Sixth form options: post-compulsory education in maintained schools

The pathways available to young people in the United Kingdom (UK) on the completion of their compulsory education are changing and this research contributes to information about one type of institution offering continuing education - schools with sixth forms. New sixth forms began to emerge in the early 1990s and followed guidelines that increased educational choices for post-16 students, broadened the curriculum and improved the quality of provision. This resulted in a reversal of the previous trend towards fewer post-16 providers and a policy approach aimed at ensuring schools were able to offer a wide selection of courses. This document presents a comprehensive study of the post-compulsory curriculum in United Kingdom (UK) schools with sixth forms. The study examines the factors influencing sixth form provision, curricular organisation, students who decide to remain at school, and the current role of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in post-16 education. The report begins with basic data and statistics about maintained school sixth forms and the students who participate in them. The following five chapters investigate significant issues for post-16 education such as the rationale for new sixth forms and their impact on existing provision, the post-16 training marketplace and the implications of competition between institutions, forms of collaboration between sixth forms, and between colleges and schools, the curriculum and the introduction of General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs). The report draws on feedback from group discussions with sixth form students in several schools to examine the choices involved in post-16 education from their point of view. The changing role of the LEA in post-16 education is discussed and the final chapter describes some of the difficulties currently faced by sixth forms. The report includes several detailed case studies of sixth forms, each of which illustrates a single aspect of sixth form education in the 1990s. Show less