To think it's outrageous that there is nowhere in my town of 200000 people offering Alevels

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There no getting away from it, this is a deprived area and with educational provision like this there is little prospect of social mobility.

We have 5 large secondary schools. Not one of them has a sixth form. There is a further education college but it has merged with two other colleges in surrounding towns and ours now only offers vocational qualifications. To do A levels you either need to go to sixth form at a school 8 miles in one direction (with rubbish public tramsport links) or a 25 min (expensive) train journey in the other direction.

Obviously for committed students with supportive families , that's not insurmountable but another example of how life is even harder for those whose opportunities are more limited in the first place.

Is this usual in deprived areas? Who do I need to take it up with?

Are non of the local secondaries considering opening a 6th form?If not, why npt?

The local authority offer a subsided student travel pass for £900pa.

Transport isn't provided post 16 Mrspotter

I grew up in Londo!n

Yes, we can tell.

In the sort of area the OP is describing, the 8 miles is likely to be on roads where it's too dangerous to cycle or outright illegal (motorway; dual carriageway without pavements or cycleways; narrow, twisty, country roads between banks/hedges along which people drive at 60).

Local Secondaries don't believe it would be financially viable as very few of their students choose to do A levels. Chicken and egg?

I was the last year to take A levels in 6th form in 1988! But until last year the local college was offering them.

It is bad, but sadly I am not surprised. I live in a big City and on my side of the City, unless you can get into one of the really selective 6th forms, then you travel over the border here too. It seems bizarre to have closed the 6th forms at 2 local school at a time when all 16 - 18 yr olds are supposed to now remain in FT education or training, but, unless you get As and A*s (ok - 7s, 8s, 9s now) you can't go to do A levels locally anymore.

Write to your MP (or maybe attend a surgery in person) anyway... MPs are supposed to representative all of their constituents.

You're right, if there isn't local provision of a full range of sixth form provision then there needs to be support for those who can't afford to travel.

The local college doesn't even offer the more academic vocational courses like computing or engineering.

Unfortunately those are fields in which there's a shortage of good teachers (academic engineering requires a very high level of maths and physics), which may be another limiting factor for providing distributed provision.

I'm know 6th Forms schools have funds to help students with travel expenses. We live rurally, and I know DC travel up to 15 miles, by the college bus to get there. It is very expensive but the college does help DC who need it.

However, your town should have a sixth form and it's diabolical that it doesn't.

God, that's awful. Do A level students get help with transport costs to get to a suitable college, or are they just told to get on with the local vocational courses if they can't afford it? I know we (rural) don't get any help towards alternative colleges if kids don't fancy the limited range at the local high school, but at least they do A levels. The next closest option is 15 miles away, and costs £££ to get to. Unfair when they're meant to be doing some kind of education or training until they're 18.

That's shocking. How far would they need to travel?

Its hard isn't it. The school my ds goes to at present has a sixth form but very limited subjects and not the ones he wants to do. Other options are miles away needing a bus pass costing hundreds of pounds a year, we are already paying for our other sons bus pass costing hundreds a year also. We can afford it but it must be costly for low income families.

I know it's not the real answer, but you can do A levels online

I know Meckity. My objection isn't that it's impossible, it's that these kids who already have bloody hard lives get yet another disadvantage.

Not free Meckity

It's sadly not unusual and going to become more of an issue due to cuts in FE funding - colleges merge - courses are reduced - options limited.

Most colleges (Local to me) do offer transport though - at reduced cost (but still expensive) and poorer pupils get a full bursary

But it's all down to funding

I lived in a town of 22,000 (semi rural) and our local secondary has only offered A Levels in the last year. It’s limited places so if you don’t get in or they don’t offer the courses you need, then the next nearest is 20 miles away by train, no bus offered. If your parents can’t afford the train fair, then you aren’t going. It’s horrendous.

I work in an area split in two - one bit very wealthy one bit very economically deprived - the local college has 2 campuses - one in each area

Neither offers A level but guess which campus only offers L1 and 2 courses and which offers all the level 3 and HE options?

I live in an affluent town in the SE without any sixth form provision, not even private. The nearest sixth form provision is about 5 miles away and a lot of teens travel much further than that. My son will probably go to college about 12 miles away.

There are dedicated buses but it costs, which annoys some parents.

Trying to think what city/large town in the SE wouldn't have a sixth form. I was thinking Luton but it has a sixth form.

OP, not the same area as you because you said SE, but DH grew up in an area of the NW that had no A-Level provision for around one academic year because there was only one sixth-form that offered them and they stopped doing it. Luckily a year later one of the colleges linked with a college in another town that provides A-Levels, to enable that college to provide A-Levels, but it's still a very limited selection, most people need to travel to the college in that other town, or to a college/sixth-form in one of the two nearest cities. So I doubt this is that rare tbh. Again this area is one of the most deprived areas in the country.

Am I missing something? 8 miles isn't far and transport would be provided.

If transport were provided there wouldn't be an issue.

Also, you mention that your LA provides a transport grant for young people, that does not exist in the area I've mentioned here in the NW, and as it's a very deprived area, for post-16 students to afford regular travel into the neighbouring town or one of the cities here, it's a big ask. It massively limits their educational/life prospects and social mobility.

(Woops, I read that wrong, I think - I think you were saying that there was no such travel grant for post-16 education, sorry, my bad!)

The issue isn't the lack of very local provision (which probably isn't economically viable without the rest of the secondary provision suffering), it's the lack of free travel to suitable tertiary education.

The age at which you can leave education may have increased, but post 16 there is no statutory transport provision like there is for 4-16 year olds.

Some LEAs do provide it, others don't. And it's a disgrace.

8 miles is fine for a 16-18yo to travel.
I travelled 8 miles each way to do A Levels, extremely deprived town of 250,000 in the NW, 30 years ago, one bus an hour to next town.
Schools cannot afford to run sixth forms, it's getting harder and harder to keep them viable unless they're huge. (Or extremely restricted on subjects offered)

Yes it's fine if your parents can and are willing to pay for it. My objection is mostly that these already disadvantaged children have to travel when their better off peers don't.

Which in reality means that a good number that could/should go on to A levels (and then university) dont

Wow. That's terrible!