Late entry sixth form

[chococupcakes]

I have boobed massively and missed the deadline dates for the sixth form schools I wanted for my DS. He is in an independent school and not much is said about sixth form as they assume everyone is staying. I am not happy with their A level results however. My DS is expecting 9-10 A*'s although when I call up other sixth forms I'm kindly reminded that admissions are now closed.

Do the top schools move much on exam day or are they just inundated with students scoring high enough grades on the day?

Thanks so much for reading:)

Presumably you are looking at other independents? Last year one near us was recruiting top performers right up until Autumn term started, with financial incentives. There is some shuffling around when results come out. State and fe colleges will still be recruiting.

@thefistankneedswater Thx for responding. Call me daft I know, I feel daft in hindsight, but I assumed that because we were looking at high achieving places that we would need to have his results first. Feel like such a plonker.

@thefishtank: I stupidly thought that because the type of schools we were thinking of were grades dependent that he would have to have his grades first. There was no talk of it among his friends and rumour has it only those who were n
ot likely to make the grade were given a nudge/warning to start looking elsewhere.

@LIZ: Oh really?!!! Yes independents. That's encouraging. What area are you in btw. We are London.

Surrey, bordering M25. Does he not want to stay where he is or is that not an option? Are you only looking at dayschools?

Unfortunately, if you have missed the deadline for application, he may not be considered for entry in September, even if he has a full deck of A*s.

You can try begging/persuading them to consider a late application now but, if you are really serious, don't wait until results to try to put this right. Independent schools manage their own applications so can, of course, make exceptions if they want to, but many of them are oversubscribed and so do not really need to. You need to do some serious sucking up to see if you can make a late application and also ask whether they consider applicants after results. Don't give up hope, launch a charm offensive.

My daughter is at a good independent girls school but wants to move to a more academic mixed sixth form. We had to apply in October and go through a series of interviews & aptitude testing in Nov/Dec. She has an offer which is conditional on her achieving certain GCSE results. I think this represents a fairly standard application process for the most academic independent 6th forms.

Hi thanks @monkeyface. Awesome advice.

@LIZs day preferably.

Some top indi sixth forms such as Westminster also have an entrance exam for sixth form as well as wanting the exam results. These exams have probibly happened. Others just want the gcse,s. Some well regarded state sixth forms are also full with waiting lists such as Esher College but most will still be taking applications and will have movement after results day

Thanks @ Mary21. Worth bearing in mind.

Thanks for advice also @LIZ, you're tops. I got straight on it as per your advice and managed to plead and beg to two good ones where I had only missed the date by a couple of weeks.

Hi - i am in the same boat as you were back in 2017 and missed the deadlines! My son is predicted all 9s in his GCSEs and I feel like I have massively let him down! Is there any hope? Did you successfully secure a place for your son?

If you are wanting independent 6th forms then I would just ring round them all now.

Very large numbers of private school students have been applying to the state 6th form options this year, so you may find the indie schools will be overjoyed to hear of someone going in the other direction.

Thank you. I have called 6 independents and they have all told me to call back on results day. Fingers crossed. Do you know of anyone who managed to secure a place in this way?