SW London: how hard are 6th form admissions? Would you avoid a secondary without 6th form?

[PForParent]

Not sure if a London-only forum might be more appropriate for this question.
One of the state secondary schools we are considering is Hurlingham Academy in Fulham.
It does not have a 6th form on site; it basically sends students to another school of the same trust, but that would be 45 - 60 minutes away by public transport.

We are trying to look into 6th form admissions, to get a sense for how hard or not it is to be admitted to a 6th form at another school, but we aren't finding much information.

• Do some schools use distance as one of the admission criteria for 6th form? Graveney doesn't, but for other schools (Chestnut) we cannot find the criteria online
• Are any statistics on applications and admissions published anywhere? They are published for Y7 admissions, but I haven't seen anything for 6th form admissions. I guess we must ask the schools directly?

I don’t see at all why it would end up that way if it was criteria based on distance from the school as a discriminator.

Well, that (whether distance is a criterion) was precisely one of the questions.

To recap, can each 6th form decide whether distance is or isn't one of the criteria? In other words, there is no national guideline on that, right?

They can decide whether to use distance or not, but if they are a school sixth form they must follow the rules in the national school admissions code here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code2

If you think a sixth form policy breaches the code, you can refer it to the schools adjudicator. They will check it thoroughly and, if they say it is non-compliant, the school will have to change it.

One of the rules is that they must have their determined policy on their website by 15th March, i.e. policies for Sept 2026 entry should have been published by yesterday at the latest.

Yes, but is my understanding correct that the school admissions code says nothing about distance?

In other words, are including and excluding distance in the criteria both perfectly legal?

Including distance sucks, because why should someone else who has a lower score get a place just because their family could afford to live closer.

Excluding it sucks, because it means that local kids will struggle to get a place, and that the admission criteria for external students (for the schools which have Y7 all the way to 6th form) will de facto be much more demanding than for internal ones.

Why aren't you choosing a sixth form college?
They just teach 16-19 year old youngsters.
They are far better than school sixth forms.

I am not choosing anything now.
Like I said in my first post, one of the secondary schools we are considering doesn't have a 6th form on site, but in a sister school which is not very convenient to reach.

I am therefore looking into how admission criteria for external candidates work for 6th forms. It seems that, for those 6th form which also have a Y7, being admitted as an external candidate tends to be much harder than for internal ones.

Why would sixth form colleges be better? Surely it varies a lot

Graveney has something like 400 6th form students per year but the school year is 280 so clearly a lot of those students are external. It really depends on the school. There is normally a lot of movement in London 6th forms, kids leave, kids go to grammar, private, move from private etc. I really think you are stressing unduly.

@PForParent , sixth form colleges have specialist teachers who focus on 6th formers. They don't have the distraction of having to also teach years 7-11 or help out with a school event/ covering lessons for other year groups etc so it generally attracts good teachers who can focus on A levels/ Btecs etc and treat the students in a more adult way rather than as children.

@poppybuttons Are you saying that, in schools which go from Y7 to 6th form, the same teacher will teach the same subjects to both Y7 and sixth form? Genuine question, I really don't know
Does it depend on the school: some will have different teachers and some will have the same?

The schools I went too & others I know of now have different teachers, I don't know if that's a blanket rule.

"Yes, but is my understanding correct that the school admissions code says nothing about distance?"

@PForParent You are not correct. See clause 1.13.

Distance can be a criteria, but it is not a compulsory criteria.

It is the most common criteria.

@okday I was unclear. Let me rephrase: does the school admission code allow schools to both include and exclude distance as a criterion?

In other words, it would be legal to ignore distance altogether, but, equally, it would also be legal to have it as a criterion - each school can choose.

Is this correct?

That is correct. However it is unusual to not use distance at all, unless it is a grammar school.

Grammar schools that have an external admissions policy for year 12 should not impose academic criteria that don't apply to their internal students. (That's why I think ranking external applicants by GCSE grades is probably a breach, but it would need to be referred to the adjudicator to be sure).

I don’t think there will be many - if any? - schools that have a whole different set of teachers for sixth form. Certainly at mine it was the same teachers - though there were usually a few who were prioritised for sixth form. My niece is an English teacher and sometimes she will have a few years where she is teaching only gcse and a level students. But as staff move through this might change. Schools have to be constantly flexible with their staffing as budgets are so tight. And I’m sure in a subject where the number of students taking it at a level is smaller - eg French or Spanish, or even maybe history, geography - there wouldn’t be enough work for that teacher to only do a level if they’re on a full time contract. So they’d have to cover other age groups.

Sixth form colleges have much greater numbers so they can afford to have teachers who only do two year groups exclusively.

