Sixth Form Courses in Kent and Medway Schools

Overall, there were 6301 students taking up places in Kent and Medway grammar schools this September, over a quarter from other schools including 971 from N/S and private schools.  My selection of the N/S schools with the largest 6th Forms has 4407 Year 12 students between them, again over a quarter from elsewhere, including 315 from grammar and private schools. Whereas grammar schools will in general offer A-Level courses (apart from four which run the International Baccalaureate (IB) instead), N/S schools may offer a mixture of A-Level, and vocational courses, the latter across one or two years. This study only looks at A-Level courses. Overall, 62% of Year 11 Kent students have transferred into the school Sixth Forms in both the previous two years, along with 57% of Medway students.   

In addition, there is a large Further Education (FE) sector mainly delivering vocational courses delivered through four colleges in Kent and Medway, although the Hadlow/West Kent group has had a major management failure and is now being broken up and redistributed across the other colleges. It is currently the only college that offers A-Level, but of course, this may now go.   

I have long maintained that one of the justifications for the selective system is that grammar schools offer opportunities for late developing students in N/S schools to be able to transfer across, realistically into the 6th form. There is an average of some 25 N/S joining each grammar school, surely a healthy 15%, although 7 schools admitted less than 10, headed up by Sir Roger Manwood's and Highsted with two and three respectively.. My survey placed N/S and private schools in one category but, in practice, no school identified five or more students from any one private school joining a grammar.

The table below identifies the eight grammar schools with the highest proportion of external students joining them. As noted above, each has their own story to tell, as described in the District summaries, one of the key elements being the GCSE requirements for entry. Of the fifteen grammar schools with the lowest staying on rates into the Sixth Form, no more than 71% of Year 11 choosing or being qualified to remain, thirteen are girls only, along with Barton Court, mixed throughout. All but five Kent and Medway grammars are single-sex up to GCSE, but most become mixed in the Sixth Form. The three schools at the head of the table are:

Simon Langton Boys Grammar which runs what is often called a mushroom 6th Form expanding to well over its Planned Admission Number (PAN), amongst its entry requirements being a GCSE points score of 42. Over half of the 86 students from other grammar schools come from the two in Canterbury, Simon Langton Girls and Barton Court. Then the school draws from reasonably neighbouring towns: Dover Girls 14, Folkestone Girls 10, Dover Boys 7, and Norton Knatchbull 7. There are six students from the private St Edmund’s School and ten each from N/S Archbishop’s and Canterbury Academy (but see Canterbury Academy below).

Dartford Grammar on the edge of the London boroughs is unique amongst the four local schools that run the International Baccalaureate for all 6^th Form students, in that it also attracts a mushroom 6th Form. It has a high bar for admission: Admission to the Sixth Form will be as a result of applicants (girls or boys) obtaining a minimum point score of 52 for their best 8 subjects (calculated using the DfE equivalence tables – see website). Students should have level 5 or above in English and Mathematics. They should have at least a 7 in their proposed International Baccalaureate Diploma Higher-Level subjects. If Mathematics is proposed at Higher Level, the GCSE Mathematics grade must be 8. The school has a 6th Form PAN of 300 but comfortably overshot this for 2020 entry, with 334 students in Year 12.  Like several other boys’ grammars, it recruits from the town’s girls equivalent school with 22 students from Dartford Girls. Other grammar school recruits include Rochester 15, Bexley 14, Wilmington Girls 13, Townley 11, Gravesend 7, and  Mayfield 6. From N/S schools there were 5 from Leigh Academy, 16 from Bexley Catholic schools and at least 10 from Greenwich schools.

Holcombe Grammarin Medway, third on the list, reveals a very different picture as it has in the past struggled to attract and hold higher performing pupils as explained here and elsewhere. This year, under a new headteacher who is clearly setting out to change the culture, Year 12 numbers have leapt from 87 in 2019, to 168. Two-thirds of the 78 students from other schools have arrived from grammars, possibly not having achieved higher entrance grades there, although the 12 from Rochester Grammar (RGS) are part of the fall out from that school, below.  Another eight are from Chatham Grammar and eight from Rainham Mark. It has only published its Sixth Form entry requirement required by law, since I challenged the school about its failure to do so last month, and has already passed through at least three variations since, including add-ons, in its panic. Its general requirement is for 'at least five grades at Level 9-5 including English and Mathematics; in addition to the subject specific requirements listed on the enclosed sheet within this pack'.

Other grammar schools are looked at in local areas below.

I made reference in my introduction to what I believe is the illegality of some grammar school admission policies as they operate a system of conditional offers based on projected GCSE grades, not allowed for in the School Admissions Code of Practice. You will find further details here, amongst other places on this site. 

