Fortismere 6th form

[Rollofrockandsand]

Am considering 6 forms for my current year 10 who doesn’t wish to stay at his school.

First choice is Woodhouse but it is heavily over subscribed. We have another college in the mix but would like to consider a school too and Fortismere seems to fit the bill

Hes academic and will likely get mainly 7-8 at GCSE. He wants to do English language a level and music tech A level plus another standard one so we are limited on options

He is better suited to somewhere quite relaxed which is why he fancies a college. He’s creative and sociable. I’m happy to top up with tutoring

Ideally he fancies somewhere like King Alfred’s which I think would suit him perfectly but am reluctant to pay fees unless it’s absolutely a last resort given VAT etc

Hi, just giving you a little bump. Good luck to your lad.

i don’t have a lot of experience of Fortismere’s sixth form, it definitely seems one to be considered by local academic kids when they are looking at their y12 choices. I think more plump for APS but neither there nor Camden Girls or Mary Mags does the courses your son wants. I think definitely try for Woodhouse but think Fortismere is a good back up, maybe LaSwap and Highgate Wood might be worth looking round. A colleague who has had kids in Woodhouse and LaSwap said the communication from the latter wasn’t as good though.

Hopefully someone can come along with more direct experience.

DD is at Woodhouse and had the standard offer (think this goes off school predictions if you are reasonably close, we are kind of Crouch End). But I know kids who did get in off the waitlist when they did well in their GCSEs

Thanks so much. That’s really helpful. He has his heart set on Woodhouse but he needs to be realistic. We will definitely go and look at Fortismere. He needs something less structured than his very strict school so it may fit the bill

On oversubscription, students can apply for as many colleges/school sixth forms as they like. Unlike higher education with firm and conditional choices, any offers received can be held until results day, though then enrolment may well be first come first served and applicants might have to act quite quickly to turn an offer into a place. So yes, Woodhouse will have more applications than places but they will also make far more offers, on the basis that applicants will be choosing between them and a range of other college and school sixth forms. In 2023 Woodhouse and APS both had enrolment in the afternoon of results day, and possible further admissions if any places unfilled or not taken up at the start of term

2 years ago DS1 held 5 conditions offers until results day. Conditions were generally very similar, including APS and Woodhouse College (the others were I think City & Islington (6th form college, part of a bigger college then, is now part of an even larger organisation but offering A level options at different sites that were separate colleges, eg C&I (near Angel) and Westminster Kingsway (near Kings Cross), London Academy of Excellence Tottenham and Greig City Academy (another school sixth form).

In the end he chose APS and worried that he'd chosen the wrong place in the first week of term.

He was applying to do Maths and Further Maths with two other subjects, and being predicted/achieving a mix of 7s, 8s and 9s was fine with all - in mocks he was getting 9s in Maths and Science but wasn't getting 7s in other subjects but was predicted and got there in the end - his 4th choice was an essay subject - doing 3 A levels and not applying to do Maths & FM should mean entry ask is a little bit lower. His friend was waitlisted at APS for Music Tech and was offered a place on results day.

So if your DS knows he wants Woodhouse, apply there and also apply to anywhere else which offers options to do English Language and Music Tech. If one of those is more important than the other, or if there are any other possibilities, apply for those as well.