RAAS Sixth form

[MumsyOf3]

DD has just been offered a place at Royal Alexandra and Albert Sixth form. She adores the school and we really like it too. But before we jump into the school does anyone on here know what it is like? How good it is and what the students are like? They've always seemed well behaved to use but you never know!

TIA

I have friends who have kids further down the school and they seem happy.
Will your DD be boarding or (local) flexi-boarding?

I think the Sixth Form is relatively small still as there are lots of other local options for day pupils (Reigate College, St Bede's, East Surrey College and the independent schools - Reigate Grammar, Dunottar etc)
Academically it is probably fairly in line with the national average. It's biggest strength is obviously that it is one of just a few state boarding schools and it has big grounds and good facilities. I believe there are quite a lot of international students and in the past there used to be quite a lot of children from military families.

Thanks for your response!

She's applied for day boarding, we're just waiting to see whether she'll get the leadership scholarship. She's fairly bright and so we are also applying for local grammar and catholic schools. She wants to become a vet so we need a school that will push her so then she can go to Russell Group universities and we are wondering whether this is the best school for her.

One of the things she loved was how small it was and the independent school class sizes of 6 and 7 was an added bonus for us.

Have you looked at the destination of last year's leavers on their website? While there are certainly a few RG universities on the list, I wouldn't say it was heavily weighted in that direction. My impression is that RAAS is more of a good all- rounder school, rather than an academic one which will push the students hard.
Which local grammars are you talking about - ones in Sutton etc (there aren't any in East Surrey). To be honest, if she gets a place at one of those that will probably be a better option.

14 of the 61 leavers who left last year went to Russell Group universities.

She's applied for Wallington girls as a grammar school option and Coloma as it is academically better than almost every school in this area. I think what she doesn't like is that they are all girls as she's currently in a mixed school so for her I think that makes them worse.

She likes wallington girls a lot and so we are waiting until we get told whether she has a place or not, the application date is Thursday. Only thing she pointed out about Wallington was that they never ask you for a personal statement or interview you, so never find out about you as a person just about your grades. I know that that's really put her off the school as every other one we've applied to she's had to do a personal statement and an interview.

They aren't renowned for academic excellence and extending pupils, traditionally very much mixed ability but have newish scholarships to try to attract higher achievers. Not sure how their A level courses run now but some subjects were taken at St Bedes down the road.

TIA LIZS

I know that all of her subjects would be at the school as she wants to do maths, chemistry and biology, so they did tell us they would all be there.

One thing that has always surprised me about RAAS is that there progress score from GCSE to A-levels is quite high in comparison to other state schools in the area.