Sixth form Dilemma

[amelia2803]

Hiya, my daughter is struggling to decide between two sixth forms, St Olaves in Orpington and Alleyn's in Dulwich. Both are amazing schools, she said she got a more welcome feeling at Alleyn's, but St Olaves has better grades and leavers destinations, especially for medicine which she is considering a career in. Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!!

££££ vs no ££££! Alleyns will have smaller classes (better pastoral care perhaps), a wider choice of subjects and possibly better resources? St Olaves has a fairly large 6th form but its pupils do very well and it does have a reputation for success at Medicine and Oxbridge.

If you can afford private it's worth every penny because the parents care their kids are there. One of my DD's went to a state school with an excellent reputation for oxbridge places but it was massive so not that remarkable really that a handful went to top universities, plus all the kids who went to Cambridge by DD's year had outside tutoring ! Dd2 went to private 6th form (boarding) and it was amazing and her results were equally impressive (especially forthe so called average dyslexic girl her year 9 teacher described) but she didn't fancy oxbridge, too old school for her

@MrsPatmore @stucknoue

Thank you so much for your replies, its definitely food for thought!

I think the unlawful removing of pupils has been well a truly stamped out now. The choices really depend on which school you prefer. Medicine applications are about more than your school! Any decent school should be able to provide help and guidance though.

DD is at Newstead and has friends with brothers at Olaves. Based on feedback from them she doesn’t even want to look at Olaves for sixth form. Key reasons are pressure, pastoral and have to do four A levels, five if doing maths ( have to do further maths). It may suit some and there have been a good number of Newstead girls make the switch at sixth form and vice versa.

“Isn't St Olaves the school that lets people go after yr 12 if they think they will spoil their results?”

Private schools with academic reputations do this all the time!

@stucknoue parents still care if they don't or can't send their children to private school

St Olaves no longer kicks pupils out st 6th form and the pastoral care has increased greatly. They even have a therapy dog! I don't think it is the case that you have to take 4 A levels? Never heard of that but there are plenty of clever kids there that do.

This years A level and GCSE approx results are on the website now - looks pretty even for both schools.

Flabbergasting post, stucknoue 🤔