Notes: The abbreviation G stands for Girls, L stands for Langton. 5 is used because schools, in general, do not disclose figures less than 5.

The next page looks at Movement between and from Non-Selective Schools in the Sixth Form

I have only approached the 35 Kent and Medway N/S schools which had a Year 12 of over 80 students last year, out of 78 in total, although eight have no sixth form at all.

Out of all local schools, Canterbury Academystands out as having one of the most remarkable and largest Sixth Forms of any school in the country, with over 600 students following a diverse range of courses, across four ‘pillars’: academic, sport, performing arts, and practical learning & enterprise. It takes in over 60 EU students each year, although the future for these will be uncertain with Brexit. This year it attracted 46 grammar school students from Canterbury, Ashford, Dover, Folkestone and Faversham, those previously attending other N/S schools travelling from an equally diverse range of locations.

Maplesden Noakes, is a solid, oversubscribed, Maidstone school, attracting students from across the town, which also has plenty of grammar school alternatives. Northfleet Girls attracts students from across the District, including 17 boys this year. Hillview Girls is one the highest performing N/S schools in the county and so unsurprisingly admitting a high number of 17 boys and girls from grammar schools, with another 13 from private schools. 

The next page looks at Movement across East Kent Schools in the Sixth Form

East Kent Schools

Two schools dominate movement between schools at Sixth Form Level, The Canterbury Academy and Simon Langton Boys Grammar, two schools which already co-operate at GCSE level, between them attracting over one in seven of all transfers between Kent schools at Sixth Form level. Both draw strongly from across the District, as well as other Canterbury schools, with Simon Langton taking on over 30 students from Dover and Folkestone grammar schools, and Canterbury Academy. However, Canterbury District also has two other N/S schools with strong Sixth Forms, Herne Bay and St Anselm’s, although both are mainly catering for internal students.

Thanet sees most A-Levels taught in the two grammar schools, although Ursuline College and Sandwich Technology School to the south both pick up students from Charles Dickens and King Ethelbert schools which have no Sixth Form.

Dane Court Grammar, one of four in the county offering the IB also loses students looking for a more traditional course, so Chatham and Clarendon Grammar picked up 30 from Dane Court this year, from amongst the 111 students it admitted from across the District, including 23 from St George’s. It admitted a group of 12 international students as part of a regular programme, in Year 12. Sir Roger Manwood’s also recruited six from Dane Court.

None of the Dover and Folkestone schools recruit strongly from local non-selective schools, possibly because of the high proportion of pupils recruited into Year Seven via the local Tests instead of the Kent Test. Astor is yet another school in the East of the county with a strong contingent of foreign students, mainly organised by an agency placing EU students in this country. Brockhill is the only local N/S with a strong Sixth Form. Completely incidentally, 36 years ago, I carried out a Research project on the Sixth Form at what is now the Marsh Academy in New Romney, including its destination pattern for Year 11 pupils after GCSE, for my M.A. course in Curriculum Studies in Education, having been granted a year's secondment by KCC (those were the days!).   

In Swale, by some way the largest Sixth Form is at N/S Fulston Manor, with 135 students following through to Year 13 attracting 68 from other schools into Year 12.  These include 19 from neighbouring Highsted Grammar and 14 across from Westlands which surprisingly only has a small Sixth Form. The only one of the three Swale grammar schools with significant external recruitment into Year 12 is Queen Elizabeth’s with 35 coming in from other schools, including eight from Highsted which had the second-lowest staying on rate of any grammar in the county.   

Not surprisingly eight of the nine Kent grammar schools with the lowest proportion of students in Year 12 as against Year 11, are from East Kent, Dover Boys Grammar suffering the most, with just 41% staying on, the Sixth Form being only 50% of the size of Year 11, swelled slightly by six girls from Dover Girls Grammar, although 11 went the other way.

One huge factor across East Kent which I have not taken into consideration is the very strong East Kent College, offering FE courses, but not A-Levels, across the county. It began life as Thanet FE College but in recent years has swallowed up the Colleges in Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone, Ashford and Sheppey, runs GCSE courses for Year 10 and 11 pupils in Broadstairs and Folkestone, and runs a Primary Academy Trust for schools along the North Kent Coast.

The next page looks at Movement across Mid Kent Schools in the Sixth Form

Mid Kent Schools

Whilst I am not sure why it happens, there is considerable movement between all four Maidstone Grammars into Year 12, with 111 students moving from one to another. The biggest trend is, as in many other towns, from girls' to boys' grammars, Maidstone Girls losing most with 34, having one of the lowest staying on rates in the county, but also attracting in 53 students from other schools including 27 from other grammar schools.

