Students do not have timetabled lessons on a Wednesday afternoon in order to provide them with the opportunity to extend their Sixth Form programme by taking a course additional to their academic studies. This year the courses on offer are Art for Fun, Sport Practices, Working with Primary schools, Model United Nations, Support at Frank Wise School, Young Enterprise, Cooking at University, Duke of Edinburgh Award. Some of the courses lead to an additional qualification or to nationally recognised competitions and all extend the students in some way, providing evidence for future employers or universities that the students have a range of skills and abilities.
The A* qualification is being awarded to students sitting their final A2 exams from September 2009 onwards
To get an A*, you must meet the following two requirements:
• 80% UMS overall (i.e. the current requirements for an A).
• 90% UMS overall in the A2 units.
Cambridge, UCL and Imperial have already announced that they will use the A* in their standard offers for places at their universities from 2010.
This year our students are taking part in a Camps International expedition. Nine students, from years 11 and 13, are raising money to take part in this four week experience to do voluntary work in Kenya.
The expedition includes rebuilding condemned classrooms, erecting perimeter fencing around the school, fixing windows, improving routes to the school
and local surroundings by building roads. They will also be conserving local wildlife by planting trees, excavating waterholes, monitoring the use of waterholes and numbers of animals within the sanctuary and helping to identify elephants and track their movements.
This will all be of great value to the local community in Tsavo and the Tsavo East National Park. It will also be a great opportunity for our students to feel that they are giving others opportunities for a better life and to have a once in a lifetime experience.
All students participate in a minimum of one week’s work placement in their Year 12 programme of study. This differs in many ways from Year 11 work experience in that students are responsible through our structured tutorial programme, to organise and set themselves key objectives for what they
want to achieve during their experience of the world of work. There is an opportunity, post placement, for all students to evaluate their performance with feedback from their employer.
This activity provides an important amount of information for UCAS and other references.
Students who enter the Sixth Form with very high GCSE grades (typically 6 A-A* or higher) are invited to be part of the ‘Aiming for the Top’ group. As Year 12 progresses, it is possible that other students may join the group as some students thrive at A level and work hard to achieve top grades at this standard.
You may know that you wish to study at Oxford, Cambridge or another top university already – or you may already have a burning desire to be a doctor or lawyer. If so, we can help you realise that goal.
What is important to us is that you know what you have to do to make yourself eligible for a top place at a top university, should you wish to apply. We shall help you through the process of choosing and applying for appropriate courses.
For the past two years some of our students have opted to take an Open University degree-level module as a summer project, with great success. The modules available are a wonderful complement to A Level study and cover a wide range of fascinating topics from Leonardo Da Vinci to Molecular Biology.
Many of our Year 12 students opt to take this exciting additional qualification. It is worth the equivalent of an AS in terms of UCAS points and is an excellent way for students to show universities their passion for a subject and their ability to work independently. Students are required to produce a substantial piece of work
in an area of interest to them, which goes beyond their usual academic studies. This can be an academic research-based project or a more practical expression of knowledge, such as making a film, creating a drama production or designing a fashion garment.
