I went to college because school ended at 16. There was no sixth form. If you were academic, you went to one college to do your A levels, and if you weren't, you went to the other college to do a vocational course.
My eldest DC chose to go to a sixth form college. Around here, about half of schools have a sixth form, the others do not. She chose a college because she didn't want to be babied any more (supervised study, not allowed off site during the day, strict uniform policy etc etc). She also had friends who went to the college. She found she was able to do more courses at the college (3 A levels + 1 extra course per year) and is now at a RG uni, her first choice uni for her degree.
DC 2 will go there too. Reasons: wider range of courses, students are expected to be more mature / grow up and become more independent and I think mine will rise to that challenge.
I'm a teacher, and have taught in both settings (3 schools with sixth forms, 2 colleges) and have held leadership roles in sixth form. Personally, I prefer the college system because my experience has shown me...
- Lecturers at colleges tend to be more academic. In my experience, it's rare to see a college lecturer with just a BA in their subject. Most I know tend to have MAs or doctorates, way more than many schools.
- Lecturers can often be more specialist. Because they only teach A level, they can invest much more time into their subject and some will only teach part of an A level, specialising even further. All too often in schools, GCSE is the main focus of management and targets etc. A level teaching can be something that is bolted on for a few hours a week, rather than the teacher's primary focus. I've also found lecturers in colleges are much more likely to be examiners too, as when they start examining, most lecturers are on very limited teaching timetables. Whereas, in schools examining is done but is not the norm, as most teachers are still teaching. So it's usually a few who mark, rather than the majority. Expertise is also relevant for UCAS advice. Again this is bread and butter for most college lecturers, but I have seen some terrible advice and references written by school Teachers who just don't have the time to attend the teacher conferences or to focus on the latest UCAS developments in the same way.
- Colleges have greater resources for students etc, subscriptions to academic journals, or click view, massolit etc, it won't be one of these but often several.
- much wider range of subjects to choose from, including some of the less popular A levels like Art History or Classics. With the more popular A levels, students can not just select which course they want to study. Eg not just history or ancient history, but there might be diffferent eras or themes they could select, depending on their interest.
- Colleges are often run as mini universities. Lecturers on first name terms, Freedom to just come in for lessons and to manage own study time, greater use of VLEs, a professional pastoral team that is separated from the teacher's role and so on. It's a good first step to uni.
Of course. I am comparing sixth forms in schools, to sixth form colleges here, not more general FE colleges, which can be quite different,
Because students come from such wide catchments, I think colleges can really help to raise aspirations. In schools, particularly smaller sixth forms, there can develop a culture to the sixth form... sometimes this is hardworking, sometimes not. But where expectations are low, it can become unusual to aspire for certain things. Whereas, the wide catchments of colleges can really raise aspirations - there will be some hard working / high achieving students in many classes, so students can't think that dossing in the sixth form common room fore what all students do on their frees. They can see this is not the norm for all. It can help raise aspirations.
Finally, I believe there is some research which suggests that students from colleges tend to do better in their degrees compared to sixth form students. I can't verify that now but management at both colleges I have worked in have referenced it.
There are negatives. I think the main ones being that some students are not ready yet for the greater independence college brings. And some can get lost in the system. Teachers don't know the students (this can be both good or bad) but that can make support harder to get initially. The large size and catchment can also make it difficult for some students to make friends, or to see each other outside of college. But overall, having taught in both, I think the sixth form college outweighs the school sixth form system.