conditional offer of sixth form

[newtoUKmom]

my ds got a conditional offer of 6th form of a independent school. as gcse results are only announced on 27 August, which is very close to the school commencement day. if he can't satisfy the conditions, how can he find another school in short period of time? many thanks.

Apply for a back up sixth form place in a college?

i used to work for a 6th form and we’d be taking students in to the first week of term. It’s not uncommon. Encourage him to apply somewhere else as a back up or at least have a list of places he’s willing to apply to if needed.

Absolutely apply for backups. (Though it is somewhat late for this)

I worked in an independent school and a lot of shuffling round is really common after results. Sometimes they will still offer a place but for different subjects or fewer a levels. Is there an alternative that you've considered?

You ring round schools/sixth forms when he gets his results and see if any have places (you may have to repeat as they become clearer which students are going to actually take up places). You may have to have a Plan B in terms of preferred subjects if they don't offer options/combinations of options/choices are full. If he's seriously missed the grades to the point that nowhere will take him, you will also have to reconsider type of course (I'm assuming he's applying for A Levels).

And, in case you have another child or are talking to anyone else about it, its more normal to apply to another establishment as a backup place earlier during Year 11, so you have a ready built fallback. It's poor of your school not to have advised you to do this.

Apply for back ups now. As others have said you should have done this a year ago.

Our two good schools locally both insisted they were put first, so we have had to apply to another much lower standard college.

Apply for more than one. When I was going into 6th form I applied for 3 different places and turned down the others when I got my results.

Depends where you are but I would start looking immediately for a plan B so you know what to do if it's needed.

Oddly here DD1 college you can apply up to the first half term after A-levels start which seemed mad to us.

I know as we had to wait past that to get the correct start year for DD1 application and her school sixth form also got in touch on results day - e-mail for them due to covid - to let her know she could still apply for their sixth form as well.

The answer is that it is a very difficult day of ringing round and sorting but you should have a backup.

Yep as far as I know you can hold more than one place; certainly I would imagine you can have a state school and independent school place. DS2 had places at two state schools as he could not decide re one course. It's pretty normal but the time to do it was probably last autumn tbh. I would ring round some schools asap OP and see what you can sort out.

You need to apply for a few sixth form/colleges to cover all outcomes.

Does your LA use a CAF for sixth form? Here it is all individual applications at sixth form level. And yes, most year 11s who are applying to school sixth forms apply to more than one and if they get more than one offer, hold onto at least two pending results day. Only those who very definitely only want to go to one of the colleges (or are unlikely to make the grade for school offers)would be likely only to hold the one. We've had a range of strategies in our household - two grammars for DS1, an offer for every eventuality (4, including one of the two colleges) for DD and his own grammar school (the one with the highest requirements locally) and the other college (totally the other extreme from his school, but he really liked it) for DS2. Fortunately, all had the luxury of choice on the day, so quick phone calls / a visit to the one(s) being dropped, to free up the place, and then on with enrolment at the relevant one.

I think everywhere was amenable to 'drop-ins' with the right grades, but may not have been offered their first choice of subject combination. Even DD had to change her English option to accommodate a late request to swap from Marhs to French.

By 'independent' you mean private? Because when we were doing this we had to accept within two weeks of the offer (in December) and pay a deposit. I was confident my daughter would get the grades, but if she missed it by one or two subjects also that she would do well enough in the ones directly related to her A level choices that she would still be accepted. She had applied t three, accepted at two, but unless you pay two deposits needed to make a decision to reject one immediately.
State school offers were much later in March and you could hold on until the results.
However the girl who gave us the tour of the school said she missed her existing schools grade requirement and was able to find another place last minute - some schools are much stricter than others.

Thanks for your advice,

if we apply back up now, does it mean that we have to pay another deposit? We have paid 5000 pounds for deposit for this school. If he satisfies both schools requirements, then one of the 2 deposits have to be forfeited ？thanks

Thanks for information. will one of the deposit be forfeited if you give up the fall back . I guess not many schools are willing to be backup

Op most people I think are talking about state schools. Is that a possibility? I would chase ASAP as many may have or be about to shut for summer.

Yes, it’s private school

As we will relocate to London only in August, and coz of uncertainty whether the offer would become unconditional, we have not yet rent a flat. does application to state school sixth form needs us live near to the school ?

Thanks for your advice

As we will relocate to London only in August, and coz of uncertainty whether the offer would become unconditional, we have not yet rented a flat. does application to state school or grammar school sixth form needs us live near to the school ? Thanks

It's often possible to change A level subjects following GCSE results rather than going to another sixth form.
For state sixth forms the offers depend on both results and the distance from the sixth form.
The larger the sixth forms and sixth form colleges are more likely to have places available.

No, AFAIK there is no requirement to live near a sixth form to gain a place. Certainly my DC were not in catchment for schools where they were offered a sixth-form place. That’s state schools tho.

When I mentioned state schools, I meant pps were suggesting you get in touch with some state options as a back up.

As the minimum requirements is 3 8-9 and 5 7 and my son only attend one year igcse, so he only has 7 subjects (2 years gcse normally has more than 10 subjects). So if he missed any subject’s grade, he can’t meet the requirements.

Thanks for advice.

If I apply state school now, are all outstanding or good state school or grammar school likely oversubscribed already?

any good state school or grammar school in London recommended? Thanks

You really need to individually contact the schools/sixth forms that you would consider to find out. And even then schools will not know definitely how many places they have until results day. It would be a good idea to know in advance which ones might have spaces and which will not even consider late applicants.
In terms of "good schools", it will partly depend which subjects he wants to study. And, as I'm sure you realise, the more selective the school in terms of intake, the better its results will likely be - but that does not make it a "better" school.