Sir - I was interested to read your recent report that Councillor Alan Amos had called during a County Council meeting for more schools to have their own sixth forms.

I was even more interested to see the reader comments about this on your website. These rightly recognised that “lots of small sixth forms will be expensive to run and will only be able to offer a limited number of standard subjects” and that school sixth forms are often likely to drop subjects they have advertised owing to insufficient students. They also noted that “the move [to a separate sixth form] can help with their progression from child to adult as the environment and the way they are treated by staff also changes. It can also help them develop a greater independence and self respect that's needed if they are to make the most of University, or for that matter a decent apprenticeship.”

At Worcester Sixth Form College, the large number of students that we have enable us to offer and run over 40 A Level subjects, including subjects often not on offer in school sixth forms. Examples include: Dance, Food Technology, Further Maths, Geology, German, Music, Spanish. We are also able to offer a very flexible timetable, meaning that any subject can be combined with virtually any other.

Our students also benefit from excellent specialist facilities for their courses, including our new Science Centre.

We are, of course, very aware how important the transition to College is and we have many specialist systems and staff in place to ensure that this transition is as smooth as possible for our students. As a result of this our students’ success rates on courses, allowing for whether they are retained in College as well as whether they pass the exam, is significantly higher than the average figure for school sixth forms nationally or in Worcestershire.

Michael Kitcatt

Principal

Worcester Sixth Form College