Sixth Form Life

The Sixth Form has a pre-university style culture with extremely high expectations and challenges, but equally high rewards at the end. It constitutes the best days of school at Ashlyns for many students. There are a firm set of procedures to ensure that the high standards are met at all times. Punctuality and attendance is monitored very closely and procedures are in place to contact parents and carers if there are any concerns.

What our students say

“The close relationship you develop with teachers allows you not just to study a subject but to truly understand it through informed discussion and debate.”

“I loved being able to study subjects that I was truly passionate about and valued the support and encouragement of all my teachers who ensured I developed both academically and personally.”

“Despite the initial step up from GCSE to A Levels being, inevitably, challenging, Ashlyns Sixth Form has provided myself and my peers with the ideal hybrid of support and freedom to reach our potential both academically and individually.”

“Staff made applying for University easy. They helped me navigate a complicated process so that I finished on time with an outstanding application.”

Facilities

Our purpose-built Sixth Form Centre caters for a growing number of post-16 students: the upstairs silent student area and Sixth Form Cafe means that students can choose where they want to study during the day and after school, similar to a university style environment.  

Apart from the Sixth Form Centre, students also have the use of the school Learning Resource Centre, which stocks a wide range of subject journals aimed at A Level and undergraduate level, as well as a careers section. The school is also well served by WiFi and communications technology and we encourage all students to bring in a laptop or other device. Many subjects make full use of Google Classroom and Google Docs to share resources and undertake tasks. Our fantastic, whole school facilities, including our new state of the art sports hall, gym and astroturf football pitch are also used extensively by Sixth Form students.

Sixth Form Dress Code

All Sixth Form students are expected to set an example to the rest of the school through their high standard of business-like dress and the way they present themselves. We believe that this is appropriate to our work ethic in the Sixth Form. The intention of the Sixth Form dress code is to maintain the smart appearance of the lower school years, but this also allows a degree of flexibility, in acknowledgement of their role and progression towards higher education or the world of employment. A Sixth Form student should be able to leave the school site and immediately attend a formal interview without having to change their appearance.

The School Day

The day starts with a Form Time so that tutors can support students daily and distribute necessary information. There are five lessons each of one hour. Students will have some supervised study sessions in their timetable when they don’t have a taught lesson, for these sessions students choose where to study in the Sixth Form Centre. All students are expected to use their study periods effectively and complete at least seven hours of independent study per subject per week – so time management is extremely important. We recommend that students do not engage in more than 8 hours of paid employment per week.

In addition, there is one hour of PE scheduled per week for most students and one lesson of Enrichment, to support students with a wide range of input about careers, health and preparing for life after school.

Bring Your Own Device

Our intention is to get our Sixth Form students used to the normal ways of working in a university or employment environment before they leave school.  With this in mind we encourage Year 12 students to bring a chromebook or laptop to school. Teachers will share work through Google Classroom and, although their device may not be used for every part of a lesson, the ability to conduct research, access online resources and complete coursework and homework and pre-reading in some subjects will be crucial. 

By bringing a chromebook or laptop to school students will also have access to the following benefits to support their learning:

  • Access to the school WiFi network throughout the school with a high bandwidth connection to the Internet
  • A Google Gmail email address to keep in touch with teachers and fellow students
  • Unlimited storage on Google Drive
  • The ability to collaborate on documents with teachers and fellow students via the GSuite for Education tools
  • Access to learning materials and lesson resources via Google Classroom