Transfer to Grammar Schools in the Sixth Form

Last year, the two Thanet grammar schools admitted 124 students from non-selective (NS) schools into their Sixth Forms, whilst the two in Folkestone took in just five between them. 

An average intake of 16 NS students across the county for the Sixth Forms of the 31 grammar schools hides a massive variation  from 65 at Dane Court, to six grammars admitting fewer than four. King Ethelbert's NS school saw 48 students transfer to grammar school Sixth Forms, although four schools had none. I have always argued that the opportunity for a second chance to join a grammar school, in the Sixth Form, is a criterion for a successful Selective System. These figures show it is working in places but as always - could do much better!

With most of the Further Education Colleges abandoning A Level courses because of cost, opportunities to study A Level are shrinking in many places, although some NS schools offer their own successful A Level courses, as explained below.

KCC publishes a very useful information article on choices and you will find an information article here on decision making at 16 plus, after GCSE, which looks at a variety of options, emphasising the point that it should not simply be moving on in the same establishment, but this is an opportunity to look round at alternatives.

Then there is just the one non-selective school that has increased its roll over each of the past two years!

However, this article does focus on the transition from GCSE to school Sixth Forms, looking at change of school and focusing on individual schools across the county. It is partially a follow on from a previous article that was more general, but which provoked my enquiry……

Please note that many schools made offers of places on Sixth Form courses months ago and so late applications will be unsuccessful for these at this time, although high GCSE grades could tempt! For next year's students, plan early. 

For 2015 Sixth Form Admissions, 507 students made the decision to change to grammar school and were accepted, with 4880 remaining at NS schools for a variety of courses including A Level. Every one of Kent’s 31 grammar schools admitted some students from NS schools, with Dane Court, Chatham and Clarendon, Norton Knatchbull and Gravesend all taking in 30 or more to their sixth forms. At the other end, nine grammar schools admitted four or fewer sixth formers from NS schools, including five in west Kent, so opportunities are very different across the county.  

Against this, there are 18 non-selective schools who run Sixth Forms with over 50 students taking A Levels in Year 13, in 2015, all but one achieving respectable A Level Grades. Largest were: Bennett Memorial (152 students); Hillview Girls (133); Fulston Manor (108); Homewood (103); and St Simon Stock (92). Compare these with the smallest grammar school, Barton Court with 76 A Level students. A number of these schools are clearly taking in students from others where there may not be the same range of opportunities.  Currently financial pressures on Sixth Forms have seen many reduce the number of courses on offer, also the reason why three out of four Further Education Colleges have abandoned A Level.

More details below of transfer rates from individual non-selective schools by District, and the remarkable case of Canterbury Academy, with the largest Sixth Form in Kent. 

Way out ahead of non-selective schools seeing students transferring to grammar school is King Ethelbert’s, at 48, one of just four non-selective schools without its own sixth form, followed by Charles Dickens with 26, then Hillview Girls’, Towers, St Anselm’s Catholic, Hayesbrook and Thamesview all with 17 or more.

At the other end, only four non-selective schools had no students transferring to grammar school: Hugh Christie; Leigh UTC; Longfield; and Orchards Academy.

There are many factors influencing transfer rates: student aspiration, the attitudes of both grammar schools and non-selectives to change of school, required GCSE grades for admission, independence of career advice, opportunity, the financial pressures on school Sixth Forms (which not only sees some schools cutting courses, but others encouraging admissions to keep courses open), culture in the District and schools, and new government legislation requiring all young people to engage in education or training to the age of 18.   

Each grammar school will have its own view on encouraging such transfers or not, partially depending on its assessment of whether non-selective students can make a success of the A Level curriculum, or in some cases the chase for ever higher A Level Grades. Other grammars have only limited spaces for external students to join in any case.

Half of Kent’s grammar schools see the number of students in Year 12 larger than in Year 11, for each of the past three years; those with the highest increases including schools recruiting the highest and lowest numbers of students from non-selective schools. What is notable is that in each of those three years, the same four grammar schools top the list with, for September 2015: Dartford Grammar increasing its roll by 107 students (but only 2 from NS schools); Simon Langton Boys 92 (27 NS); Chatham and Clarendon 60 (59 NS); and Judd 39 (2 NS). For the past two years, the next three in order have been: Highworth 26 (14 NS) in 2015; Dane Court 25 (65 NS); and Gravesend 12 (30 NS).

What I have tried to do below is look at the situation on a District by District basis, aware that some students will be looking at grammar schools away from their home area.

Canterbury Academy achieved the most astonishing increase of any school in 2015, having the third highest increase of any school at 91, taking its Year 12 roll to 306, and sixth form total to 539, just edging Dartford Grammar as the largest Sixth Form in the whole of Kent, and the only Kent non-selective school to increase its numbers into the Sixth. There is of course a partial explanation in that it will have admitted a high proportion of students from the closed Chaucer Technology College, a factor that will not apply in future years, but it still saw seven of its own students transfer to grammar school.

St Anselm’s Catholic saw 17 students transfer to grammar school, unusually high for a Catholic school, and Archbishops had 13. Herne Bay High with its own strong two year Sixth Form saw just three NS students choose a grammar school place. There was just one from Spires Academy, so its now failed attempt to link up with Simon Langton Girls will not help this.  

With these figures, it is not surprising that the four urban schools between them see just 20 students transfer to grammar schools, even though Ebbsfleet Academy has no Sixth Form of its own, with Longfield Academy and Leigh UTC being two of the four Kent schools that saw no students moving to grammar schools at all.  

With two High Schools, Fulston Manor and Westlands having strong two year Sixth Forms of their own, the three Sittingbourne NS schools see just 22 students transfer, Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey, whilst losing 78% of its Year Eleven students, and with no FE College nearby, saw just three of its students going on to grammar school.