York sixth forms

[Travelban]

Hi, we are hopefully moving to York January/February and will need to find a sixth form for Dd1. She would like to study Maths, Biology and Chemistry and then apply to Medicine, so anywhere that supports the process would be great too.

Currently looking at:
St Peter's
All Saints
St John the Fisher
York college

It's all made much more difficult as most of the open evenings have been or are online so difficult to get a feel for the school. We are going to be in a small village West of york, so limited geography wise as wouldn't want a huge commute.

Would really appreciate any advice

St John Fisher isn’t in York

I’d advise a school sixth form rather than York College. All the state school sixth forms are pretty good in York. Can’t comment on St Peters, private school.

Agree with, probably, choosing a school 6th form rather than the College, as you would hopefully get more 'progress'.
You can throw Bootham in there if looking at Independents (PM if you want more info on this one).
Also, The Mount if you want Girls.

Archbishop Holgate's and Fulford may be on the wrong side if you're going to be W.York.

Some schools will want 7's for those subjects but guess DD would have those if she's planning on Medicine.

St Peters gets consistently good results so probably a good bet if you are willing to go private. Don’t think they put on any school transport though so could be a nightmare school run. Would she appreciate the extra curricular sport/music etc which would be on offer there?

Hi all, yes I know St Aidan's/the Fisher is in Harrogate, but there is a school bus from the house which takes 30 minutes.. So a possibility.

She is at a private school now, so private definitely an option... But she would need to get the bus mostly! We are open to all possibilities really. So hard to decide when you can't physically go and see them... For now anyway....

Fulford Sixth Form is also excellent with a good number of oxbridge/medicine students and consistently good exam results (and from experience lovely teachers) if you don’t mind the travel

Sounds like it will depend on the bus route into York.
If you could advise on that then we can advise accordingly.

Bus route will depend on which village

Agreed. Was trying to the give the OP chance to say something like A59, A19 or Tadcaster Rd, rather than saying which village they are going to move to.

The village is west of york, there are buses to the city centre which take roughly 15 minutes.. Not sure how far fulford is but I will check!

Just checked and fulford would be 17 minutes by car but no buses (unless there are school ones). It sounds like it's worth a look though, thank you!

With regards to extracurricular... She has done it all really and in the last year or so it has been reduced significantly. I think support for medical school applications and a solid academic environment would be more important.

Buses in York often need you to go into the centre and then out again, there aren’t many (any?) that go across the outskirts. So you’d probably be looking at a bus in plus a bus out to any of the sixth forms (the majority of state schools with sixth forms are on the outskirts which were traditionally in North Yorkshire LEA, City of York had grammar schools and then a sixth form college). All the school sixth forms are academic and will support medicine and oxbridge applications.

(And it’s St John Fisher, not St John the Fisher)

As Carrie says, I think the bus(es) to Fulford will be a pain. Your 17 mins (guessing via the A64) will be more like 3 times that.
Getting from the west to Fulford crosses the river and there are only two options, the town centre or the A64, and buses will be the former.

Fisher would be similar - you can add 15+ mins on to your 30 if that was a directions search. Also, what if DD does after school stuff and there isn't a bus, can you always pick up.

Are you set on the W.York location?

Based on the location, and for convenience, then would say options are Peters, Bootham, Mount and All Saints.

I agree that on location then it will be central york schools.

If anyone can give any reviews of Peters and All Saints sixth forms, I would really appreciate it.

St Peter’s is traditional in that they have chapel/girls wear smart suits/Saturday school (lessons in am, sports fixtures pm) kind of way. Quite a ‘full on’ experience. They are doing some virtual open days you may not be too late for. Can’t comment on any of the others.

Don't know anything about the Mount or All Saints (the latter, based, only, on it's A-level progress score seems good).

Been on a tour of Peters, and have direct experience of Bootham.
Most, if not all, people will say that Peters and Bootham are quite different.
Peters comes across as more results driven (and it is more selective).

Bootham feels like an extension of a small primary school, a big family, and feels like a 'normal' school. There is a different ethos - no uniforms after Y9 and the teachers are known by their first names.

As you say, it's difficult to gauge, a) from afar and b) not physically visiting to get that 'feel'.
Bootham have a virtual open day tomorrow (Sat 7th).
PM me for any other info.

Thanks, I will look at Bootham too. It wasn't on my horizon but worth a look I think.