Y11 2025/26… come and join

@Ifonlyoneday re travel - Manchester so all the areas of the city are well served by frequent buses, trams & trains.
There are some dedicated college public buses too.
Same for the towns within Greater Manchester as a rule such as Bury Bolton, Stockport, Oldham etc
It’s rare for any high school kids to get driven so a huge % are used to public transport from Yr7.
From what I saw at open days kids will be travelling up to an hour to go to their best choice.
Some colleges are almost all A level only with a few other options then there are more vocational ones. Loads of options

Dd is staying at school sixth form and her class sizes at alevel are 8-12 students. There’s 120 in the year max. They have 7-8 hours of teaching per subject each week, the rest is independent study.

Ultimately some kids would love this (dd!), others would find it too small. Dd would hate being in a college of 2000+ kids! They’re all individual with different personalities and preferences. Just hope as parents we make the right decision for them.

The talk of these 3000 pupil colleges (whilst our county only has circa 1000 children per year in each sixth form/college school year) has made me realise how varying the state options are post 16 by location and rural vs city.

It’s fascinating the differences in provision for post 16. What courses are available? Does the county have sixth forms, school sixth forms or colleges, some or all? How do the students travel to these locations? The entry criteria? When the open days are held. When the applications need to be in by. Then I think there is a further difference as to which parts of the UK mandate education must continue to 18 vs others that can leave at 16.

With all this variation, I just hope all our DCs can find the right place and courses for them.

@36and3 all 6th form colleagues round here are that kind of size. Except school based ones.
It’s actually good as the staff are just totally geared to A levels etc and there are several hundred students doing each popular subject so a lot of peer and teaching support. The behaviors and expectations are high and all about getting the grades for the next step. I felt much more on board with the size once I’d gone & looked and spoken to staff. Ave class size is 24 at all and contact time is 4-5 hours a week per A level and they expected to at least match that with own study time.
Teachers only teach 6th form and thus know the detail of how to get kids passing with good grades.

@eurotravel no, they're both great colleges, DD just thought Loretto seemed more 'modern'. (The subjects we looked at were in a brand new block) She's heard good things about it from older friends too. I thught Xaverian had a nice relaxed vibe, and I loved the green in the middle. But what do I know!

Our local standalone sixth form has well over 3000 students. It's huuuge. I think it's a good thing as they offer a wide range of subjects and it's a nice stepping stone to navigating university.

3000?!! That’s colossal!

@postitnot interesting that Loretto seems to get everyone’s vote albeit loads will go Xav on distance from round us & bus every 3/4 mins. On the face of it the same. Over 2-3000 students. Both just 6th forms. Both outstanding. Similar range of subjects. Same contact hours. Ish Both have med / vet streams .. No one can put finger on it.

Definitely Loretto! The comute will be a shock after being able to roll out of bed and be in school in 20 minutes, but it will be character forming :)

We've been to see one 6th form which is a great school but the grades are not quite as good as Dd1's current (admittedly highly selective) grammar school and the journey is slightly longer. As she already travels nearly an hour a day, I don't think she'd want to increase it. But it was helpful in helping her decide what she wants to do. Her own school's open day is next week.

Annoyingly the other 6th form we wanted to go and see has its open day on the same day she has another commitment. This one is definitely a bit less academic but in a really nice area so that makes it appealing.

We may put it down anyway as a back up in case but realistically I think she'll stay at the grammar.

@eurotravel the harsh approach of some 6th forms is interesting and I think goes up from the academy approach at secondary. There are a few around us - the London Academy of Excellence springs to mind -that have strict dress codes and attendance and are in reasonably deprived areas but get amazing results. I have a few friends whose kids have chosen them, they tend to be very good for Stem subjects.

dd is staying at her Indy but we’ve applied for a scholarship into the sixth form. She did get a place at a very oversubscribed college but she was put off by the size of it. It has 2000 pupils in years 12/13!! Her school has only 1200 from age 2–18!!

@Littletreefrog I’m quite intrigued by the seemingly overly harsh approach.
I seriously can’t decide whether a more soft approach works or very blunt reality.
The best 6th forms here all require 6/7+ in subjects you want to do.
The more vocational ones 5s
Very vocational ones 4s
But the kids taking vocational courses will prob learn and earn a trade.
Maybe is a genuine desire to get kids to face up to reality .. all be it at 15
Our ‘good’ school are providing lots of support but a lot the kids seem to think it’s a breeze right now. Mine included

We are looking at same options. DD seemed bit phased by the size of both Loretto & Xaverian albeit I was the other way and reassured by visits. I liked Loreto most as did most parents I have spoken to but Xav closer. But need to get the grades..

