Sixth form offers and results day

[PrincessOfPreschool]

DS has had a 'provisional offer' from a highly competitive sixth form. In his offer letter they make very clear it's provisional but there is no grade offer whatsoever so it's impossible to know what they're asking for.

Their process is that on results day you submit your results to them online and they will then let you know whether you actually got in to the sixth form and can enrol or not. One of the enrolment days is the day after results day.

Is this usual? How does this work? His current school enrol sixth form on results day so if he doesn't end up getting in to this other school, he'll have missed enrolment.

Are schools open for several days after results to sort everything out? (Current school is secondary with sixth form, competitive school is sixth form only). Is it unreasonable of this school to do it in this way so that even when we've got results we don't know what's happening? It's put me off a bit, to be honest but I only have experience of my older son who started at school and it was very straightforward.

Enrol at fallback location.
Then enrol at preferred.
Then cancel fallback.

That would be my advice too.
But I’d also be contacting the other sixth form to try to find out more about their useless offer information!

Yes agree, enrol at the one he is at on the day. Then see if he has got in to the other one. If he has, he can just contact the first school, it’s no biggie.

Enrol in first one and wait for second. We had this and it is stressful but less so if you know you have a plan B. We had to wait as the sixth form ds wanted said they were oversubscribed for one subject so were relooking at all applicants. It made results day is bit stressful to be honest but ds got into his first choice in the end.

Thats a bit crap, DS has offers from 2 local 6th forms and they are very clear on what grades he has to get

Is there nothing on the 6th forms website in their admissions policy that outlines their over subscription criteria?

OK, thank you. I guess this is what we will have to do. I feel terrible though because it's his current school and we have a good relationship. They have been so amazing to DS so I hate to mess them around.

We are not even certain which to choose yet - DS not decided) as his current school has a lot of plus points and this is a minus point on the competitive school. I just wondered if it's common practice.

Yes, it goes on living in borough combined with the right grades, then demographics (FSM, refugee etc), then highest grades. We are out of borough and not an added value demographic so I guess it's just a fight for the highest grades? But no idea what that looks like. Will it need to be all 9s, 5x9s, 9s in certain subjects etc etc. I didn't really expect to get an offer but we tried as DS looks to do well. I assumed the offer would have some outline of grades required but now it's so opaque.

Can you give them a call and ask about previous years? Or what kind of numbers v places they have offered?

I think a lot comes down to subject choice as well - things like maths will be highly competitive, music maybe not so much.

Sixth form enrolment can be a really complicated process because of the number of variables (GCSE grades, courses on offer, course scheduling etc). I don't think it's uncommon for students to keep their options open until late on, and to attend enrolment at more than one institution.

For my DD we thought she was sorted and had chosen her college, but then when we went to enrol they couldn't make her timetable work and we ended up going to enrolment at another college too. Then in the end the first college sorted the timetable clash and she started there. The colleges seemed unfazed by the chopping and changing!

We had this last year with DD1. She had her place confirmed at 8pm on results day. They used average point score of all GCSEs taken. DD1’s school, they look for an APS of 7.5 + or 8+ for maths A level. It will vary hugely by school and they should be able to give you an idea now of what average they are looking for.

@newmum1976thank you. I wonder if it's the same school 🤔. Is it LAE? They did ask for average point score of predicted grades. I guess I'll get used to the idea, it just seems an extra stress on an already stressful and emotional day (I have twins so double the emotions!).

Not LAE, but a grammar school. It’s the normal way of doing things at the grammars by us. I think most people who were given a provisional offer got in on results day or the day after. They seem to know how many provisional places to offer. Plenty of people didn’t get a provisional offer at all, so think positive!

I’ve just looked up LAE and they make 1200 provisional offers for 275 places. That does sound quite tough. Though I guess not everybody will decide to go there as they will apply for multiple places.

Is this tiffin?

Woahhhhhh... I wonder why so many more offers than places plus no indication of what they're after. Thanks for looking it up for me. Not sure it's good news!

No

Looking at LAE S, it seems a bit woolly on category 7 regarding predicted / actual results, but otherwise clear that they rank candidates on the mean average of their best 8 GCSE scores. I expect it will vary dependent on the preferred subject combinations and what has been chosen by the candidates under higher preference categories such as LAC, PP etc. Their Yr. 12 PAN is 275 and they state they make approx. 1200 provisional offers.

Thanks. I just checked and they had over 6, 500 applications, which is insane for 275 places, so he's done well to get an offer. Not heard anything for my DD but her prediction average is about 7.8. DS does also have an unusual combination of subjects, one being Spanish which isn't in high demand (current school prob won't offer it).

@PrincessOfPreschool LAE is a sixth form college, not a school sixth form, so unfortunately it doesn't have to comply with the national admissions code. If it did, then its admissions policy would be illegal.

It is still meant to be fair and transparent, but the process for challenging that is unclear. Unlike school policies, it can't be challenged via the Schools Adjudicator.

This is becoming more of an issue because the academies programme has created some very academically selective sixth form colleges. (Academies are fine in my opinion, so long as the rules are clear, but on sixth form college admissions they aren't clear).

How have you found out the number of applicants and the number of provisional offers please?

6,500 applicants, 1200 provisional offers, 275 places.

How did you find that out please? I’m curious to how I may find similar info about a different school. Thank you!

I asked Google!

LAE is bonkers. Def enroll at the other one asap! They are the only place I know to run a post-results system. It’s brutal.