OP I came across this for Surrey schools - looks like they’ve handily combined all the sixth form admissions info into one document. I don’t think this is something they have to do, so there isn’t necessarily the same for London boroughs, but thought it might be an interesting compilation for you to look through.

https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/204945/Final-SixthFormInformationBooklet2025-26V3.pdf

None of them say “better grades in external candidates get priority”. Quite a few say distance. Some seem to leave it quite open - I wonder if they go by “order in which people applied”?

"I wonder if they go by “order in which people applied”?"

@Talipesmum This would be a breach of the admissions code - see clause 2.15.

Nobody should be wondering about criteria. The policies should all be published on school websites.

However, there is a lot of non-compliance at sixth form level because there is no coordination.

Thing is, for the ones that don’t include distance, it seems like it’s really quite open, and surely they can’t accept an infinite number of students? So eg in the Surrey link I posted, Howard of Effingham school for example has these criteria:

1. LAC & PLAC.
2. Exceptional social/medical need.
3. Any applicant.

And that’s it. So if more apply than there are spaces for, and all the LAC / PLAC and exceptional need students are accommodated, what do they do? It’s not clear based on published criteria unless distance is included, which can always discriminate.

OP, another thing just to be clear on too is that there isn’t a centralised sixth form application process. It’s not like applying to high schools where you put all your preferences in and are allocated via central authority. It’s not like universities where you do your UCAS form and you can pick a firm and a backup choice.

You apply directly to each sixth form provider, separately. They have no idea which other ones you’ve applied to. You get a bunch of offers in early spring term and you can accept all of them. That’s ok. You can accept 4 or 5 if you really want. Then when you get gcse results and have decided what you actually want to study and where, you sign up to the induction process, or officially contact them or whatever it says on their website, and join that school / college. And let the others know you won’t be taking up the place.

That’s how it worked for us last year in Surrey. I don’t know if it is different elsewhere. It must be an absolute nightmare for the schools and colleges to coordinate. My child was literally deciding the night before turning up to induction day to finalise his course choice which of two college induction days he was going to pick.

I agree. But have their sixth forms ever been over-subscribed? Many aren't, so their criteria are never questioned.

If they are over-subscribed then savvy parents whose children are put on a waiting list could appeal with a strong case for breach of the code. However, most parents don't understand the code, so wouldn't know this.

In practice, there is another factor to take into account, which gives popular schools some leeway. They make it clear in their arrangements that getting an offer for a year 12 place does not guarantee a place on a particular course. e.g. Jonny might apply for maths, physics and chemistry, and be offered a place on the basis that he agrees to do maths, physics and music instead (because chemistry is full and music is one of those courses that is never full).. Jonny doesn't want to do music, so turns down the offer and goes elsewhere. This is perfectly legal and acts as a pressure valve (causing a lot of disappointment along the way).

Yep, I had friends last year whose children were offered subjects they had no interest in. So they had to go with different colleges that weren't as good (league tables) but offered the desired subject combo.

This is also why "last distance offered" is not useful information for sixth form admissions. Popular subject combinations may fill up very close to the school, while other courses may never fill up.

This all explains why the sixth form colleges we looked around made a lot of their “last year only 5-10 of the 1000 students in the year didn’t get the courses they had chosen (assuming they had the min grades for it)”. It’s a lot easier for them to accommodate flux as the numbers are much larger.

We are looking at Hurlingham Academy too for our son. We did a practice walk today and it took us 16 mins door to door. I have followed some of your posts and I know you are considering similar secondary schools as us. Fingers crossed you get your choice. We have Graveney as our first choice but obvs that depends on the wandsworth test score. St Cecelia’s and Chesnut Grove and Chelsea Academy are on our list too.
Out of interest have you looked at Chelsea Academy as they have 6th form.

Some schools have different/separate staff, some don't. In my kids' large London secondary, many of the staff teach from Y7 to Y13.

The 6th forms I'm looking at don't include distance as a factor, they're all based on meeting minimum grade requirements.

Esher College does have a distance factor - those living closest (something like KT postcodes) get priority as there are schools in the area which don't have 6th forms. Outer catchment applicants then go into a ballot, and your child either gets offered a place or not. The reserve list is then very large but many of those do get a place.

"The 6th forms I'm looking at don't include distance as a factor, they're all based on meeting minimum grade requirements."

You need to check the oversubscription criteria in the admissions policy. If more students meet the minimum grade requirements than there are places available they will need to prioritise some students over others.

You have mis-described Esher's policy. Distance isn't a factor. They do prioritise some named local schools that don't have sixth forms. After that it is a lottery.

Always check the formal policy rather than going by any narrative descriptions on sixth form websites.