North London Sixth Forms recommendations please

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Looking for suggestions and recommendations please - son is in his last year of secondary school and is looking at different options for his A Levels.
He will keep his application in his current school as they have a sixth form to continue but he would love a change to be honest.
Also, his current school is more less average and he is quite academic with 8s and 9s predicted in his GCSEs so he's hoping to maybe get into a higher achieving school. His subject choices are History, Computer Science and Music (if he passes grade 5 as it seems to be the qualifying factor - if not he is happy to go with Physics).
We have looked at the list of schools in the area but to be honest it is little overwhelming trying to narrow these down to couple of good and suitable choices. Currently considering oversubscribed Woodhouse as we know quite a few kids who attended it and were very happy with it, but would love to hear what other schools people think are worth looking into in North / Central London?

There is no point in doing computer science without maths as most computer science degrees at anywhere good need maths A level.

My son was at LaSwap, it was dreadful. At least half the lessons were cancelled every week due to lack of staff.
Have you looked at Imperial Maths School?
https://www.imperialmathsschool.ac.uk/

That's useful to know @Ivesaidenough - I'm sorry you had such an awful experience with it so maybe that's one to take off our list. Oldest did look at LaSwap and reported that it seemed 'chaotic'

Thanks @Ivesaidenough - that is good to know, although hard to hear, as it's one of the only colleges near us that offers music tech. Fortismere or APS would be ideal but are both a headache to get to from my area

@zaxxon If you're in somewhere in Camden, do Westminster Kingsway or City and Islington (both now part of the Capital City College merger but with courses still offered at several sites I think) offer Music Tech courses, and an option to combine with A levels/other subjects?

Just to put an alternate view, I have several friends with children at LaSwap who have been very successful - As and A*s in their A levels and places at RG universities. Maybe it depends on what subjects you do, but I haven't heard any negative feedback.

@zaxxon I'd also often seen it from the road and assumed the same as you!

I'm not familiar with all the schools up that way, but we did visit Woodhouse and it is quite selective (unless you are in one of the two schools which have priority for places).
Is Compton near you? Looks like they require an average points score of 5.5 from 8 best GCSEs. Might that be achievable?

5.5 is certainly possible in best case scenario. We have a post GCSE options meeting at school next week where some 6th forms will have stalls. It was fairly straightforward for oldest as we knew he would get good marks and also he's very self-organising so basically did all his own research for 6ths forms and ended up at St Marylebone (I hadn't even known you could apply out of borough!) but we will have to do the legwork ourselves for DS and consider options other than A-level.

We are near Compton where DH's niece and nephew go. Nephew seems to have had a good time there, niece has had a bit of a crummy time socially sadly but I think that's just bad luck rather than the school.

DS's best friend is at Christs College and I assume is staying there for 6th form, so I want to look into that as he'd have a friend there and friend's mum says SEN provision there is good.

I think Fortismere could meet that grade profile @Echobelly, and Candi. But I'm not sure about SEN provision at either.

I've heard negative things about behaviour at Fortismere and although it's quite nearby it's surprisingly awkward by public transport.

Barnet and Southgate college is further away but probably easier to get to, I'm interested in that potentially but I don't know much about what it's like.

Thanks @elkiedee but unfortunately they don't - they do a two-year diploma, but not the basic A level

@Ivesaidenough not my experience AT ALL w a current LaSwap-er, or for the many older kids I know. Am sure some lessons do get cancelled - but then one of mine did A-levels at CSG and lessons were cancelled there all the time, but never half the lessons in a week…

IME pastoral and SEND support at LaSwap is utterly different in intent and practice at LaSwap cf Camden and Woodhouse. Camden almost laughably appalling.

@geumsandpeonies - do you think that’s because Woodhouse and Camden are much more results-driven? I have a friend who was told that Camden is a bit sink or swim for A-levels, and that it’s brilliant for very academic kids, but not great if you have any type of SEN…

I just don’t think CSG thinks it’s a school’s role to do anything other than teach and provide the most basic safeguarding possible. They have a very old fashioned idea of what a school is…

i don’t know Woodhouse so well, but sink or swim seems to be right there - even more so as it’s so impersonal and enormous. If you’re someone who finds it hard to ask for help, you’ll find it hard there.

Post 16 fair at school tonight with various providers there... its mainly for Y11 but I do want to go to do some initial research or I know it will all pile up next year and inevitably all the open evenings will be in the same week and we'll only be able to make two of them etc. Because it's going to be on us this time around as I doubt DS will be able to get his head around it.

I want to speak to Christ's College, Capel Manor, Barnet & Southgate, and apprenticeship provider, maybe City & Islington college too. Aiming to find out entry grade expectations, options for retaking Maths/Eng lang (mostly concerned about latter), what post GCSE options are at Capel and do the apprenticeship guys cover apprenticeship degrees as well. Will check when opening days/evenings are as well. Anything else I should ask?

Does anyone know where I can find out the distance cut off for CSG 6th form?

I had thought Dd was happy staying at her school - Latymer - but now two of her besties are keen on CSG, she's interested too. They're in N16 though and we're further east so suspect we're out of catchment.

i think if we're out of catchment, we'll apply to Woodhouse and La Swap as back ups.

For info, CSG 6th seems to be organised differently from other 6th forms, as in it is quite free. Much later start than Woodhouse and Marylebone. They only have to be in school for lessons and there are so many of them that there isn’t really study places for all of them. Lots go to the British Library, but that’s packed and obviously if you move to go to the ooo you lose your place.It’s great if you live close to the school, have somewhere to study at home, and are self sufficient. I think La swap is the same as CSG.

I think some parts of La Swap, you have to be in for morning registration, or chapel (!), it depends what school you get.

Woodhouse you only have to be in when you have classes.

All of them are a bit of trek from us though

Went to open evening. I think Compton entry grades will be too high for DS. Christs College doesn't do Drama, which is a shame. It's the one GCSE, at his rate, he might do very well in so it's a likely A level, biology a likely other one as he's interested in working with animals and us quite good at science. So we'll need to work out a third subject by next school year I reckon!

I don’t think there is one. It depends on your choice of all 3 levels and number of applicants for each subject. So if you apply for a popular subject with only one or two teachers, catchment will be small. If less popular courses and/or lots of classes, catchment will be wider. That is how it was explained to us.

Thanks @Verite1 we didn't go to the open day. I do wonder whether it ever goes as far as E postcodes though. It may be worth sticking an application in on the off chance.

We were told that science subjects are the closest to the school, as in they are very popular. If your child wants the least popular subjects ( what are they?) distance may not be an issue.

I know kids from Muswell Hill, Stockwell and Hackney at CSG. As someone else said, it depends on what subjects your child chooses.

Does CSG really start much later than Woodhouse? I can’t quite remember but I think it’s 8.50 first lesson - what time do the others begin if that’s late? And don’t they all allow you home/out if you don’t have classes? LaSwap does expect morning registration if you have P1 but not otherwise…

Ooo, maybe I have misinformation then. I know La Swap lets them put whenever, due to the nature of the beast. Maybe it was Marylebone that started at 8.15?

Marylebone (I think) starts at 8.30 but you definitely need to be there at start even if you have a free period.