When did all the secondary schools decide to stop teaching at 16 then...?

[poodlepusher]

I have been looking up local schools and none of the secondary schools seem to go beyond 16 / GCSE's.

Have I missed something? I thought that most schooling gave the opportunity to do A levels - is the fall off so high that a local college can deal with the remaining students?

I'm genuinely puzzled.

re the Physics A level thing, this is a very real problem in lots of places.

There is a national shortage of Physics teachers.....people with the right degrees are not entering the profession, which leads to poorer quility teaching of the subject, which leads to less people doing Physics at Degree level, and we enter a downward spiral

Not all sixth form colleges are terrible though - our area has sixth forms, but DD preferred to go to the sixth form college in a neighbouring area, which has excellent results, outstanding OFSTED reports and, more importantly for DD, a far wider range of subjects - DD wanted to do English language & English literature as separate subjects, but if she'd stayed at her old school, she couldn't have done English language at all (not even as a joint A level with Lit, as DS did at his grammar school). Also, she is able to do more than 3 subjects there - she's also doing History & Psychology.

Our area has mainly 11-16 schools with two state sixth form colleges in the big town. ONe of these colleges is very academic, the other one is less so. The disadvantage is that the 11-16 schools have difficulty recruiting the best teachers as most secondary teachers enjoy sixth form teaching.
As for physics, it is a national disgrace that there is such a shortage of teachers and that we have to import so many physical scientists and engineers from abroad because we can't produce enough in the UK.

I teach at an academic FE college (mostly teaches 'A' levels) and so most schools are 11- 16. So the standard is that most students will leave school at 16, and go on to either the 'A' level college, or the vocational college if that's what they want to do.

Whilst, the downside of this system is that the 11 - 16 schools suffer (for reasons previously stated), I do think that it is better for 'A' levels.

For example, where I am there are lots of choices for 'A' levels - students don't just choose history 'A' level, they choose what period they want to study (ancient, tudors or modern). This has real benefits because if you're interested in something, then you do find it easier to learn! The second benefit is that teachers are more specialist. For example, most of the lecturers in my department have a higher degree (they outnumber the number of teachers with just the one degree). A lot of lecturers have got Phds too. Also, we're actively encouraged to be 'A' level examiners... again most departments have got at least one examiner in them and because we don't teach when we're marking, it is easier for us to be examiners, and so we make up the majority of teachers (not something I ever experienced when I taught in schools). Finally, I do think students are better prepared for uni. The point of college is that it is supposed to be a halfway house to uni, so it is a lot more geered up. Some of the schools I worked in used to get great 'A' level results, but they still supervised the students in their free periods (and enforced silent study on them) and they were in no way prepared for uni.

The resulst may not always be as great - but there are complex reasons for that - the fact that students at colleges tend not to do general studies which artificially boosts up school grades, and perceptions of colleges, which mean that some more academic students avoid college etc. But on the whole, I think the 11 - 16 schools, plus College has got a lot going for it, and having taught under both systems, I do think the college system is better.

Just my random mutterings though!

Sorry about typos - am off out, so that was rushed!

Errm Unquiet Dad, I teach in one of those schools with a 6th form in your city.

Very very few are doctors children, and a lot of the 6th form receive EMA's. Some people just like to live where they grew up, before house prices went mad.

My db works for the council (manual job), his dd stayed in my 6th form, as do a lot of others...........

Crikey. I've never before started a thread thats gone on this long.

DD2 goes to a very good 6th form college which does a levels.Btechs and some other vocational courses.
When I went to the year 11 6th form day with my 16 year old we were told that colleges are able to provde a much wider range of course then the school cam
n.