Y11 2025/26… come and join

[wonderstuff]

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3000?!! That’s colossal!

Our local standalone sixth form has well over 3000 students. It's huuuge. I think it's a good thing as they offer a wide range of subjects and it's a nice stepping stone to navigating university.

@eurotravel no, they're both great colleges, DD just thought Loretto seemed more 'modern'. (The subjects we looked at were in a brand new block) She's heard good things about it from older friends too. I thught Xaverian had a nice relaxed vibe, and I loved the green in the middle. But what do I know!

@36and3 all 6th form colleagues round here are that kind of size. Except school based ones.
It’s actually good as the staff are just totally geared to A levels etc and there are several hundred students doing each popular subject so a lot of peer and teaching support. The behaviors and expectations are high and all about getting the grades for the next step. I felt much more on board with the size once I’d gone & looked and spoken to staff. Ave class size is 24 at all and contact time is 4-5 hours a week per A level and they expected to at least match that with own study time.
Teachers only teach 6th form and thus know the detail of how to get kids passing with good grades.

We only have 6th form colleges here, we are between Winchester and Basingstoke, obviously Winchester is more appealing but the bus service isn’t as good. It’s the biggest in the UK and has excellent facilities, but seems to be getting bigger every year.

Both are very inclusive, so needing 5 level 2 passes unless it’s sciences or languages where they want 7+. DS wants to do arts, but there’s a risk he won’t get the grades at all, he’s not doing much work and seems bizarrely confident he’ll be fine. Alternative is tech college, which I’m sure would not be the end of the world, but isn’t where he wants to be.

I’m torn on how strict to be, I think he’s going to push against me if I am too on him, I feel he does need to take ownership a bit at this stage. I am demanding homework in exchange for time with his mates.

The talk of these 3000 pupil colleges (whilst our county only has circa 1000 children per year in each sixth form/college school year) has made me realise how varying the state options are post 16 by location and rural vs city.

It’s fascinating the differences in provision for post 16. What courses are available? Does the county have sixth forms, school sixth forms or colleges, some or all? How do the students travel to these locations? The entry criteria? When the open days are held. When the applications need to be in by. Then I think there is a further difference as to which parts of the UK mandate education must continue to 18 vs others that can leave at 16.

With all this variation, I just hope all our DCs can find the right place and courses for them.

Dd is staying at school sixth form and her class sizes at alevel are 8-12 students. There’s 120 in the year max. They have 7-8 hours of teaching per subject each week, the rest is independent study.

Ultimately some kids would love this (dd!), others would find it too small. Dd would hate being in a college of 2000+ kids! They’re all individual with different personalities and preferences. Just hope as parents we make the right decision for them.

In Hampshire only one mainstream state secondary school has a 6th form, we have colleges in each reasonably large town and kids can choose between 6th form college, technical college or agricultural college (only 2 of these) kids will travel quite a way for college, the biggest one has boarding, kids come from the Falkland Islands to study there, I presume quite a few other military families use it. No travel assistance unless you’re on low income and then you can apply to the college for a grant. My kids will have about a 45 minute commute, but some will travel over an hour. Entry requirements are as low as they can be, and there’s a huge choice of courses, we’re very lucky. There’s support for kids aiming for medicine or Oxbridge and fairly high numbers accessing these. You need to have at least 80% attendance if your grades fall below a C to continue to upper 6th. Classes are big, my eldest is in Y13 and has 2 teachers for each course and classes of 28. DS currently has class sizes of between 4 and 14 so it’s going to be quite different. DD is having a really positive experience and I think it’s a good stepping stone to Uni, all the support is there, but they do have to be motivated to access it. They address teachers by first names and are expected to be quite independent. 5 hours contact time per subject and they are free to come and go as they please.

I would advise people to understand the requirements at the end of year 12 of their 6th form, I know some say must be average C regardless of attendance, presumably some more selective colleges have higher requirements. I have friends whose kids struggled with this and it was a surprise for them.

We need to apply by early December, but you can apply for more than one, they hold interviews with all the kids to check they have chosen appropriate courses, they have taster days in the summer and can do 4 classes and then pick 3, there’s options to change courses after results day and again in September.

