Will eight grade 9s be needed for Tiffin Boys Sixth Form entry?

just checking if anyone got any offers yet?

I see, thanks for explaining @gsha

I hope everyone gets sixth form places that they are happy with and enjoys the upcoming University open days. It’s a very exciting time for your dc.

The kids don't only have 8 GCSEs. I think what people are saying is Tiffin only take into account the best 8 of certain subjects.

A downside to this new offer system Tiffin is running from the student's point of view is that students spend all day waiting, I really hope that hasn't detracted from the pride and happiness they should feel in themselves on results day. If you're still waiting also remember that not all that have applied will be pursuing their application as may have in the meantime taken places at other high ranking schools they applied to such as Tiffin girls, Kings maths school and the Sutton grammars.

Also remember Tiffin is only a school and that there are plenty of good schools in the same/ surrounding area.

I’ve not got any skin in the game. Just interested to see what kind of achievements these kids need to attend such popular schools. We had no choice at all of school or sixth form as we wanted Welsh medium education for our dc.

8 GCSEs doesn’t seem many. The top sets at our school take 12.

No. Do read the admissions policy.

8’s not many. What about those who have more than 8 top grades? Does that help their application?

Best 8 results (from
the list of approved GCSEs). No offer yet here

Do they only consider the best 9 results?

Anyone got offers yet?

The stat regarding all 9’s doesn’t include dc at private schools who sit the Cambridge international exam board for English language, lit and in some cases French and history. There are more than 1300 dc who achieved all 9’s in 2024 if you include Cambridge international too.

Has anyone had an offer yet?

They don't "demand" eight 9's - the minimum expectation is actually eight grade 7's. But they do rank and prioritise their external applicants by grade average on results day. Many of their applicants will get a several grade 9s so, inevitably, averages will be highest for the subject combos with fewer spaces.

Until last year they granted places based on predicted grades rather than actual grades so a clean sweep of 9's was certainly pretty common for that.

It would be easy enough to put in a FOI request for last year's actual entry grade profile if anyone really felt they needed to find out.

Exactly. Given how rare all 9s are in the whole of the UK, I doubt the school can demand eight 9s.

They're not doing it for the social benefit though - at least not as their primary aim. The main reason is to fill up A Level classes that might be otherwise half empty, and (in Tiffin's case) perhaps also to help maximise the grade profile of admitted students.

Tiffin used to say (and may still say) on their website that they aimed for 50:50 in sixth form, though I think that was partly marketing, to reassure female applicants that they would have a peer group.

I understand the regulations. I just find the reasoning puzzling. Presumably, the state believes that there can be a social benefit to single sex education, hence the "quotas" in years 7-11 are allowed. But, IMO, a 90/10 split is less beneficial than either 100/0 or 50/50 environments for education so I wonder why ensuring, for example, no worse than a 65/35 split is deemed unacceptable?

Tiffin is a designated boys' school in years 7-11 so is allowed to restrict admissions to boys in those year groups.

Waldegrave is a designated girls' school in years 7-11 so is allowed to restrict admissions to girls in those year groups.

Both schools have mixed sixth forms, so are not allowed to restrict admissions to one sex or the other in year 12/13.

I find this a bit bizarre... it's fine to explicitly limit boys' places to 0% in younger years but it's not fine to explicitly limit girls' places to some non-zero percentage in sixth form?

Define 'plenty'. 🙂 Everything's relative.

It's no secret that Tiffin y7-11 is rammed full of boys whose parents want them to be medics and engineers, most of whom transfer to sixth form with priority access. They do put on additional classes if they think they can fill them, but there's a limit. When my son was in sixth form there were at least three Further Maths classes, and the sixth form has expanded since then. The fact remains that there are more external places for some subjects than others and therefore some subjects are more competitive than others.

Plenty of girls at Tiffin boys are doing STEM subjects so this thread isn't entirely accurate. I would say to study STEM as an external candidate irrespective of gender you probably do need around eight x 9s give or take. I don't know what is generally needed for humanities as my daughter takes all stem subjects but my impression is that all externals tend to have at least 5 9s. This is much higher than some internal candidates have and is due to the huge competition for external places.

They treat boys and girls equally, so are operating legally. They nevertheless tend to admit more girls because there are more places available in subjects that attract girls (for the obvious reason that the internal boys have priority and so fill up the subjects that tend to attract more boys leaving fewer places for externals).

Sorry, you’re correct

This is interesting. Obviously A levels are more challenging though, which could explain some of it. But I would challenge the ‘lots leave after GCSEs’. We know very few leaving. Some are trying for Tiffin without handing notice at Hampton, as only one of those options would appeal

Also they want to have more of a mix of the sexes in 6th form. But I’m not sure it’s strictly legal. Might be, but Waldegrave used to reserve more 6th form spaces for boys than external girls, and on legal challenge they had to stop. It was deemed direct sex discrimination, which I think is fair. External candidates shouldn’t have less chance of getting in simply because of an immutable characteristic.

*That should have said "... high performing STEM-leaning boys ..."

@MeetMeOnTheCorner Also, in case you weren't aware, the boys' school takes girls in the sixth form. They started doing that several years ago to help fill up their humanities classes. That's why they always end up taking many more external girls than external boys. They already have enough performing boys STEM-leaning boys of their own.