sixth forms recommendations in london

i’m planning to take maths, fm + physics (+maybe comp sci) at a levels and I want to study maths at cambridge. I currently come from a private girls school which is fairly well ranked but I’m leaving for unrelated reasons.
I live in the sw11 area (but can travel pretty far) + my current options are:
henrietta barnett’s
kings maths school
lae
brampton manor
godolphin + latymer
woodhouse college
imperial maths school

anyone who has been to one of these or has any other sixth forms recs wld be appreciated!

Reply 1

Emmayannidou

9

Original post by iv_kar

i’m planning to take maths, fm + physics (+maybe comp sci) at a levels and I want to study maths at cambridge. I currently come from a private girls school which is fairly well ranked but I’m leaving for unrelated reasons.
I live in the sw11 area (but can travel pretty far) + my current options are:
henrietta barnett’s
kings maths school
lae
brampton manor
godolphin + latymer
woodhouse college
imperial maths school
anyone who has been to one of these or has any other sixth forms recs wld be appreciated!

Maybe Westminster or Brighton? I’m taking these 2 but it’s supposed to be really competitive

Reply 2

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by Emmayannidou

Maybe Westminster or Brighton? I’m taking these 2 but it’s supposed to be really competitive

sadly i think the application deadline for westminster has closed, brighton is well ranked but unless i can get a scholarship, it's prolly not feasible for me.

Reply 3

AhsokaTano-

11

Original post by iv_kar

i’m planning to take maths, fm + physics (+maybe comp sci) at a levels and I want to study maths at cambridge. I currently come from a private girls school which is fairly well ranked but I’m leaving for unrelated reasons.
I live in the sw11 area (but can travel pretty far) + my current options are:
henrietta barnett’s
kings maths school
lae
brampton manor
godolphin + latymer
woodhouse college
imperial maths school
anyone who has been to one of these or has any other sixth forms recs wld be appreciated!

We just had our SHHS open evening today, but as a student there since y7 (now y13), its a good school, from a studious person's POV

It can be strict at times and some of the rules are stupid, but it depends on POV.

Maths and FM have rlly good teachers (if u take the E block maths, love those teachers) and physics, you will be let out late by one of them teachers. Take cs if you will

CVMS is also rlly rlly good

Reply 4

Meerkatcuber

2

Not at any of them but can provide some general insight about maths schools, since they all kind of operate the same (I am currently at a different maths school and absolutely loving it). Let me know if you're interested in hearing what I have to say!

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 5

username6540318

0

11

As someone who had offers from both LAE and Brampton manor, the schools are good but the quality of teaching is not of the level of a private school (which I assume you are used to) and they simply thrive due to the vast amount of hard working and intelligent students. I also have friends who go to Brampton and many teachers have actually left so it's mostly new teachers with less experience.... with a similar situation with LAE. However, LAE does put great emphasis on their social life and students mental health: with weekly actives and enrichments( which you can see on their TikTok and instagram pages) , which I slightly regret missing out on.

BUT... I would say if you want a new experience as you had already attended a girls school for 5 years - choose Kings Maths School because not only is it a like minded school but everyone does the same subjects which is pretty cool and I also attended their maths summer school and it was great - as you want to study maths at Cambridge, what better sixth form to go to than a specialised maths sixth form( which is NUMBER ONE IN THE COUNTRY)?!!! I would have definitely gone to kings maths school if I wanted to do maths, fm and physics but I'm a humanities babe :bawling:

I attend a top sixth form myself - travelling 1 hour 20 minutes everyday but honestly its down to your own efforts, the school cannot feed you A*s, so don't feed into this top sixth form propaganda and simply work hard yourself and don't be like me foolishly travelling long hours feeling drained when I could have worked hard anywhere *sigh*

Reply 6

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by username6540318

As someone who had offers from both LAE and Brampton manor, the schools are good but the quality of teaching is not of the level of a private school (which I assume you are used to) and they simply thrive due to the vast amount of hard working and intelligent students. I also have friends who go to Brampton and many teachers have actually left so it's mostly new teachers with less experience.... with a similar situation with LAE. However, LAE does put great emphasis on their social life and students mental health: with weekly actives and enrichments( which you can see on their TikTok and instagram pages) , which I slightly regret missing out on.
BUT... I would say if you want a new experience as you had already attended a girls school for 5 years - choose Kings Maths School because not only is it a like minded school but everyone does the same subjects which is pretty cool and I also attended their maths summer school and it was great - as you want to study maths at Cambridge, what better sixth form to go to than a specialised maths sixth form( which is NUMBER ONE IN THE COUNTRY)?!!! I would have definitely gone to kings maths school if I wanted to do maths, fm and physics but I'm a humanities babe :bawling:

