South London Sixth Forms

[janinlondon]

Help please? Anyone? Where do we start? Need a sixth form for DD from 2016. I can find the actual schools, but admission requirements on the websites seem to be carefully concealed in PDF attached docs etc. Is there (ridiculously optimistic I know) anywhere that summarizes admission criteria, even for just a borough? (Looking Lambeth/Lewisham/Wandsworth -ish). And I know that admission criteria are just the baseline - so if anyone has done this recently, any advice or anecdotal stories of numbers applying and numbers accepted etc gratefully (desperately) received. TIA

I dont know the answer, but St Francis Xavier, the Catholic sixth form on the Wandsworth/Lambeth border used to be a popular choice for Lambeth sixth formers. Until fairly recently many Lambeth schools did not have sixth forms, and Lambeth College did not appeal to those wanting to take academic subjects. My understanding was that SFX took a fairly broad range.

Other popular sixth forms are Graveney in Tooting, Pimlico and Greycoats (both in Westminster but easily reachable from plenty of South London). The latter takes boys at 16+. You might ask the schools.

www.wandsworth.gov.uk/downloads/file/4966/choose_a_wandsworth_secondary_school_brochure
Page 50 gives info on 6th form
Seems you need to contact each school individually

Thanks both. Yes it does seem to be a matter of contacting individual schools - and then you only get the standard line of minimum requirements, not what they are actually accepting. Who knew this would be so hard.......!

Does anyone have any experience of applying for a Lambeth 6th form? (Begs)

I'm in Croydon, but I have recently seen the latest 16-19 demographic projections, and we have been surprised to find that, at a time when the number of 16-19 providers and places have increased, the actual population is dipping. The word on the street is that schools may be willing to negotiate down the minimum grade required in some cases, though whether that is always the best outcome for the student is questionable. It sounds as if you are worried that the offers may be higher than advertised? That doesn't seem to be a problem here. Everyone wants to run their courses as full as possible due to the cuts in funding.

This would not surprise me. In the north of Lambeth, there are suddenly a lot more choices. Not just a rapidly improving Pimlico, but local schools (Lilian Baylis and others) have expanded into sixth from education. Plus for the more able, there are the new Kings Maths School (sponsored by KCL) and Harris Westminster (supported by Westminster School) sixth forms. Gone are the days when academic kids were commuting to Kingston or Croydon for an academic education.

If the latter two, plus Pimlico/Graveney/Greycoasts are top slicing the more able, the others will need to take a reasonably relaxed approach if they are to keep up their numbers.

Ladymuck you are right - we are anticipating a situation where we are refugees from an independent school with standards that I fear DD will not meet for sixth form. They reduce their numbers significantly in sixth form. I am wondering where those without seven A/B GCSEs disappear to. And I know that the schools local to us rejected multiple outstanding academic achievers last year. So its a little fraught....

Jan, it sounds tough. We know several who went through this last year, though in most cases the results were OK, so the children did not have to move. Most of the rest seemed to end up at MPW or Dick Laing Davies.

It is worth approaching the schools directly, as entrance seems to be part interview/school report. Also requirements for different subjects may vary. You probably should not do maths without at least an A, whilst a B in geography may not be the end of the world. Has her current school got any ideas. Presumably each year a few leave for the same reason. They will know where they go to.

Good luck.

Esher College is very popular. Admission is an online ballot I believe

Thanks all. I have heard of MPW - I know some have gone there. Will look up the DLD one. It is all a bit of a lottery as we wont know the GCSE results till August but will have to have an alternative plan in place. I suspect most of us do this, just in case, but no one else is admitting to it!

DLD seem to be building a massive premises in Waterloo at the roundabout by Westminster Bridge, though I don't know when it opens.

The Good Schools Guide has a list of tutorial colleges, so may be worth a read. Tutorial colleges (or independent sixth forms as they like to be known) seem used to late applicants, indeed one child we know started after the start of the September term. Another to look at is Ashbourne College. One of DC's cousins did very well there, but I think it is in Kensington. And Portland Place School might be worth a call, if you can get to it.

I hope your DD is OK. Its a lot of pressure gong into GCSEs.