@Ifonlyoneday re travel - Manchester so all the areas of the city are well served by frequent buses, trams & trains.
There are some dedicated college public buses too.
Same for the towns within Greater Manchester as a rule such as Bury Bolton, Stockport, Oldham etc
It’s rare for any high school kids to get driven so a huge % are used to public transport from Yr7.
From what I saw at open days kids will be travelling up to an hour to go to their best choice.
Some colleges are almost all A level only with a few other options then there are more vocational ones. Loads of options

We love the bee network when we go to Manchester. Manchester has good public transport with the buses, trams and trains.

7-8 hrs a week teaching is very good. Round here 5 hrs per A level subject seems to be the standard amount available at the state options.

Your class sizes seem similar to the 6th form school options round here. The college has much bigger classses and far more A level subjects.

DD has worked hard over half term and Art coursework is still all consuming!
Mocks also start 17/11 for her.
We’ve been to one open evening, at my school, two more to go. She will stay at a school sixth form whichever she chooses.

Main issue she is having is picking subjects, on the table we have Maths, English, Computer Science, History, Politics and French! Applications need to be in by the end of January. Lots of discussions going on regularly here at the moment.

Stupid question.. but quite how important are Nov mock grades? I am not convinced my Yr11 is really going to knuckle down until after Xmas.. thinking about college applications. I think it still feels a way off for them

I think there are fairly important, to get an idea what they might be struggling with and put in the revision accordingly between December and May. Some schools do these under conditions that are very similar to the real thing, including the results in a brown envelope, familiarising them with the set up so it's not too daunting when the day comes.
It's worth remembering the mocks became the actual results in one of the COVID years. 😞

My son is starting mocks today. They are sitting then in the hall under exam conditions. They are important in terms of preparing them for sitting the actual exams but also seeing where they are in terms of grades. If you revise for them and still don't score great then there are obvious gaps or maybe you need to change revision strategy so there are things you can learn from them If you do nothing for them and get bad scores then you can easily explain it away by saying "oh well I didn't revise for these but I will for the real ones" and you haven't actually learnt anything from the experience at all.

Thx. Was thinking about for college applications etc. I’ll try talking to DC more about understanding current level.

DS set his alarm for 5am today to do the homework he should have been doing over half term. He said he "didn't want to work during his holiday". FFS.

@eurotravel I guess it depends on how competitive the 6th forms you're looking at are. A few of the most academic ones want at least 7s predicted in A level subjects, normally with an 8 in Maths. Some say they want an average of 7.5 across subjects. This is in London.

My daughter's grammar school asks that any applicants get at least six 7s in their GCSEs, plus they set a separate non verbal reasoning exam for any STEM applicants.

There are obviously plenty that have lower requirements but the most competitive ones do need high predictions.

My DS also has mocks today, and of course woke up with a blinding headache and full of cold. My one achievement over the last week is finally getting him used to taking paracetamol (only took 15 years!) to see if he can just get on with things.

These mocks are definitely important. DD has been told to use her grades from her report in October for all 6th form applications.

Hope he gets through the day ok. We’re still working on the pill situation with DD so liquid ibuprofen it is although she has managed a tiny anti histamine so some progress!

DS never even took liquid ibuprofen or call. Which was interesting on the couple of occasions he was in hospital he once went from morphine to nothing as taking paracetamol was worse than pain apparently. We finally got him used to taking small vitamin d tablets, after which a half paracetamol can be demonstrated to be the same size. Now I just have to hope it worked.

Yes think that’s the case. Target and actual right now are some what apart!
Seems to be 6s & 7s we need in A level choices. I failed mocks badly but I ended up with high grades at the end as worked hard after Xmas.. hence think I DC will
end up doing same and cramming at the end 😖

additionally I am told mock exams should highlight if they know exam technique. Back when I did GCSEs there was much less exam technique I think. You seemed to get points for knowing it or not. Now there seems to be a system (exam technique) within the system (exams) 😀

So another option is DC revise, they know the content but they don’t know the exam technique.

from what I am hearing exam technique can help them with how much time to spend on each question. Also for what words/responses they need to give to actually achieve a mark. E.g on this 6 marker you need to give 2 points, an example of each point, greater depth answer of each point you get 6 marks.