If you have kids doing A levels . .

[sillywoman]

When did you begin to look at 6th form options?

We have a daughter in year 10 and one the other parents asked me whether I had begun to look at any other schools or colleges for 6th form yet. My gut feeling is that she'll probably stay put, but it would be good to take a look around & see what the options are. Do schools do 6th form open days like they do when you do secondary transition? If so do you look at them now/ beginning of year 11/ toward the end of year 11/ other?

[Ruth_Baldock]

Both my sister and I looked in year 10 and then in more depth at the start of year 11. I stayed put and went onto the sixth form at my school, she went mad in doing her research and went off to a different school's sixth form.

[womanofdulwich]

yes they do - and you can look by yourself in year 10- but we are too late- or next year- but I think some have entry exams around xmas time!! ( private schools anyway) state school usually just say you need certain gcse grades. the main reasons are IB/ a levels, single sex/ mixed school, state v private.

[sillywoman]

Well we won't be looking at private as we don't have ? at our disposal :), so we're interested in state schools. from replies so far sounds like we need to start looking round now & finding out when the 'open days' are (how do you do that - does Southward Ed produce a list?). All this & she'll probably stay where she is anyway!

[Ruth_Baldock]

SW: Me and Sister looked in colleges etc in different boroughs, but what we did was in the first or second week of the new school year in Y11, called up the colleges we were interested in, then noted all the relevant dates down everywhere. My sister did hers last year and put all the dates into a google document and on the shared calender her and Mum have access to, so it sent them all reminders.

[anapau]

You should check the school websites for dates, although the cycle for this academic year will have finished as the colleges have already made their offers. 6th form open evenings usually happen in the Christmas term.

also if you (or kids) want info on Askes 6th form feel free to PM me (I've given info to a few families in the past)

[sillywoman]

Thanks RB & anapau, I'll need to talk to sillygirl first anapau but I may well take you up on the offer.

[Carrie]

My 2 girls went into the sixth form this year and only looked around at 6th forms last year when they were in year 11. The 6th form open days appeared to be a bit of a scoial event where they hooked up with friends they hadn't seen since primary school - I don't think they ever had any intention of changing schools in the 6th form (they have were at Charter and still are at Charter)and I am quite glad they didn't. Starting the AS course is really full on - a huge step up from GCSE and with module exams straight after Christmas. I think they would have fallen flat on their faces if they were having to cope with a change of school on top of that.

[bizzylizzy]

6th form open days tend to be in the September of Year 11 - really early on...