We don’t have the option to stay at the current school, only one school in our area has a sixth form as part of the school, our son’s school used to but they closed it as everyone goes to sixth form college. Which is what DS will do. In reality we have one choice as we would need the council to fund transport to any other college (due to disability) which they won’t want to do. It makes the decision making easy though, now DS just has to get the predicted and then actual grades

Not much revision being done here either some maths - mostly instigated by me - and DS1 is taking his actual maths exam in a couple of weeks! I am told they can retake in the summer but am desperately hoping he can pull a C (in Wales so still letters) out of the bag to reduce the revision load. Not looking promising though. Think DS1 is slightly despairing of the amount of work so choosing to do as little as possible- I do not understand this logic in the slightest but worryingly his younger brother claims it makes sense….
Slightly freaked out by the fact you all seem to have had most of your open evenings etc. We have not had any! The school sixth form one is at the start of December and think all the college ones are next term.

@Ifonlyoneday sometimes it ain't good when schools have great GCSEs results. DDs school has always done2 mocks 2nd in Feb also got a week of revision classes over easter half term. Dreading this year as last 2 yrs the school has improved and added extra revision classes.
@whereonthestair Good to hear he has been given things to help in the exams to make it fairer. Didn't find out till A Levels that my DS qualified for a word processor as he struggled to write.
@Littletreefrog hope the open evening goes well and he likes it.

We have 2 weeks of mocks starting 17th November.
Some revision is definitely being done this half term week, but not sure how much. Mock results due in December will advise me of whether the revision has been effective.
predicted grades based off mocks due in December so they can do their 6th form applications.

Their school has not been performing well at GCSE although looking at this years performance tables they did a bit better in 2025 GCSEs. This has resulted in them adding a 2nd mock cycle in March.

We have just one more open day too.

DS is apparently doing about 1.5hrs revision per school night and 2 on weekends. Wether this is happening or wether the revision is of any quality remains to be seen. I have said if the November mocks aren't showing the results they should I will have to be a lot more on his case than I am now.

We just have one open day left and it is for DS's preferred college and also the one that will be far the easiest to get to so I really hope it lives up to DS's expectations.

Yes DS has a computer, he can even do French accents on it which always amazes me. He writes some questions, types others but it’s his normal way of working so fine apparently, and given we were told he’d never be able to even write his name when he was 3 ish it’s quite remarkable. He also gets extra time and rest breaks. They go some way to levelling the playing field but aren’t quite the advantage others may think as the time is needed, which goes for revision and homework too, and unfortunately we can’t make the days 25 % longer. It will be what it will be though, and when it’s rubbish I remind myself this is a child who was never supposed to write. He’ll be great for the progress scores for the school as came into secondary behind on everything but barring a disaster will get 9 decent passes if he manages not to fall asleep in an exam.

Not much studying been done here so will have to see how it's goes already half way through Mocks as split either side of half term parents even 2nd week of December so will know results by then. Outside clubs taking up lots of time but she is enjoying them will decide what to do if mock results are not great. About Currently trying to decide where to go for 6th form. Do e one open evening so far.
@whereonthestair does your son have use of a word processor for exams?

How is everyone getting on? My DS has had one assessment then two weeks of solid mocks straight after half term. He keeps saying he is failing, when I keep wondering how on earth the government thought so much content in GCSEs was remotely reasonable. So far DS has managed probably an average of 2 hours revision a night after school and about 3/4 hours each weekend day and so far at least he is keeping up his hobbies which also take about 10 hours a week in total but it is brutal. There is just so much content and DS is disabled so writing is tricky, which probably means revision is eating my time more than perhaps it should. Oh well in three weeks time this set of mocks will be over and we’ll have another 3 months before the next set!

DS has mocks coming up after half term so we worked on his revision timetable this weekend. I say "we" but it was mostly me getting happy with spreadsheets. He doesn't have a lot of time so I'm getting him to RAG all his subjects to identify focus areas. The school has RAG sheets available to students but not to me so I made my own. I do love spreadsheets... DS sat down with a revision guide and did a bit of physics, so that's a result.