City of Bristol College vs 6th form

[Cliffstomper]

Please can any of you Bristolians help? Son wants to go to college instead of a 6th form, he probably wants to do A Levels. Tired of school. Wondered what people thought about the college - should add we are not moving to Bristol until the Summer so we don't know much local gossip and find it hard to get insider knowledge. He's dyslexic and needs a bit of support. :)

It seems to do quite well for A level results (see new 2014 League tables out today) but am not sure whether their A level students are mature ones or school leavers. They do have good support for students with additional needs. Most of the people I know who have gone there have been people who haven't quite managed the grades for sixth form and have had to retake English or Maths or who are taking more vocational courses e,g, computing or child-care. They seem to be happy with the courses they have taken and with the teaching. The College has gone through quite a hard time recently and has had to cut staff due to funding changes. I would also look at recent press reports (Bristol Post) and at their OFSTED (requires improvement).
There are other college alternatives if your ds doesn't want a school sixth form. These are St Brendans sixth form college and SGSFilton (North of Bristol) if he doesn't mind travelling.

I would be cautious re son going to City of Bristol. The support for students with additional needs is being drastically cut and there will be little or no specialist dyslexia teaching available from next September. The teaching is on a par with other sixth form centres but there is less pastoral care, no sports facilities to speak of and a looser staffing structure which can make it difficult to contact the right person to speak to. All the A levels are taught on one site (College Green) but there's no proper common area - only small areas on the landings and the cafeteria area, this can make it difficult to make friends and socialise if you're a bit shy. I have taught at the college and 2 of my children did A levels there. They were happy enough but had been to Bristol Schools and already had wide social circles - they saw college as a place to go to be taught and then come straight home. Most of the A level students do come straight from schools but as crazymum53 suggests their GCSE grades aren't the best. Best of luck!

Thanks to you both! SEN will be an issue for us due to medical problems as well as dyslexia, and we have an appointment with C of B college coming up where I will now know to raise this :) Having the opportunity to make friends is very important as he will not know anyone in Bristol. The alternative might be BCCS, but the A level choices are not as comprehensive. If you had to choose? - mind you, it's not my choice now, it has to be his. X