The curriculum on offer is an academic one and comprises courses at AS and A2 in more than 20 subjects. Most students study 4 subjects in Year 12 and all are examined at AS level after one year. In Year 13 the majority (usually 75 - 80%) of students continue with 3 of their subjects to A2, whilst the rest maintain 4. There is the opportunity to take YASS - degree level courses offered by the Open University.

The school will provide all the text books you require for the Sixth Form curriculum. However:

• In some subjects students may find it advantageous to have their own personal copies of books, (e.g. modern languages dictionaries, texts in literature that can be annotated and kept, etc). They are not required to purchase any books to complete a course. In some subjects, students are encouraged to subscribe to journals and magazines (e.g. ‘Politics Review’). Copies of such publications are always available in the school library.
• In subjects which use consumable materials (e.g. DVD, sketch books, photographic film), students may be asked to pay a small charge. They may wish to use different materials for set projects from those provided and so may do so but have to buy them themselves.
• For some subjects field work is a requirement, for others, trips and visits are highly desirable. For obligatory field trips students are asked to pay for food and accommodation. For other trips the whole cost will be requested. However, no student should feel inhibited from requesting financial assistance for any of these visits. Each request will be treated individually. Details of the request procedures are available from the Deputy Head - Sixth Form (Mr Wakefield).

 

Timetable

Subjects are arranged in five timetabling blocks. Currently there are 76 teaching periods each of 40 minutes in the two-week timetable cycle. Each AS or A2 subject has an allocation of 14 periods, so if you study 4 subjects in Year 12 there are 20 periods available for personal study, enrichment or social activities.