Study Programmes
Post 16 students will be studying 3 A levels or BTEC/Vocational courses. Some students will take purely A levels or BTEC/Vocational and some will take a combination. For example, some students might take the BTEC Health and Social Care (double equivalent to 2 A levels) and A level Psychology; this would make a total of 3 academic courses as their core learning package.
On top of this students will make a choice from our Personal Enhanced Offer. This choice will be made when completing the application form. Our offer will include the Level 3 Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), Further Maths and work experience.
For students who achieve 8 or more A, A* or grade 7 at GCSE, studying a fourth A level will be considered.
Any student entering the Sixth Form without a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and Maths will have to re-sit this course.
On top of your subjects you will have one hour a fortnight which will be an allocated PEC lesson. PEC stands for Personal Extended Curriculum and covers careers, health issues etc. In Years 7-11, this was named PSHE.
In Year 12, all students partake in our Employable Skills Programme (ESP). This entails students allocating a minimum of one hour per fortnight to give something back to our community. Many students use this time to do lesson support with younger years, some go into primary schools or medical settings. The purpose of this is to build work skills through voluntary work. Students select what activity they wish to partake in. This is then developed further during a week’s work experience in July where students go out of school on a work placement organised by themselves in order to match their future aspirations and interests.
We also have a daily 20-minute Tutor period. Your tutor is your first port of call for pastoral issues and they will also help you to develop career plans and applications, whether this be UCAS or employment opportunities.
Various study combinations
3 A Levels + Personal Enhanced Offer (PEO)
2 A levels + BTEC/Vocational plus PEO
BTECS/Vocational equivalent to 2 A Levels + 1 A level + PEO offer
BTECS/Vocational equivalent to 3 A Levels + PEO offer
Personal Enhanced Offer
Students will be studying the equivalent of 3 A level or BTEC options. On top of this students will be dedicating curriculum time to studying one of the options outlined below.
With the revised linear A level approach, many schools are offering students a package of 3 A levels plus the Extended Project Qualification and this is certainly a popular package with universities. However, there are other options available. Please look at the information and consider which option you would like to take as part of your Personal Enhanced Offer.
Extended Project Qualification
The Extended Project is a stand-alone qualification which will develop and extend from one or more of the student’s study areas and/or from an area of personal interest or activity outside their main programme of study. It will be based on a topic chosen by the student(s) and agreed as appropriate by the school.
Delivery of the Extended Project Qualification involves some teaching of the necessary skills, supervision and assessment of the student’s progress. It will involve extended autonomous work by the student.
Students are required, with appropriate supervision, to:
- choose an area of interest
- draft a title and aims of the project for formal approval by the school
- plan, research and carry out the project
- deliver a presentation to a non-specialist audience
- provide evidence of all stages of project development and production for assessment.
This qualification carries a UCAS points value of 50% of a whole A level. This reflects the fact that the qualification is very well recognised by universities who like the independent research and learning skills that the project assesses.
