Sixth Form Applications (London)

I don't live in London so I can't give advice on specific colleges but I will give you some general advice on choosing a college.

If you're looking to find the best academic college in your area you should research league tables for colleges in your area. If you can't find any you will have to compare them manually. This website: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england allows you to compare different colleges with various statistics.

Imo the best way to choose a college is to go to the open days. This is the only way to truly decide where you want to go. statistics are important in making your decision but you should also choose which college you can best imagine yourself going to.

In terms of specific details about a college, this can usually be found on the colleges website. If not, open days are a good time to ask any questions to staff of the college.

About applying : You either do it via a paper application (normally you print off their application from online and send it through the post) or you use ucas progress which is a website that allows you to apply online. Some colleges may have other systems for how you apply but as I have said, this information will all be on the website. There is no bias to whatever route you choose to apply and most colleges don't read your personal statement although it depends on how selective the college is.

Sixth forms are in general only really concerned about your grades. Most sixth forms aren't really bothered about anything else. However, they do tend to like people who do a lot of extra curricular activities and when you get your interview you should try and be as polite as possible.

hey for advice about sixth forms in London I'd recommend you go to taster days/open evenings for any schools you're interested. To find out about harris westminster then I'd scroll through here and see if you can find @HWSF Senate 2.0 and ask them any questions you've got. I think @HisMajesty_Kwabz may know a bit about their application process too. I would definitely start looking at sixth forms now though as most applications close between December and February

hey thanks for the reply, I'll look into their Senate. From an outside perspective, would it be worth it to actually attend WH (I'm not tooting my own horn and assuming I would get in or anything like that) would it hurt my chance in an Oxbridge application for example? A lot of people say that getting good grades at a state school is better than getting the same grades at a selective one, what would your thoughts be about that?

I’m honestly not sure (I don’t go there, I’ve just got a friend there), I’ve honestly got no idea; I’m not applying to uni yet
Which a-levels are you hoping to study?

Lol I'm always thinking 5 years ahead, I should relax. Probably English and Economics for sure (not sure how different that is to gcse business) Chemistry and either biology or Spanish. My choices change all the time haha, what are you studying now?

Ooh that’s nice tbh I changed my choices a lot over year 11, I started out wanting to do history, maths and two languages and now I’m doing maths, further maths, physics and economics
Not sure whereabouts you are but you could look into LAE? I’ve seen a lot about it on here

my brother actually recommended that to me, I'd have to look more into it though. Also I have mad respect for anyone who could do further maths at alevel, it's genuinely so difficult. I've got friends who've done their maths gcse in year 9, then did additional maths in year 10 and I think they're absolutely mental .All this sixth form stuff is stressing me out 😞.

hey thanks for the information! I appreciate it. What's hard is because our school hasn't really spoken to us about it, I was wondering how I would actually find it about sixth form open evenings because I checked the link you gave me but the filters don't really specify the performance of the school

You have to click on the school and look at the statistics yourself like you search for a school and then you look at the statistics. You can't filter by performance you have to do it manually. It's for comparing schools not finding schools.

Sixth form open evenenings will be advertised on their website and also if the college has social media they will probably advertise it on there. Just keep checking the websites and they will advertise them.

I seriously doubt that your school won't talk to you about it. Even if you wanted to go the sixth form joined to your school you would still have to apply. Most schools nowadays have some sort of careers department so if your school has that I would suggest you go and speak to them if you have any questions.

Anyway, good luck!