Is it true that clever people go to 6th form and people who aren't go to college

[thistimeiknowitsforreal]

Evening all,

It was always drummed into me that after GCSE`s that if you are intelligent you went to or stayed at school and went to 6th form depending on your previous circumstances.

But if you weren't good enough you went to college instead.

Whats your experience in this area ?

There is an element of this in our area. Or at least those who get better GCSE results tend to go to the school 6th forms as they have higher entry requirements- or at least the higher performing schools do. But whether good GCSE results are synonymous with "clever" is of course debatable.

Few schools where I grew up had such friends and those that did were very narrow and the entrance requirements lower than the academic sixth form college. We did have a two tier college system one that focused on academic subjects and one known as 'the tech' that did apprenticeships and more practical subjects like health and social care, travel and tourism , hairdressing, mechanics etc. It was much harder to get into the former.

I preferred college, no uniforms, teachers called by first names, no chasing and spoon feeding, if you didn't have in your work out was your responsibility, if you didn't revise that was on you. I was much better prepared than some of my uni peers who'd come from school sixth forms

Same. Plus my school sixth form was tiny - I’d basically have had one to one tuition for at least one of my subjects. So claustrophobic.

I went to a very academic sixth form college. Very sought after. Probably did better there than I would have if I’d stayed at school, plus I made loads of new friends and had some independence. They aren’t all viewed as “less”.

I live in an area where secondary schools have Sixth Forms. People who go to college didn't get the grades for Sixth Form or want to do a course that Sixth Form doesn't offer eg T-levels.

Yup. Repeat thread. Identical post.

It used to be that sixth form was more academic subjects and college more vocational building, hairdressing and that is where the resources for these courses were, while schools did the more classroom based stuff like sciences, humanities and languages.

It is much less clear cut these days.
University degrees are also the full spectrum of academic to vocational no more Polytechnics.

A lot has changed since the 1980s 😂

My school and most of the others in my city didn't have 6th forms apart frim the private ones and the grammar.
Any friends i had in those seemed much younger/immmature by the time we all left. It was like they never left secondary school. They seemed a bit less prepared for the world and definitely less streetwise but that might be to do with private schools/upbringing rather than their 6th form

We did have colleges that were better for a-levels and some that were more for vocational courses so there was sort of a split there with the people who were aiming for uni and people who weren't. But that was more practical then anything else.

Eerrrr no. Some of the top 6th forms in the country are colleges. Take Hills Rd in Cambridge as an example. Or Cardiff 6th form college. Lots of oxbridge candidates.

No. Academic abilities isn't the only form of clever so even in areas where sixth forms are more academic compared to more vocational colleges, that wouldn't make sense.

In my area, about half the secondaries don't have sixth forms and the rest do not have space to take those in. In fact, one of the inadequate secondaries that used to have a sixth form was academised, and the sixth form was dropped. Much of that space became their new SEND block., and we've more students in the area going to colleges. I've heard that's not uncommon - that academisation may have schools dropping sixth forms if it's weakly performing - but I've no stats on that.

Also, some colleges run small KS4 programmes now. My DS1 'stayed on' at the same college he went to for Y10 & 11. There is a lot of variation in options depending on where someone is, so there is a wide range of where the 'clever' kids go.

Depends on the area. Where I grew up only the private schools had sixth forms, so everyone went to one of the three big colleges in the nearest cities. My college did everything, A levels, Btecs, Functional Skills for people leaving special education. The A levels were slightly selective (two Bs and three Cs I think) so if you didn't get the grades you were guided towards Btec options, but lots of people did Btecs anyway for art etc. It was a much better system than staying at school with only A level students I think, I had a much broader view of what made someone "clever" and why people might choose different qualifications than most of my peers at uni.

Was true in St Albans during the 90’s, schools would offload the very poorly behaved to the College or not allow kids to come back ( some of the middle class drug dealers were ‘non returners’ and had been ‘ persuaded to go to college’….) The school didn’t have to take them. They also segregated us between GNVQ/ Herts Achievement project and those of us who qualified to do A Levels ( I had A level classes of 5, the teaching was amazing, not even a private school could rival that kind of input - not sure how my school did it but bloody glad it did).

