in, where all those "dispositions and attitudes" to learning and social skills are developed so crucially )

yeah, maybe seeker, I know there is a commonly accepted wisdom that A students will do well whereever, I just happen to disagree with it! Anyway I wouldn't risk it unless my child was very unhappy and I was very disillusioned with the school/broke.

"much wider"

"I would keep him at the school he is at. It is quite popular here to swap from private to state FE for sixth form and I really don't see the point. The results are much worse."

The results wre only worse because the ability range going into the 6Th form is much wid. If your child is an A candidate, they will get As in either school.

I think the argument that you need to go to a big mixed comp 6th form as good 'practice' for uni is a complete red herring btw. Totally possible to go from a single sex private 6th form to uni and absolutely hit the ground running and thrive. Most private schools worth their salt will have taught excellent organisational skills along with the academic ones.

I would keep him at the school he is at. It is quite popular here to swap from private to state FE for sixth form and I really don't see the point. The results are much worse.

ds2 moved to big FE college in September to study A levels - it has an Ofsted outstanding rating. It takes nearly an hour on the bus to get to. He was at local comp 2 miles away before that. I've had trouble getting him to go to school since year 5 - since September he has attended every day. Not sure he is working very hard at the moment but he has good friends and is enjoying it and attending lessons and completing set work.

DS changed schools for 6th form. EARLY DAYS, but he is MUCH happier. he swapped from a private school to a state FE college.

I changed schools then.
It was due to complex family reasons, but it was the best thing I ever did.
I went from an all-girls private school for my GCSEs to a mixed boarding school for my A levels.
I got some much out of it, I loved it.

I think it's a very natural time in the school career to change. There tends to be a big change between 5th and 6th forms anyway, even within the same school. Also, many children change schools at that time, so you don't stand out as the only new pupil. It's not hard to make new friends then.

I had to change, school didn't have a sixth form, but instead of going to college I went to a little one which is ages away from where I live. I hated secondary school, and knew that on the lesson side of things, A levels would be along the same lines, but the change was amazing. It depends on the school, obviously, but the people were lovely and friendly and I couldn't get over it. Everyone seemed to be friends with one another. I went with two friends and that helped, and made more in the first term, but otherwise I didn't need to make friends (I have AS, not exactly gifted in that area) because it was a really safe place. At my old school, if you didn't have friends to keep you safe, it would just be scary. Changing schools worked out perfectly for me, and I'm probably a lot more antisocial/lazy than whoever the OP is talling about!

Another vote for changing: I moved from a good state comprehensive to a big (3500 students) further education college (ie one that was 2/3 vocational courses). Importantly this college also promoted students getting into Oxbridge/winning national competitions etc in the local press, so whilst the results as a whole may have been worse than some of the local schools, they did try to stretch students.

The weirdest thing was...no bell! You had to watch the time yourself, and then there was no detention if you didn't hand work in (unless it was actually coursework), just a realisation that you were cheating yourself. It does make going to university less of a big step.

I did it after sitting my GCSEs in 1996. In fairness, I come from South Somerset, where most comprehensives are 11-16 and then you switch for 6th form. Most of my friends went to the local college/s, but I went to a state boarding school that took day pupils for 6th form. I found it really good - I was able to get away from some of the people who bugged me at my old school, and still kept in touch with my closest friends. I went on to become prefect and Deputy Head girl too, so I don't think it's true whoever said that your DC wouldn't get to have those roles.... I liked the fact that I ended up having a very mixed social group througout 6th form - I wasn't always going out with the people I went to school with, as I went out with my friends from my old school (and their new friends) too. This made it much easier to get away from the cliques, etc, that I found hard to deal with (I was very much a tomboy during school....).

Not much to add to above posters except:

• at this time of year ime from 2 DC lots of DCs say that they are moving for sixth form. This number decreases substantially as it gets nearer to the exams.
• AS modules can be a problem in the January. DCs have to hit the ground running in September or it can be a hard slog. Although you can retake some universities don't like retakes. If however you are doing the IB then this is easier as there are no external exams until the Upper Sixth.

My DD dithered about moving for sixth form. In the end she decided that she didn't want to leave her friends so stayed at her all girls school. She doesn't regret it and took university in her stride afterwards.

I moved at sixth form, from a local independent girls school to a boys public school (boarding with girls at sixth form). I'm not sure academically it was a particularly good move, I did get to do some courses that weren't available at my previous school but the discipline was fairly terrible (lots of very very privileged kids who felt they could lord it over the teachers and frequently behaved very badly). However moving away from home was great!

I'd look at the options and discuss them with your ds. At 16 I think he should have some input into the decision, but bear in mind some of his motivation may not be the best (I'm sure I was at least a bit swayed by how sexy the boys looked in their uniforms!). I think that political leanings is a perfectly good reason though - if he is getting very irritated with his classmates that could cause friction and disengagement especially if he is going to study social sciences (I did politics and economics so I have some understanding of where he is coming from, although at 17-18 I was horribly Tory).

