This week, a few select sixth-form students, including myself, were given the opportunity to share our thoughts with a member of the Peel Trust about the quality of our sixth form. The group involved 7 sixth form students, a mix of year 12 and 13, we met with a passionate member of Pele Trust who had prepared a couple of questions to ask us including: is the sixth form space adequate?Are there easily accessible revision resources? and is pastoral support available and better in sixth form than year 11?
Many of us agreed that we felt as though sixth form was a huge jump from GCSEs, with large amounts of individual work and content to learn with little assistance outside of the classroom. This tied in with the feeling of confusion during frees particularly at the start of the year, however after a few months of settling in year 12s agreed they’d adapted to doing more solo learning and revision during study periods.
There were also many positive discussions regarding the sixth form staff and how we feel treated as older students. Everyone agreed that the staff are incredibly supportive in and outside of lessons whether a student is struggling with academic work or personal issues, the staff are always here to help. They are also incredible at finding work experience and skill development trips such as nursing, pharmaceutical, finance and lawyer trips where students are able to get a taste for their desired careers, as well as assistance for those unsure of what the next step is. The year 13s spoke about the excellent support they’d received for university applications with one to one 30 minute sessions about ucas points, course details, personal statements and financial implications as well as detailed tutorial sessions using unifrog to access more information about individual courses at different universities.
All agreed that this was an excellent feedback opportunity with a lovely member of Pele Trust, who gave everyone a chance to speak and share opinions in a relaxed environment.
By Leila A