Changing Schools at Sixth Form Pros and Cons?

[MrsJAlfredPrufrock]

Anyone with any insight?

I think moving can be a good thing.
I certainly would ot wish to work in the same office space with the same co-workers day in day out for seven years! My God, the boredom.

But that said, the way A levels work, you have to be sure that your DC is an easy settler, that he will hit the ground running. That can be hard while you try to do all the other things; making new friendhsips, getting a handle on your teachers etc. Also, many good schools will have already been prepping for A levels in year 11 so that the transition is smooth.

There's also the issue of insider knoweldge. By sixth form most of us know that Mr X is a pretty crap Geography teacher, or Mrs Y sets hideous amounts of background reading. Starting from scratch couod be tough.

That said, it could work very well with the right pupil.

My DCs comp has about 400 in sixth form, and about 50 or so of those come from other schools, usually private ones. It sends plenty of pupils to top Unis. It gets A's including at least 2 pupils who got 4 A last year. A lot of courses have higher entry requirements than other sixth form choices locally.

OP why don't you think your son can get his A*'s at the school sixth form? You really need to talk to the school sixth form about this.
Personally I would suggest letting your son apply for both sixth forms, and making the choice later on. Keep his options open, but do make sure if he doesn't get his A*s he will be ruling out LSE, and he has to choose what is the most important for him (new school and working extra hard, new school and another choice of Uni, or present school and maybe relying on the teachers more).

The students joining my DCs school for sixth form from private schools seem to do as well as would have been expected at their previous schools. Overall I think the students slightly exceed their predictions from GCSE. However not all state sixth forms are the same, and I have strongly advised my son not to move to the local excellent sixth form college, because I don't think it is the right place for him, although others flourish there.

14% of the sixth form population are in fee-paying schools. That's significantly larger than the 7% of the school population as a whole in fee paying schools. So clearly the well-trodden path is to a fee-paying sixth form.

The above statistic (I think it's actually 16% fee-paying) is largely accounted for by the fact that a fair proportion of state educated children leave school at sixteen, rather than by large numbers moving over to private.

If he is an aspirational and motivated AAAA student, he will almost certainly do as well in a good state school sixth form. My nephew has just achieved 4 A*s at a pleasant comp in a socially mixed rural area. He was a shoo- in for Oxbridge, despite perhaps not interviewing as smoothly as he might. He worked hard and did as his teachers suggested. And I am guessing the school your son is considering is a well regarded one and one about which you have some knowledge, or I expect you would not even be considering your son's request?

If he is developing his own socio-political views and the move is a positive decision and he is not excited by his current school, he will probably benefit from being allowed making his own decisions about his education. Although not generally in favour of moving for such a short course, it sounds as though the area is familiar and he has friends already at the school, so some of the possible disadvantages of change will be ameliorated. It is interesting and encouraging to see how many people felt reinvigorated by a change at 16. Seven years in one school could become a bit boring for a curious student.

"The students joining my DCs school for sixth form from private schools seem to do as well as would have been expected at their previous schools. Overall I think the students slightly exceed their predictions from GCSE."

I am sure it is a good comp but that seems a ridiculous statement as how can you have any idea what their predictions were??

To be honest my daughter's current teachers are at least as good and well-qualified as the ones at her previous school. The difference in attainment is just that- her previous school was highly selective and pupils were decently taught throughout, whereas the range of ability is a lot broader (although not so much on her course) and the previous attainment more varied at the FE college. You'd expect to see a wider range of attainment at the FE college. They still get their As and A*s and Oxbridge entrants though. That's the only relevant thing if you have high-achieving DC- is the setting actually capable of producing the highest results? If it can I see no problem with switching.

Imo you can't really palliate years of previous bad teaching or disrupted classes and limited study skills in a final dash unless your child is superlatively bright and motivated, in which case they would do well anywhere.

I did it and never looked back, I was bullied at my high school so getting away and shaking off stigma was great. I made lots of new friends and the sixth form offered a better range of courses that my previous school. If you are happy stay put, if you want a change go for it!

Do they have seting at A level?

I suppose they must, they I've never given it any thought. Otherwise the ability range can be quite broad no?

IME, setting depends hugely according on subject - since you can have A level subjects which only a small group are doing anyway, and some, like English, which are really popular. In the latter case, then yes I think usually they are organised along the lines of their GCSE results.

Hmm, but the final dash is still important ie. important to help our DCs flourish and take off in their Sixth Form studies as far as we and they are able to!
With fewer subjects to focus on in their best fields it can be a time when everything comes together really well and in a new way

They didn't seem in the A level classes. A lot of her first three weeks was spent going over basic GCSE level stuff for those who didn't know it. In maths and science classes for which supposedly people will have got good grades at GCSE already.

Thatk you Elaine. That makes sense.

Back in my day (Lord, I'm getting old) we were all just taught together. And since there was no entry requirement, you can imagine the mix of pupils. It must have been a nightmare for the teachers.