My school had no sixth form so I had to choose between the posh, private school's sixth form that had plenty of Oxbridge candidates but was an hour's round trip away, or the local, not particularly good further education college that had a focus on drama. I wanted to do science but couldn't be arsed with the travel wanted to stay local so I could make better use of the day, plus a whole load of bitchy classmates were heading to the other school and I really fancied a break, a fresh start.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, didn't need the pushy teachers as I put enough pressure on myself to do well. As a few people mentioned I actually found it to my advantage when I got into Cambridge as I was better able to organise myself and didn't find it too much of a shock.

If your dc is selfmotivated to get good grades, let him choose which college to go to. It encourages independence and self reliance. Otoh if he's a bit of a slacker, probably best to keep him in an environment where he has structure and discipline (not in a punishment sense, in a work ethos sense!), but he will resent being made to stay - he must be involved in the decision or he might subconsciously rebel a little if he's somewhere he doesn't want to be. Visit both schools and help him come to the correct decision.

I chose to - in the early 1980s. We went to college and did Diplomas and all did very well. It was a disadvantage due to travel but the lecturers had spent time in the trades they were teaching and that was invaluable. They treated us as adults and expected us to meet deadlines, without a second reminder. I secured my training contract through the course, as one local business took on one student a year.

My children will do the same because we don't have a sixth form. Yes, they have to travel and make new friends, but they have a choice of 8 places to go and so many courses, they can literally pick exactly what is best for them.

In today's world, staying at the same school is fine if they do exactly the course to suit your child, good results and teaching. But, if those things aren't in place, changing and taking on the extra travel wouldn't worry me either.

I'm just feeling you should go to the best school you can with the best teachers possible in the Sixth form. I'm also not sure about giving DCs too much choice at this stage - they're still very young and it's going to be an important couple of years for them.
Make a joint decision, and go for what is genuinely the best for them ! HTH

I changed from a non-selective mixed private school (yeah I know) to a massive co-ed state 6th form college, as did my sister.

I really benefitted. As someone already mentioned, it really prepared me for studying at Cambridge where I had one hour of compulsory contact time a week and thus had to manage my time and be very self-motivated about ploughing through my reading list/ getting my essay done/ attending the relevant lectures even though not mandatory.

At 6th form we only had to turn up for lessons (no school day as such), and if you didn't hand in coursework/homework it wasn't chased. You just got zero. The classes were still reasonably small (15ish) and i really enjoyed it.

However, my sister did the same, didnt cope with the unstructured environment and massively underperformed in her A-levels

I wouldn't worry about the grades. If anything, the state sixth form will probably have opted for the less rigorous boards so he might do better. Also, and completely cynically, he'll be a state school applicant for the purposes of Uni stats (look at port of last call) so that might actually help him.

DD1 did at the start of this academic year. She went from a relatively nurturing 800 strong independent school where she'd done very well to a 4500 strong state sixth form.

At the start of the year we had really cold feet when it appeared that the A level courses she was on were all going over basic GCSE stuff because the other students needed it, so she changed to the much faster-moving IB course at the same college, along with their G&T programme.

So far it has seemed to be a really positive move for her, not that we had any choice in the matter as our financial situation did not allow her to stay. There were certain aspects of her previous school and the effect on her behaviour that I did not like- she was increasingly out of touch with what is normal life for most people, started to baulk at taking public transport etc and we felt that she needed a healthy dose of reality at a perfect time for her.

I'd say that socially the change has been overwhelmingly good for her. She is still very much in touch with her good friends from the old school and now has a whole bunch of new ones as well.

She wants to do medicine at Cambridge so only time will tell whether academically the change has been as good for her. She seems to be doing very well so far. I am very pleased that we bit the bullet and did it- she was only one of 8 leaving her year.

My DH and I both did this more than a decade ago, me from one independent school to another and DH from a proper public school to a 6th form college. Both of us often tell people it was one of the best decisions we've ever made. We met soon after at uni at Cambridge.

From my p.o.v. I'd been at one school since I was 4 and felt that I needed to see more of the world before moving on to university. My parents have since told me that they were very very uneasy about my desire to move, but - to their absolute credit - decided to let me make the decision myself (after making sure I'd done plenty of research) and support me whatever decision I made (I looked at several different schools/colleges before choosing the one I ended up at). I took the responsibility of the decision really seriously and I think it also helped to ensure I worked damned hard at 6th form as I was determined to show my parents that I'd made the right decision!

DH hated his public school, hated the travel to it, and (like your DS) had come to a conclusion that he hated the whole ethos and elitism of this kind of school (in this he has not changed!). He moved to local 6th form college and really thrived. Had to be more of an independent learner (which is what is required for uni...and indeed, for life!) and was supported 100% in what he wanted to do at uni. Again, he wanted to show his parents and some of his old teachers that he'd made the right decision so possibly worked harder there than he would have at the old school.

He also finds it much easier to talk about his leftist principles when it comes to education than I do!

Pink, how interesting. I read that 6 form colleges results are lower that schools, and was thinking more about a school for DD (our secondary does not have 6th form).

In general I am all for children moving from a school to a sixth form college environment. It is ideal small scale practice for the freedom of university, both intellectually and socially.

It is a risk, but it may pay off with a happier experience and better application at degree level. There is no reason for his A level grades to be lower so long as there are children getting the top results in that school.

Incidentally the way he presents the move in his personal statement could make him of more interest to universities, especially a political institution like the LSE.