[Closed] Teachers - What's the 'normal' 6th form intake process?

Not a teacher but a parent of a kid going on to 6th form, and the blurb she's been sent asks her to upload a scan or photo of her results to a website against a code identifier. This will be checked by admissions tutors against the courses she is going on to study But then if she has any concerns with grades (ie didn't meet qualifying marks) she would have to email this weekend and then they'd call back to discuss options.

I'd be surprised where your son is going doesn't have someone on hand to sort it out before term restarts, are you sure you haven't been given instructions / if not then I'd call the school or college and ask rather than wait.

[edit] may be different because it's a dedicated 6th form college; so everyone has to enrol, no going on from Yr11. Enrolling 1000 new students must be quite a task especially having to do all by appointment to avoid queues and crowding, so maybe they are getting ahead of the game. Enrolment starts Monday and lasts til Thursday, may not be as structured if most of the intake is stayers on.

OK, this is the same school that he has been to for the last four years, not a college.

It seems the instructions were on a letter handed over with the results. I was not there, but the immediate reaction to the results stopped any significant studying of the letter.

The letter offers the chance to book an appointment with staff while at the school picking up results. As this did not happen now there seems to be no other options than to wait.

always an option to call or email, won't be the first or last time something's been missed in the pandemonium.

Calls made, but the answerphone message says closed for the school holidays.

Emails sent to the generic emails addresses and as many of the people involved direct as we could track down (head of 6th form, head of admissions, office etc).

Generic email received back as above saying the school was- very pleased with the grades and sixth form was “filling up fast” is the only thing back all day 🙁

Bump for the day crowd.

Trying to decipher what little info we have; Although he has not received the grades he wanted to do Math A-Level, he did achieve the grades for his other two choices and the 'enrichment'

What is worrying is that there does not look like there will be any chance to chat to anyone about his options until teachers go back to school (possibly even his first day back). So that means a 2 week wait and going to school for his first day unsure of what will happen.

Is that really likely to be the case? Is there first few days mostly admin to sort this kind of stuff out or is he going to miss out on some important stuff by turning up to school not even knowing what subject(s) he will be taking (some of the possible options for the Maths conflict with his other choices so there may be a knock on effect).

Too add to the growing list of question, he received a 7 in his last History Mock, but has been awarded a 5. Minimum entry level for History A-Level (one of his backup options) is 6. The school have sent a fairly stern letter out about challenging grades, but would there be any point in trying to persuade them to accept his application for History A Level based on his rock result?

Any real world experience of this sort of thing would be appreciated.

The 'results nonsense' is causing lots of offer juggling in schools.
There must be some one from the VI form team you can talk to?
The school where I teach has 2-3 senior staff manning phone emails and meeting folk to help unpick entry requirements for new Y12s.

Is your school oversubscribed and a bit 'selective'?

Try re-sending copying in current form tutor / Head of years / if no response in say 48hrs - bump to Head of school.

Good luck.

There WILL be someone in school or on the phone to talk to. If there's not and it's your existing school then I'd question whether it's the right place to study - if they can't be bothered to help sort out an existing student then I'd worry about their pastoral care full stop.

IME most schools will do everything they can to accommodate their own students, even if it's not on your first choice of courses. The ones that don't tend to be exam factories and again I'd question whether that's the right place to be.

I'd be pushing to get hold of either Head of 6th Form or your 'outgoing' Head of Year 11, if not directly by phone then via email asking for a phone call.

The other (tough but honest) answer is to look around your area for alternative centres and get in touch with them...

Ever school/college will do it differently, and this year will be different again.

We started enrolling yesterday, but we start back early so all the teaching staff are here. (I don't think I work at the one that theotherjonv's daughter is enroling at, but we're enrolling 1000 students too.

School sixth forms might be a bit more relaxed about it because each year group is a relatively small proportion of their overall number, but we lose/gain 50% of our students every summer so recruitment and enrolment is our priority.

If the algorithmicaly calculated GCSE grades had been used, we would have probably been particularly flexible this year. As it stands, we might have to be less flexible than usual. We're very unselective though so other places might differ.

Minimum entry level for History A-Level (one of his backup options) is 6.

Wow, we ask for a 4 in English and (if they've done history GCSE) a 4 in history - we're even less selective that I thought we were! If you're near the Tees Valley I can suggest an alternative centre 😉

Miketually - Godalming for us.

Miketually – Godalming for us.

That's not us 🙂

To answer a couple of points.

-It is his existing school, he has been there for the last 4 years
-It seems some subjects in sixth form have been oversubscribed in the past
-He wants to stay as the majority of his friends are going there
-A very late diagnosis of dyslexia (too late to make any changes to the mock exams setup) means I might be able to exert some pressure if he stays where staff had to begrudgingly accept the Dyslexia right at the end of his time there. This means I might be able to argue that his Mocks scores would likely have been beaten in his actual exams where he would have had extra time and less distractions

I am reluctant to try and get him to change school/college as the three that I have checked all want grade 7 to do A level maths

Thanks for the input so far. Still zero feedback from the school

And another hot off the press question...

If he retakes a subject in November and gets a lower score does it invalidate a previous result?

I said no, but he is not so sure

If students sit an autumn series exam, the higher grade stands from this and the CAG.

Thanks colournoise