Use of additional 40 hours at 16-19

Qualification time:

All courses where there are more than 10 students in the group have 9 hours teaching across a two week period. This results in an increase in both contact time and mentoring for students. 

Year 12 students enjoy a range of enrichment activities. Many students complete 2 hours of these activities a week with many of the enrichment activities culminating in a Level 2 qualification. The choices available to our students range from:

• Debating
• Sports Award 
• Arts Award 
• Food Skills
• Young Enterprise
• CISI Finance
• Biology outside the classroom
• Music Jam 

Students are offered the opportunity to take up the Extended Project Qualification which allows them to develop their own research project resulting in a Level 3 qualification at the end of the course. 

Sixth Form students also undertake an additional 4 hours supported study in the Sixth Form each week. The students are encouraged to complete any “Study Time” tasks set by their teacher or the Sixth Form team during this time. 

Sixth Form students spend time working on their leadership roles where all year 12 students become a prefect for the wider school community. Sixth Form students play an integral role in the House system for all students across the school supporting charity fairs, sports day, assemblies and the creation of form time activities. 

Sixth Form students are offered subject support in all of their subjects which run either at lunchtime or after school where the content is varied depending on the student's need. These sessions are utilised to build study skills, exam technique and academic resilience through small group guided activities and reflection opportunities. 

All Sixth Form students take part in the Next Steps event that spans over three days, this is a bespoke opportunity where students visit the UCAS fair at a local University as well as attending workshops, seminars and lectures in school for study skills, next steps, apprenticeships and career guidance. 

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Mental Health and Wellbeing:

Sixth Form students attend 1 hour a week of Step-Up each week. The Step Up programme at Sixth Form is an hour timetabled lesson each week for year 12 and 13, where students embed & develop their PSHE learning into Key Stage 5 ready for the wider world. The curriculum revolves around Wellbeing & Personal Awareness, Study Skills, VESPA and Next Steps. The curriculum for Step-Up allows students a safe space to discuss key RSE topics with experienced teachers to support them, alongside this students attend the Speak your Mind debate at St Albans Cathedral focusing on religious and political debate. 

Sixth Form students will attend the two STAGS personal development days that are focused on mental health and wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusivity. These days are bespoke to the needs of our students allowing time to focus on positive wellbeing activities, support for mental health, developing resilience as well as fun activities to focus the mind!

Sixth Form students attend a 20 minute form time each day, and this follows the schedule below:

Additional time is used for students to access crucial one to one pastoral and educational support through the pastoral structure. The time enables the – already regular – one to one meetings to cover more topics and be more in depth in their approach.

For some students time will also be used for students to gain support from a trained mental health specialist where appropriate.

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Prioritise Maths:

We continue to prioritise maths and extra contact time is given where students have not achieved a grade 4 at GCSE.

Core Maths is offered as a level 3 qualification for Sixth Form students, where they study 2 hours per week throughout their time in Sixth Form focusing on numeracy skills.