Maplesden Noakes has by some way the strongest 6th Form for a N/S school in the town, picking up 74 students from other schools, with 15 from St Augustine’s, one of two in Maidstone with no Sixth Form. The other is New Line Learning which sees students transferring to Cornwallis Academy, nearby and in the same academy trust.  Valley Park, by some way the largest school in the District only took 29 external students into its sixth form,  over half from Maidstone and Invicta grammar schools.  St Simon Stock Catholic has the third highest retention figure of any N/S school in the county with 61% of its Year 11 staying into the Sixth Form, but just a small recruitment from outside.

Although there is not a great movement in Ashford, Highworth, Homewood (N/S) in Tenterden and Norton Knatchbull admitted 103 external students between them, 30 of these being from each other. 

The next page looks at Movement across North West Kent Schools in the Sixth Form

North West Kent Schools

Dartford Grammar is another school with a mushroom Sixth Form the only one of the four grammars in Kent and Medway offering the IB that is a net importer of students, admitting 181 from other schools, including at least 66 from girls’ grammar schools. Its two biggest contributory schools are Dartford Girls Grammar, 22 and The Rochester Grammar 15, of which more below. As described above it sets a high academic bar, so few children from N/S schools are admitted, although there are ten from Greenwich comprehensives. The only N/S schools to provide five or more students are the local Leigh Academy (5) and two Bexley Catholic schools.

Dartford Girls fully replaces its losses the boys’ grammar school Sixth Form, attracting 73 external students from a variety of schools, but few from Rochester Grammar. None of the other four NW Kent grammar schools recruits highly from elsewhere, the biggest movement being the 14 from Mayfield to Gravesend Grammar.

However, four of the top ten N/S external recruiters come from NW Kent, headed by Northfleet Girls, attracting 17 boys to its Sixth Form of 123 students. Whilst St John’s Catholic does not feature in the table above this is because of its high retention figure of 60% of  Year 11 staying on, and it still recruited 52 students externally, over half from Thamesview which has no Sixth Form.

The next page looks at Movement across West Kent Schools in the Sixth Form

West Kent Schools

With half of the six grammar schools being super selective, the pattern of Sixth Form uptake is clearly going to be very different from elsewhere, but even these three schools each have very different patterns of recruitment. The pattern is made even more complex by the high rate of private education in the District with pupils transferring between the two sectors at 16+ (as indeed they do at age 11).

Skinners has by some way the highest staying on rate in the county at 99%, and only offers 15 places to external students, with a general requirement of 50 GCSE points, and high individual subject requirements. It is also one of the schools making provisional offers on projected grades.

Judd has a Sixth Form Planned Admission Number of 75 requiring 'at least an average of 6.5 GCSE points in the top ten subjects', together with Level 7 in each subject to be studied. This year amongst the 93 external students it recruited were 40 from other grammar schools, including 19 from Tonbridge, and 24 from private schools.

Tonbridge Grammar runs the IB for all its Sixth Form, with clearly limited popularity. As a result, it has the lowest staying on rate of all the West Kent grammar schools and, along with two other girls’ grammars, the second-lowest in the county at 64%. 

 Opportunities outside the grammar school sector are limited, apart from Hillview in Tonbridge which has, as well as a high staying on rate, the third largest  N/S recruitment in the county from other schools, with 30 of its intake of 70 students coming from grammar or private schools. They know what they are coming for with 80 students taking three A Levels in 2019, and an average Grade of C+, second only to Bennett Memorial across the county for N/S schools.

High performing Bennett Diocesan Memorial School has the biggest percentage of its own pupils staying on into the Sixth Form of any N/S school in the county at 72%, although it is highly selective through its religious criteria. The PAN for external students is set at admitting 10, with just eight joining this year. The requirement for entry is ‘To begin A level courses, you must have at least an average point score of 4.0, including at least 3 GCSEs at grade 5. For some courses a higher threshold is required’, so they continue to give opportunities to as many of their own students as possible. St Gregory’s Catholic has a similar pattern of Sixth Form intake with a high staying on rate of 56% admitting just 20 students from other schools.

A-Level opportunities elsewhere are limited.

The next page looks at Movement across Medway Schools in the Sixth Form

Medway Schools

Probably the most newsworthy of all Kent and Medway grammar schools this year is The Rochester Grammar which has seen a self-inflicted massive decline in its Sixth Form fortunes this September. This was caused by its switch from an offering of a mixed diet of A-Level and IB, to provide the latter for all students. The staying on rate of its own Year 11 girls fell sharply to 46%, lower than one in two, and greater only than Dover Grammar Boys with its very different type of catchment. I wrote an article on the first part of the debacle last year when the school changed its intake dramatically from being super selective to giving priority to local girls and those with Pupil Premium (although the latter fell in number!), in exchange for millions of pounds from government. Then, two months ago I followed through with another article exploring the dire consequences of the two experiments.

