Thank you for your interest in The Blue Coat School. We are incredibly proud of our sixth form and our sixth formers. Proud of:
- nearly 400 students who achieve outstandingly well each year and go on to great university courses or employment
- the balanced and well-rounded curriculum that meets our students’ needs
- our students as they develop a wide range of knowledge, skills, attributes and attitudes that ready them for the future learning and life.
We are excited about the current national changes to A Levels and GCSEs. So in readiness for September 2017, we have redeveloped, refined and improved our sixth form provision to ensure we give our students an even better balance of the experiences they need to succeed and prepare them for their next steps.
We are proud to introduce The Blue Coat Baccalaureate, a carefully tailored programme of study which will support our students’:
- Academic achievement
- Personal development
- Wider enrichment
and where each of these elements can be adapted to suit individual students’ needs. You can find out more about the contribution each of these will have on life at Blue Coat by exploring the sections below.
For your assistance, you can also use these links to view some helpful graphics that summarise our new sixth form curriculum:
If you are looking for more information about sixth form admissions please use this link.
Thanks again for taking the time to explore our sixth form curriculum. We hope this section has given you the information you were looking for about sixth form life at The Blue Coat School. For further information you can contact us via:
Mrs J Rawlins, Key Stage Leader, Behaviour and Welfare – j.rawlins@bluecoatschool.org.uk
Mrs K Bennett, Key Stage Leader, Progress and Achievement – k.bennett@bluecoatschool.org.uk
We offer stretch, challenge, breadth and depth through an academic curriculum where students can choose from 18 A Levels subjects:
| Art | Biology | Chemistry | Computer Science | Economics | English Literature |
| English Literature & Language | French | Geography | Government and Politics | History | Latin |
| Mathematics | Further Mathematics | Music | Physics | Psychology | Spanish |
We offer our students different levels of challenge through the opportunity to study 3 or 4 A Levels:
| For 3 A levels, you must have: | For 4 A Levels, you must have: |
|---|---|
| Attained GCSE Maths Grade 6 | Attained GCSE Maths Grade 6 |
| Attained GCSE English Grade 6 | Attained GCSE English Grade 6 |
| Attained 52 points in your best 8 GCSE's | Attained 62 points in your best 8 GCSE's |
We avoid the unnecessary distraction of AS Level assessment at the end of Year 12 and make the best use of teaching and learning time by preparing our students for the rigour of A Level assessment right from the start of Year 12:
| Year | Total weeks of study |
|---|---|
| 12 | 38 |
| 13 | 31 |
Our teachers’ ongoing assessment and feedback to students inform 5 formal reports to parents which we use as important reflection and improvement opportunities:
| Year 12 Autumn | Year 12 Spring | Year 12 Summer | Year 13 Autumn | Year 13 Spring |
If you would like to read more about subject course content, this link will take you to our curriculum pages.
At Blue Coat, we understand that personal development must be adaptable to suit the needs of individual students as they arise. We are also committed to preparing our students for the opportunities, experiences and responsibilities of life in the modern world.
Our students have daily opportunities for support built into their timetables:
| Form time: Every day | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Organisation | Reflection | Discussion | Information |
| Advice | Guidance | Mentoring | Support |
You can read more about our sixth form pastoral care here.
We provide all of our students with an integrated schedule of age-appropriate personal, social, health and economic education which will tackle the most relevant issues and themes for 16-18 year olds:
| Personal development lesson: Every fortnight | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Who am I? | Team work | Interview skills | Community |
| Diversity | Finance | Sex and relationships | My future |
To find out more detail about the content of our sixth form personal development programme visit our curriculum page using this link.
Life at Blue Coat is much more than academic achievement. Our new curriculum will give all students a much broader programme of enrichment opportunities.
At The Blue Coat School we encourage creativity and curiosity and place great value on developing our students’ abilities to be self-directed and self-motivated. As a Blue Coat student you will automatically be prepared for the Extended Project Qualification, an additional enrichment qualification which many universities recognise through reduced conditional offers:
| Extended project lesson: Every fortnight | ||
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Research | Record |
| Produce | Present | Evaluate |
As part of The Blue Coat Baccalaureate you will enjoy built in and planned careers, information, advice and guidance opportunities which will progressively prepare you for your next steps in education, employment or training:
| CIAG lesson: Every fortnight | ||
|---|---|---|
| Knowing your options | Finding out more | Getting prepared |
| Applying | Finance and funding | Support |
Beyond the curriculum, life at Blue Coat provides many and varied opportunities to get involved, enjoy new experiences and develop new skills. Here are just a small number of opportunities that sixth form students at Blue Coat appreciate:
| Wider development: Beyond the curriculum | ||
|---|---|---|
| Senior prefects roles | Subject prefects roles | Leadership of clubs and societies |
| School council roles | Involvement in local, regional and national Competitions | Experience local, national and international trips and visits |
| Representing the school through music | Representing the school through sport | Duke of Edinburgh |