I worked in an area where we and other schools didn’t offer 6th Form and kids went to College … some moaned to me that while they got to wear what they liked, the chasing for work, support etc wasn’t there am guessing things have changed from the mid 00s though, with the raising of the leaving age/ education requirement for youngsters.

Depends on the school and college surely.

The sixth form at my DD's school has far lower entry requirements than the sixth form college.

I left a grammar school to go to a sixth form college as I felt it would better prepare me for life/Uni. Sixth form college was the best choice I could have made. I have a postgraduate degree from a top UK university. However I think it depends on the student, I was very organised and proactive with my education, friends of mine would possibly have achieved better results if they had stayed at school

NONE of the Catholic schools around here have sixth form. Not just in my (large) town but in the nearest city- which is also the capital city. There is an RC sixth form college. If you go to an RC school and want to do A Levels, you go to the 6th form college. Many students who want to do A Levels but don't want to stay in their own (non RC) school 6th form also choose to go there.

Round here there is a 'prestige' 6th form college, an FE college which offers A levels plus several vocational courses / BTECs plus the majority of secondary schools have their own 6th forms . Many students choose to go to the FE college rather than remaining in their school 6th form as it is a lot more relaxed, not so 'school-like'.

I made the same choice myself nearly 40 years ago .

It tended to be the other way around here. Sixth form was just an extension of secondary. Same old teachers, same old resources. You didn’t have to apply to attend.

Colleges round me had generic subjects but also specialised in different areas. More resources, new teachers. You not only had to apply to the college, but you had to apply to each individual subject and get accepted.

So the clever ones went to the colleges which were good in their subjects of choice. The not so clever or more practically oriented went to vocational colleges. The mediocre all rounders went to 6th form.

Same here to be honest

Many here are confusing sixth form college with FE college. FE is more vocational and sixth form college, generally speaking, more academic. Clever people found in each.

I can think of bad school 6th forms and excellent colleges with strong academic reputations around here. And vice versa.

All depends on the area. Some areas only have colleges. Around here all the schools go up to 18 and have higher entry requirements than the college which offers more vocational courses alongside A levels. Students can choose to go anywhere they qualify for, but the 6th form school places are more competitive than college places. The college would be happy to welcome a student with all 9s, but also you can get in with much lower grades and they offer resits. Some of the schools require averages of 6s or 7s to study there.

I was told the same. More vocational studies at college and A levels at school.

DS1 and DS2's school doesn't have 6th form. It's quite rural and has a large catchment area. Many go to the colleges on the coast that offer A-levels and other more vocational, arty or technical courses. Some go further inland and to 6th forms at other schools (DD's school has 6th form). Public transport isn't great here which is a factor for many people.

DS1 thought he wanted to go to college for his A-levels (wants to do PPE at uni) but having considered it opted for 6th form as he's struggled a bit with MH the last few years (starting before covid) and thought the pastoral support and smaller setting of 6th form was better for him. He also isn't great at self motivation for studying and would be more likely to use free periods at 6th form to study, while at college would likely head into town with friends instead.
DS2 is currently favouring option 3, an agricultural college an hour away (have their own transport with a route through our village) for a more vocational level 3 course. He's academic enough for A-levels (and possibly more intelligent than DS1) but would rather do something practical that aims for a job as he isn't interested in university at the moment, he wants to get out and earn money!

My DD is about to start at a secondary that is 11-16. After which, she'll probably go to the College next door where she could study the highly academic a levels like Maths, Languages, or Sciences, more 'arty' a levels like music or art, t-levels, apprenticeships, sports coaching, functional skills... it offers a wide range (and can do that as it takes around 1000 children into each year group). The school separated out 5 years ago to enable greater breadth for the sixth formers.

Both mine went to college, 1 did A levels and went to uni got a 1st class honours. My other daughter got no exam's at school so went to college to gain other qualifications, to help her get a job.