I attend a top sixth form myself - travelling 1 hour 20 minutes everyday but honestly its down to your own efforts, the school cannot feed you A*s, so don't feed into this top sixth form propaganda and simply work hard yourself and don't be like me foolishly travelling long hours feeling drained when I could have worked hard anywhere *sigh*

private school teaching is good, dont get me wrong, and im quite lucky to have gotten the chance to have it for the past few years. however, i kinda prefer it when i can teach myself just because i find it pretty stressful to be taught by others just because i feel a lot of pressure to act smart and not like im struggling haha. honestly one of the main reasons i want to move is bcs, even though my schl is high achieving, nobody likes their subjects. people HATE school and lessons. they're really smart but everyone hates stuff like maths and science and comp sci. i really just want to go to a schl where people actually love what they're doing and I don't feel like an outlier. i do like going to an all girls school but i can deal with co ed simply because... i am a loner and sadly, a nerd lmao.

i think that wherever i go, i'll have to work hard by myself to do well so im just looking for a shiny (and preferably not mean) sixth form to slap on my uni application really.

edit: im not very attached to my current school just bcs i skipped two yrs anyways so i never really became friends with ppl in my class

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 7

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by Meerkatcuber

Not at any of them but can provide some general insight about maths schools, since they all kind of operate the same (I am currently at a different maths school and absolutely loving it). Let me know if you're interested in hearing what I have to say!

hi! 😀 how does going to a maths school feel like? i know this a kinda obvious question but is it really just maths, maths and maths or do ppl have other interests? (for eg, i love maths +science but i also rlly love stuff like reading + philosophy + video games) do you do maths and ur other subjects outside the curriculum or is it just a level content? do you do any extracurriculars? is it overly competitive? do you enjoy it there? <3

Reply 8

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by AhsokaTano-

We just had our SHHS open evening today, but as a student there since y7 (now y13), its a good school, from a studious person's POV
It can be strict at times and some of the rules are stupid, but it depends on POV.
Maths and FM have rlly good teachers (if u take the E block maths, love those teachers) and physics, you will be let out late by one of them teachers. Take cs if you will
CVMS is also rlly rlly good

aaah 😭 why is it that i can only go to one sixth form??

Reply 9

Meerkatcuber

2

Original post by iv_kar

hi! 😀 how does going to a maths school feel like? i know this a kinda obvious question but is it really just maths, maths and maths or do ppl have other interests? (for eg, i love maths +science but i also rlly love stuff like reading + philosophy + video games) do you do maths and ur other subjects outside the curriculum or is it just a level content? do you do any extracurriculars? is it overly competitive? do you enjoy it there? <3

Pretty much everyone loves maths but people do have loads of other interests too (I know people who are interested in sewing, reading, board games, tennis - all sorts of things really). For maths we go beyond the curriculum quite frequently, particularly in terms of making sure we can prove everything, rather than just memorising formulas, even if this requires more complicated maths than would normally be taught at A-level. For chemistry and physics we mostly stick to the curriculum, although we do a lot of discussing why certain things happen. We also are able to spend more time on the complicated understanding, because we don't need to spend so much time on calculations, since we all understand how to do the maths. In terms of extra curriculars, we have a wide range of clubs, such as art club, dungeons and dragons, music club, crochet and knitting club etc. We also do lots of maths based enrichment, such as a lesson on ciphers, or a lecture about how mathematical modelling was used during COVID. We also have some more random enrichment stuff - we did an escape room challenge just before half term, and the year 13s did a LEGO challenge, and drew on the pavements with chalk. It's not overly competitive - everyone works hard but we also support each other. We often get quite challenging maths problems, either as homework, extension or the problem of the day, so you'll often walk in and see loads of people collaborating to beat the questions, rather than competing against each other to get the best score. It's very much us Vs the questions rather than us Vs each other which creates a really lovely atmosphere. Overall I absolutely love it - it's really fun and I don't think I could have picked a better sixth form for me.