It is worth bearing in mind that the total Year 12 roll of the school in  October 2019 was 87% of the same cohort in Year 11, whereas in October 2020 it had fallen to 53% as 92 girls left the school, many to avoid the introduction of the IB which, according to reports from the families of several of these girls, had been appallingly handled by the school. Others may have missed the Sixth Form entry requirements of ‘5+ GCSEs at grades 6-9’, together with individual subject grades (unpublished, although required). These girls fled to a variety of other schools including 34 to neighbouring Sir Joseph Williamson’s (known locally as The Math), 22 to Holcombe, even 15 to Dartford Grammar although this also offered only the IB; 6 to Rainham Mark; and 5 to Fort Pitt. Normally only 12 external places are offered, with an overall maximum of 210 places, achieved in most years, although for 2020 it has fallen to half of this total. The school’s below average A-Level Progress Grade for 2019, based on the 104 students taking three A-Levels that year out of 144 in total, shows both the massive shift from just 40 students taking the IB that year, and how this highly selective school was not attending to the basics. There are massive questions to be asked of the leadership of this once fine school and of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust that runs both it and Holcombe Grammar School, below. The word I keep hearing to describe that leadership is 'arrogant'. 

Just over the road from RGS is The Math, the big winner in Medway. The staying on rate of 80% is the highest in the Authority, taking in 59 external students, most from Rochester. This takes the Year group to 207 students, well above the Sixth Form PAN of 190. At the age of eleven, the school simply prioritises local boys who have passed the Medway Test, and its Sixth Form entry requirements of ‘Five GCSE grades at 5 or higher, including a 5 for Mathematics and English, together with an average GCSE points score of 5.5, or better’, and Levels 6 or 7 in most subjects to be studied, are low compared to many other grammar schools, although A Level performance is strong. 

Holcombe Grammar above, as well as the general Sixth Form requirement of 'at least five grades at Level 9-5 including English and Mathematics’  grudgingly published only after my pressure, expects mainly grades 5 and 6 for specific subjects, including several vocational qualifications. So it may well be that it is offering places for students not qualified for acceptance elsewhere, which may contribute to the high drop out rate at the end of Year 12 in most past years. 

 Rainham Mark Grammar has one of the lowest Sixth Form entry requirement of any Kent or Medway grammar I have noticed, at with 'Admission to the sixth form will depend on: (i) Examination results at GCSE which confirm an adequate base level: At least 8 GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English Language and Mathematics and a grade 5 or above in either Mathematics or English (Language or Literature) and a total point score of 46, based on the applicant’s best 8 subject grades; (ii) Subject choice: most subjects have entry requirements; for most subjects students will be expected to have achieved at least grade 6 in those subjects at GCSE'. although the sting may come in the average point score of 46. 

Somehow Chatham Grammar continues to limp along, even its £2.3 million new Sixth Form block failing to attract pupils into Year 12, which started the year with just 70, down even on last year’s 84. This misses its trumpeted target of 200 by a considerable amount. Presumably, the school's joint Sixth Form with Brompton Academy will keep it afloat for a while. However, you will look in vain on the Brompton website for any information on courses offered or requirements for entry. Not even theAdmissions -UKAT Sixth Form website page give any clues and indeed describes (completely out of date) the situation in 2018-19, recording that ‘The admission number for Year 12 is 5’, although to be fair it does explain capacity is 200 students in Year 12. In the event, there were 113 students in Year 12 this year, including 32 from other schools, the largest group of any Medway N/S school, making it the dominant part of the amalgamation of the two Sixth Forms. As with the Thinking Schools Academy Trust and its two grammar schools, the leadership of Chatham Grammar and the University of Kent Academies Trust has much to answer for although, in their defence, Chatham has a tough job given the surplus of grammar school places for girls in Medway and the aggressive expansion of Rochester Grammar. 

By some way, the largest N/S school Sixth form in Medway is at Rainham Girls, with a Year 12 of 164 students, 30 from other schools, including 11 from Rainham Mark Grammar and nine from the Howard, the other two Rainham secondary schools. It also has the highest staying on rate into the Sixth Form of any N/S school in Kent or Medway. At A-Level in 2019, it performed better than Chatham Grammar on every single published measure, including the number of students taking three subjects at 56, so one can see the attraction. Otherwise, there was limited movement between Medway N/S schools the next highest staying on rate being at Greenacre, with 59% going into the 6th Form.