Kings Gloucester Sixth Form

[cassinosteel]

We are considering enrolling DD into Kings Gloucester Sixth Form first year in 2026. She would be coming from a state school, just out of the area, and going into private education, where she probably won't know anyone.

The school only have about 60 pupils per year, for Sixth Form, and I'm going to guess that the majority of those pupils would have attended Kings for the majority of their lives and would have built very strong friendships.

Does anyone have experience of sending their child into a different Sixth Form, especially state to private? Was it difficult for them to make friendships? Were there some snide comments. Kids can be so mean!

What experiences can people share about Kings Gloucester Sixth Form?

I don’t know that school at all but I did that I.e. moved from state comp to independent selective sixth form. Sounds similar - 60ish in a year and nearly everyone had been there since year 7 (I was one of three who joined in sixth form).

I never experienced any negative or snide comments and settled in very quickly. Friendship groups definitely existed but I found people were keen to include someone new - maybe the novelty! I’m still very good friends with people from sixth form over twenty years later.

Also to say….typically quite a few pupils will leave an independent school at 16 e.g. to go to state grammar (relevant in your area) or a boarding school for sixth form. So the friendship groups get shaken up a bit anyway because of that plus usually tutor groups get changed for sixth form and everyone is in different A Level classes.

I am local to this school. The fact that there are 4 very successful Grammar schools in Gloucester, (plus one in Cheltenham and two in Stroud) , means that the sixth form at King's is not the most intensively academic school in the city. I can imagine that if any parents are finding it a financial challenge then students are more likely to be leaving King's sixth form to join a Grammar rather than the other way round. The extra curricular activities at King's are amazing, that is true.