Applying to multiple sixth form/colleges??

[Worriedmum86]

Ds goes to a grammar school, he needs high marks to get into the sixth form. (He may or may not get the grades...he's border line at present)
There is a sixth form nearby and a college too.
His choice 1 is his school sixth form to do a levels.
Choice 2 at the moment is the other sixth form with slightly lower grades required for a levels.
Choice 3 he has mentioned 2 t-level courses at the college which he likes the look of.

Do people usually apply to multiple courses and then decide once GCSE results are out?

When I was applied for college back in the dark ages I just applied for one course and my GCSE results determined the course level.

Yes thanks. Unfortunately proceeding at the same school to sixth form is not satisfactory for a number of important reasons. Good luck to you and yours! Thanks for the reply

Thanks, exactly the issue I can see. They certainly can’t proceed in the sixth form of their current school and therefore the alternative options are important and thus the complexity. Many thanks for your reply!! Best wishes

@mummyjaz have they all said whether they will be giving you timed appointments?
I know Waldegrave does.

Are you particularly close to any of the schools? Their admissions policies will say how many external places are guaranteed, but usually there will be more spaces, depending on how many of their own students move school.

I know Orleans Park usually doesn't usually have much space for externals.

Thank you! Yes we are equidistant from Waldegrave and Orleans.. so far they have received an acceptance letter (as I think all have) and an invitation to a taster day (as I think they all have). The exam results day is 22/8 and enrolment day is 23/8. I’m very unsure how the movement of students will work as it all seems very squeezed into the 24 hours of results and enrolment days! So last minute with that in mind!

Waldegrave has capacity for up to 200 students in year 12. The 216 students in their own Year 11 have priority, but not all will stay. They guarantee at least 20 external places.

Orleans Park has capacity for just 140 students in year 12. Again, the 216 students in their own Year 11 have priority. They only guarantee 5 external places.

So you have more chance at Waldegrave than Orleans Park. In addition to the raw numbers, some Waldegrave girls move because they want to go to a mixed sixth form and if they have brothers at Orleans Park, they get sibling priority. In some years I have heard they take all the external places there. In contrast, there is no sibling priority for Waldegrave Sixth Form.

Waldegrave gets hundreds of applicants, and some courses will fill up quicker than others, so previous years' cut-off distances wouldn't help you even if they were published (they aren't as far as I know).

So, if those are the only two applications your child has made, they might want to consider making more. Some other local sixth forms are probably still taking applications.

Mega useful! I’m really grateful, thank you!!

We're in London and sixth forms were offering enrolment on afternoon of results day last year. It's not the only chance to enrol but I think the idea is that those who have decided and have the grades they need can be signed up and then schools/colleges have more idea what places they still have to fill, and can consider students on the waiting list and/or those who narrowly missed grades. I don't think distance is used in the way that it is for entry in year 7. DS1 chose a school which has been very oversubscribed to GCSE but then offers a large number of places to external students as well as their own for A level, and takes a lot of students from the other side of the borough who wouldn't have got into to the school on any distance criteria, like my child and quite a few of his friends. At the same time, some students from the school go to other highly rated options including the specialist A level college in a neighbouring borough which was DS1's most likely other choice.

A lot of students were holding several offers, but I know that a few years before, a friend's son missed out on what he needed for his first choice but went there to discuss it further, and looked at another school sixth form which were happy to offer him a place. In the end his first choice accepted him and he went on to do a degree in Art (always his aspiration).

Last year, (August/September 2023), DS1 actually enrolled for his 2 first preferences (of 5 offers held) as he was still dithering and they started on different days - one on Friday 1 September and one on Monday 4, but I'm not sure that's to be recommended. One enrolment was in person, the other online, both on the afternoon of results day. He still wonders whether he finally made the right choice, but I'm not sure he wouldn't be doing that whatever.

@elkiedee "I don't think distance is used in the way that it is for entry in year 7."

They usually use distance if they are oversubscribed with external applicants. Their oversubscription criteria will be in their admissions policy, just like for year 7, and need to abide by the admissions code.

However, internal applicants have an automatic right to enroll, so long as they meet the minimum grades, so oversubscription criteria don't apply to them.

Many schools enroll internal applicants on results day and external applicants a day later.