Woodhouse College, North London

My niece had a great time there and got fantastic A levels. It's pretty much a default 6th form for my oldest's school but they have decided not to put it as first choice as they want to do music and have heard other 6th forms have better music departments, so is prioritising those, but we're all OK if they end up at Woodhouse.

It's evidently brilliant in many ways. I know lots of children there. Quite a mixed picture in terms of happiness, but they all say the teaching is great.

Depending on the type of school you come from it can be a big bump tho - friend's son went there from indie school and did appallingly for ages (didn't seem to realise that he needed to work if there wasn't someone making him). Loved it and did well by the end tho.

Some find it a party school and love that. Others regret that there isn't more social life. It's so huge that I think people have enormously divergent experiences.

It is a large size sixth form college, a good mix of north london comp schools, grammar kids (Latymer/HBS/QE) and some from independent schools. Many more social life opportunities compared to the grammars schools but maybe too much for some. Requires a lot of good self displines and hard work for high aspiration children, esp for those from hot house secondary environments.

@pinkduckquack I don't have any very current info if I'm honest, my experience of it is pre pandemic but if your child is doing well at an academic indie than they should be fine, although it depends how much they are spoon fed to be honest. Woodhouse will require lots of self motivation and organisation but tbh the best thing you can do is just go to the open day.
APS offers vocational qualifications too and they have lower accepted grades for A Levels, plus they expect them to take 5 and carry on with 4 as far as I know. It's a huge sixth form.
Camden would probably be the most 'similar' to an indie in terms of types of kids that go. Depends on the social scene your child wants really.

It's really really good. Not much else to say. Much more diverse than places like Camden girls etc that also attract the high performers. It's essentially college but full of very determined smart kids and some love it others hate it. Depends on your personality I presume. It's difficult to get a space, lots of kids don't. I suggest visiting the open evening.