We were too, because there were never more than about 10 doing any subject - as the vast majority didn't stay on, so you went from 120 in the year to about 40. You did have to have 5 A-Cs I think - but most people just left, which is v different from nowadays!

About the sixth form fee paying statistics, does that figure have the number of overseas students who come to the UK just for sixth form removed? Because there are some private colleges which are predominantly full of overseas students, and some school sixth forms which become predominantly full of overseas students. Never mind sixth form students who go to a private college to boost their grades (much like the old crammers).

I remember that there were some students just taking one A level and a couple of GCSE resits. Some were quite simply killing time until they could get a job.
In my Spanish A level class I recall that I was the only student who had any intention of going to university...suffice it to say that those lessons were a challenge

DD1 is planning to move when she completes GCSEs this year. Her reasons for moving are:

• her current school offers only a consortium college so students get bussed from one school to another for different subjects
• she wants a more academically challenging environment with excellent facilities
• she wants a new start

The school DD1 has applied to is outside our county but catchment areas dont apply for 6th form.

I would really examine the reasons why then support whatever the choice.

I wish I'd been 'allowed' to move from my girls GS to the local tech to do A levels. We are talking a long time ago, and I was still 15 at the start of the lower 6th but I had a few friends who went to the tech. and they absolutely thrived, whereas, at our GS, it was just more of the same. They were only really interested in those girls who were going to get stellar A level results and go to what would now be called 'Russell Group unis'. Back then they were called 'unis' . Those among us who were Polytechnic material- nah.

Lots of stupid rules, lots of the sort of responsibility that actually meant doing what would otherwise be the teachers' jobs like supervising lunch queues and chucking first formers out at lunch time, that sort of thing. We had to stay in school 8.30 to 3.45 every day (non-lesson periods were to be spent 'in the library') with 5 lunch time 'special passes' a term available, each- though town was a good 20 mins walk away. Whoopdedoo.

A good thing was that some of our teachers treated us differently- we had lots of very good teachers who'd be regularly crucified by the 2nd formers (Y8) but were absolutely in their comfort zone teaching grammar school A level students. Interestingly one of the arguments against leaving the GS to go to tech my parents made was 'the teachers there will be teaching English A level one session then basic functional literacy to plumbing apprentices the next- they can't do both well....'!

But, in short, for me, I feel it would have been a much better idea for me to have left the GS at the end of O levels.

Volumnia - "The above statistic (I think it's actually 16% fee-paying) is largely accounted for by the fact that a fair proportion of state educated children leave school at sixteen, rather than by large numbers moving over to private."

Yes good point.

I too know someone at a comp (in rural N Yorks) who secured a place at Oxford and 4 A* at A level. I always wonder if we all know the same boy or are are there lots of examples?

My son isn't planning on applying for Oxford or Cambridge but the comp's destinations of leavers list makes me want to cry a bit because there are so many blanks: does this mean they don't know what happened to their students? But the others are very varied, include Oxford, Cambridge and other RG unis and mostly other courses, understandable given a lot of their sixth form provision is BTECs and the like. I think it's fine just to know that it is possible to do well there.

There were only 5 students last year who sat A level FUrther Maths and only 7 students who sat A level physics. So the classes might be small, which is good, no?

A lot of the blanks will be down to students who are applying post-A level, so the school may not have the information for them. We had this at my dd's grammar school as well - I think most state schools are not as versed in PR as private schools, so may not have thought how it looks to just leave blanks.

I wouldn't read too much into it myself, I certainly wouldn't suggest crying over it. But do ask the school for clarification if you're worried.

7 sitting A-level physics is good, imo.

PollyMorfic - nah. Those on a gap year/ working/ reapplying or considering options are listed as such.

At my DCs comp they can only count as going to Oxbridge those who go there straight from school, so those who go for a gap year are counted as that even if they have a firm place somewhere afterwards.
But that is exactly the kind of question to be asking the sixth form staff now. It could just be they quickly lose contact with students after thy leave. DC's school has a "graduation" ceremony in September which helps them firm up the destination statistics.

I always wonder if we all know the same boy or are are there lots of examples?

Not Yorks - so that means there are at least two such paragons in last year's national comprehensive cohort! Polly is right about state schools being less good at updating things we like to see, like pupils' destinations. Go and talk to the head of Sixth at the comp. See if you like what he says.

And in this years QS league table of Universities, LSE ranks above Oxbridge for Economics, so don't rule anything out!

www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011/subject-rankings/social-sciences/economics

At DCs school they have 4 sets for Physics each with up to 17 students, they reduce to about 10 per set in upper sixth.

DC's school is also not York, and had 2 students at least with 4 A*, one was a girl and went to Cambridge.

volumnia - LOL at two paragons.

I don't think he's ruling anything out but he's not focused on Oxbridge. I actively dislike the way everyone is so obsessed by Oxbridge [chippy grin]. My eldest son ruled out Oxbridge because he didn't like the structure of the medicine degree at either Ox or Camb, and he's really delighted with his med school.

mummytime - is it a comp?