Reply 10

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by Meerkatcuber

Pretty much everyone loves maths but people do have loads of other interests too (I know people who are interested in sewing, reading, board games, tennis - all sorts of things really). For maths we go beyond the curriculum quite frequently, particularly in terms of making sure we can prove everything, rather than just memorising formulas, even if this requires more complicated maths than would normally be taught at A-level. For chemistry and physics we mostly stick to the curriculum, although we do a lot of discussing why certain things happen. We also are able to spend more time on the complicated understanding, because we don't need to spend so much time on calculations, since we all understand how to do the maths. In terms of extra curriculars, we have a wide range of clubs, such as art club, dungeons and dragons, music club, crochet and knitting club etc. We also do lots of maths based enrichment, such as a lesson on ciphers, or a lecture about how mathematical modelling was used during COVID. We also have some more random enrichment stuff - we did an escape room challenge just before half term, and the year 13s did a LEGO challenge, and drew on the pavements with chalk. It's not overly competitive - everyone works hard but we also support each other. We often get quite challenging maths problems, either as homework, extension or the problem of the day, so you'll often walk in and see loads of people collaborating to beat the questions, rather than competing against each other to get the best score. It's very much us Vs the questions rather than us Vs each other which creates a really lovely atmosphere. Overall I absolutely love it - it's really fun and I don't think I could have picked a better sixth form for me.

that sounds really nice! honestly i don't mind competition but i feel as though too much makes the school a bit toxic and hard to get along. I'm glad people do have other interests in maths schools haha. i'll cross my fingers that I get into iclms or kclms I suppose :biggrin:

Reply 11

dijfwekn

2

Original post by iv_kar

i’m planning to take maths, fm + physics (+maybe comp sci) at a levels and I want to study maths at cambridge. I currently come from a private girls school which is fairly well ranked but I’m leaving for unrelated reasons.
I live in the sw11 area (but can travel pretty far) + my current options are:
henrietta barnett’s
kings maths school
lae
brampton manor
godolphin + latymer
woodhouse college
imperial maths school
anyone who has been to one of these or has any other sixth forms recs wld be appreciated!

hi, I'm a girl, went to an all girls state school, left with all 9s one 8 and went kings maths school and I can honestly tell you it was one of the worst decisions i've ever made in my life.
Student body has a huge misogyny and racism issue, they have massive egos and act like *******s in year 1 (before they get their university rejections, hilarious and yes, it happens every year) staff have a borderline obsession with virtue signalling and mental health, head of year 12 is a massive bully and a genuinely awful person behind closed doors and they gatekeep revision resources until 2 weeks before the exam dates. The last point especially, I know this because I've emailed them, and their pathetic excuse was "we don't want to stress the other students out"
Obviously you are entitled to make your own choice, but this is my experience, and I would genuinely never go back there again.
And the building looks like ****.

Reply 12

Grade9er

6

One school you should seriously consider is the NCS, I’m in year 12 currently attending rn. I have to say, the school experience is amazing. Firstly, NCS is a school that focuses on mainly Maths and the Sciences, but things like politics and liberal arts are amazing here too. The main reason why I came, is because of the vast amount of opportunities they give to students, they notify you about programmes, events and workshops at least once a day. For maths and engineering they do SO MUCH, they have a private partnership with UCL to help students (from NCS) work on a research project with actual students (great for personal statement). They also do a lot of trips and events, getting in Cambridge and Oxford admissions counsellors, holding provision sessions that give students guidance on how to get in to Oxbridge and other top unis. They’re really selective though, requiring higher grade requirements than bma and also they push you in terms of academics so hard. Their is an open evening which I highly recommend you to attend. If you come, you’ll gain access to opportunities I guarantee you won’t find elsewhere. If your able to travel from sw11 to e6, I would be seriously considering this school if I were u. Also, the people here are amazing, all like minded and ready to succeed. The teachers here are also top class, providing help wherever needed and giving u lots of practice and resources to help.

Reply 13

iv_kar

OP

9

Original post by dijfwekn

hi, I'm a girl, went to an all girls state school, left with all 9s one 8 and went kings maths school and I can honestly tell you it was one of the worst decisions i've ever made in my life.
Student body has a huge misogyny and racism issue, they have massive egos and act like *******s in year 1 (before they get their university rejections, hilarious and yes, it happens every year) staff have a borderline obsession with virtue signalling and mental health, head of year 12 is a massive bully and a genuinely awful person behind closed doors and they gatekeep revision resources until 2 weeks before the exam dates. The last point especially, I know this because I've emailed them, and their pathetic excuse was "we don't want to stress the other students out"
Obviously you are entitled to make your own choice, but this is my experience, and I would genuinely never go back there again.
And the building looks like ****.

oh crap, that sounds awful! the student body being sexist and racist I had no idea about bcs I go there twice a week for GCSE+ maths + physics and the yr12 and 13 students and teachers there have been pretty nice but obviously i could've just had a good first impression with a few people. I find that uk school's are over obsessed with mental health and wellbeing to the point of using it as an excuse for poor performance and excusing total idiots from experience but that's been an issue in all my past schools. I probably won't be admitted so I'm not too worried but I'll take this into account if I do get an offer, so thank you :frown:

sixth forms recommendations in london

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