Legal reasons for denying entry to sixth form

[catsonahottinroof]

Hi everyone, I have namechanged for this post. Basically, I am wanting to find out on what basis colleges can refuse entry. As far as I understood, the only reasons are if you don't have high enough predicted grades.
Dd2 had an interview for A levels, and got upset in the interview, mostly because she had an interviewer who was giving her incorrect information about the courses. She does have a very strong sense of right and wrong and it is possible that she is mildly on the autism spectrum but has managed school life fine so far.
I don't want to go into too many details at first but basically, we have been told that the college don't think she is suitable for studying A levels there as she is likely to have low attendance rates (she has more or less 100% attendance at school so far) and such a high level of anxiety is unlikely to lead to success in A levels (she is predicted excellent grades at GCSE). All this is based on a 5-10 minute interview. Do we have any recourse? I know if this was a school sixth form we would be able to appeal, but can't find any information about colleges.

I teach in a large FE college. We interview students prior to enrolling to give them guidance on the best options available for them, including recommending they consider vocational rather than A level at times. The key word here is guidance - at the end of the day it is up to the student as long as they can meet the entry requirements. At the end of the interview all get the same conditional offer based on them achieving the entry requirements. I'd suggest getting in touch with admissions at the college, tell them what happened and see what they say. It sounds like a very odd interview.

Thanks for replying - I did get in touch with them today, spoke to admissions, and this is the outcome of the email I got back after the admissions lady had spoken to the person in charge of sixth form (even though he'd not spoken to my daughter at all). I thought prior to this that the interview was a formality, but feels like my daughter has been judged and found wanting all in the space of about ten minutes. The students waiting to be interviewed were randomly called in by different teachers (no list of names or anything), dd2 was interviewed by a psychology teacher who was trying to get her to study psychology even though she has no interest in the subject.
I don't want to put the full email on here, but I could pm it to you if you might have any advice?

I cant help with your answer - but I would say that sounds like a very unsupportive environment and if there were any other options for DD, I'd explore those first. This doesn't sound like a good place to spend 2 years.

There should be a visible admissions policy on the sixth form's website which will outline the reasons a college can decline to offer a place. These ate often based on grades/school report/suitability/attendance/safeguarding. You should have the right to appeal the outcome. But generally a college will offer a student a place if they believe they are q suitable candidate and pass the interview.

Thanks I agree, I don't want her to go there now anyway. She admits she wasn't confident in the interview as she wasn't expecting to be put on the spot and have to make snap decisions. I'm hoping that she will like one of the other places better after interviews as at the moment the college is her first choice, and I don't want to have to tell her she doesn't have a place as she was too nervous in interview, as I feel this sort of thing could stay with you for life. Her dad disagrees with me and feels if she wants to go there we should push for a place but the email sounds pretty definitive to me. I'll pm it to you to see what you think but please don't feel under any pressure to reply.

The issue is that if you push and succeed and she goes there, then they are unlikely to be supportive or give her the support she needs.
Forcing them to take her, probably won't help her.

@catsonahottinroof

Thanks for replying - I did get in touch with them today, spoke to admissions, and this is the outcome of the email I got back after the admissions lady had spoken to the person in charge of sixth form (even though he'd not spoken to my daughter at all). I thought prior to this that the interview was a formality, but feels like my daughter has been judged and found wanting all in the space of about ten minutes. The students waiting to be interviewed were randomly called in by different teachers (no list of names or anything), dd2 was interviewed by a psychology teacher who was trying to get her to study psychology even though she has no interest in the subject. I don't want to put the full email on here, but I could pm it to you if you might have any advice?

Sure, I'm happy to look. We allocate students randomly for interviews too, it is already a logistical nightmare getting enough staff on each interview eve without trying to match students and subject specialists but the rest of the interview sounds terrible.

A sixth form college is not classed as a school and therefore is not bound by the Admissions Code. The only requirement is that their admission arrangements are fair, objective and transparent.

The college may have an appeals process, in which case it is worth a try. In the circumstances you describe, if there is no appeal available, I would definitely write to the college to complain about the interview, highlighting that the interviewer gave information your daughter knew was incorrect and that they appeared to be trying to persuade her to study psychology, and to point out that there is no basis for their argument that your daughter would have poor attendance. It may not make any difference but, if other applicants had a similar experience with this interviewer and also complain, it might cause the college to think again.

Is it a private or state system college?

Wow, my daughter had the complete opposite. She explained she has ASD, and anxiety her attendance is around 30% due to lack of understanding and support from her school. Predictive grades gone from 7,8,9 to 2,3,4's...

He explained what support she could expect what a typical day would look like for her, that they understood that comming in every day may be an issue but as long as they stay up to date with work and check in via teams everything is ok.

He strongly encouraged dd to go for grade 4's so she didn't have to redo at college, as that would prevent her from all the extra clubs/course she could do, then detailed a few he thought she might be interested in..

I would look at a different college tbh.

College interview reignited her passion for learning and was the first positive education interaction she's had in years... I could of hugged him :)

I confess if you don't decide to appeal or the appeal doesn't work and you have no further options, I wish that you would somehow be able to name and shame (although the risk is that this could be outing - so may not be the best forum).
Like many we have been looking at Sixth Forms, and this sort of behaviour would be a huge red flag to me. Not only the psychology teacher - as that is just one bad egg and any school could have them, but if admissions are not taking you seriously and they have no appeal procedures in place that suggests serious problems that pervade the whole college. After all, this appears to be a form of staff bullying - do my subject or you don't get to do anything, and if they are prepared to tolerate that in an interview, presumably they also are prepared to tolerate that in terms of marking and predicted grades and all the other key things involved in teaching sixth formers (do whatever it is that I want, even perhaps sexually, or you won't get the grade prediction you want). And all those whose interviews went well have no idea, it is just brushed under the carpet, and they might also be better off not going there. Not specifically my DD, as she wants to stay at her current school, but so many others are applying to large Sixth Forms.

I honestly wouldn’t send her there after that.

Thanks for all these replies - I have found the complaints process on the college website. It is as I feared then, prh47bridge, there is no higher body to appeal to (not sure I'd want her to go anyway if we had to appeal to get her in as there would be bad feeling and I feel she would have her cards marked by certain teachers). But I feel someone should be held to account about this, I'll have to think some more before I send a complaint in. Hopefully she will decide to go to one of the school sixth forms instead. I wish I could put the email up here as I think it is outrageous (verging on unbelievable) but I don't want anyone to recognise it. It is hard to believe it is legal.

I agree with you that you shouldn't send her in any event. However if you appealed and they agreed to offer you a place then a) at least you could take away this feeling that she "failed" at interview, while taking one of the other options; and b) you might be making it more likely it doesn't happen again to somebody else. I could well understand that you feel that you don't have the time to throw at something that will only marginally benefit your DD, but it would seem to be the right thing to do.

As the parent of two autistic children, both who did very well at supportive colleges I would not send her there anyway.

However I understand your wanting to make a complaint. Were they aware of her needs? Usually the words disability discrimination and formal complaint send people scuttling.