Courses
Advanced Level Courses
We offer a wide variety of A Level courses, Applied courses and BTecs. We have chosen these carefully because they are all equal to each other and they give you the option of being assessed in different ways in your overall programme of study. The traditional A-levels are assessed by examination only, but the Applied A-levels have coursework as well and the BTecs only have coursework. This is important because you can choose a mix of courses that will allow you to do your best overall and will enable you to progress to university or employment.
You will be familiar with many of the subjects in our prospectus, such as English, Mathematics, History, French, Spanish and Art. Others like Psychology, Sociology and Law are not normally available as GCSEs in high schools and so, although you may have heard of them, you may not be clear about what topics they cover.
The last section of the prospectus will give you a good idea of what you will study over the two years for each subject that you choose. It is important to realise that there are only a few subjects that you are required to have studied at GCSE level if you want to study them at A level. You can find out which these are by reading the subject information and by talking to your subject teachers and careers advisers.
You will study each A level subject for approximately 4.5 hours per week. In addition, you will be expected to do private study of about 3 hours per week per subject, although most of this is structured for you through ‘homework’ tasks set by your teachers.
GCSE and Literacy and Numeracy Courses
We offer one year GCSE courses in English and Mathematics. These are for students who narrowly missed getting a grade C and will enable them to improve their grade. Progression to further education and most employment requires literacy and numeracy skills at this level. If you have less than a D grade at GCSE you will do a course in literacy or numeracy to help you progress onto the GCSE in English or Maths. Each course is 3 hours per week plus homework.
Your Individual Programme
The course that you choose has to match your ability and your aspirations. Once you have decided what you want to do, we will match what we offer to your needs and suggest a course that will enable you to succeed.
You will normally take four subjects at AS level in Year 12. This enables you to keep your options open when you would like to try something different or when you are not decided yet about your career. For Year 13 most students will choose three of these subjects to continue at A2 level. If you need to resit GCSEs or take a literacy or numeracy course this can replace some advanced courses. In addition, there will be an opportunity to undertake additional programmes of study, for example AS General Studies and AS Extended Project.
What else will you study?
In addition, all students will have the benefit of enrichment activities and the Weekly Tutorials.
Useful links
A-Levels
Advice
Students' Voices
General Studies & Critical Thinking
