Bucks &amp; Oxon


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="666" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-King-Edward-St.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94622" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-King-Edward-St.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-King-Edward-St-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-King-Edward-St-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-King-Edward-St-720x480.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT? WHERE?</h2>



<p>Established in 1988, Oxford Sixth Form College sits in central city splendour, taking up a row of grand-façaded Victorian houses close to Oriel College and spitting distance from Oxford&#8217;s High St.</p>



<p>Previously known as Oxford Tutorial College, the academically non-selective Oxford Sixth Form College is busy shrugging off its &#8216;crammer&#8217; reputation of the past, offering&nbsp;a range A-level courses and B-TECS&nbsp;to overseas and UK students. Taking students from 15-19 years via September&nbsp;and January intakes, it also offers GSCE courses to returning expat kids, or those who need schooling in a hurry (though be warned expelled kids with bullying or drugs on your CV &#8211; they won&#8217;t&nbsp;accept you).</p>



<p>Of its 150 students, just shy of 30% are British, and though the two boarding houses are mostly populated with foreign students, I suspect the BSA and ISA membership will increase UK numbers.</p>



<p>New for March this year, Oxford Sixth Form College was acquired by Nord Anglia Education, opening up opportunities for the students through global education technology, as well as partnerships with the likes of MIT and Apple.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FACILITIES</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-94630 size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Science-Lab1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94630" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Science-Lab1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Science-Lab1-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Science-Lab1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Science-Lab1-720x480.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>Scinece lab</figcaption></figure>



<p>Oxford Sixth Form College isn&#8217;t pretending to be a traditional school &#8211; it kind of pitches itself as the halfway house between school and university &#8211; so expect no explosions of glorious facilities. The interior of the college is, I&#8217;d say, serviceable &#8211; a class room is pretty much a class room, and there&#8217;s a supervised library, decent sized art room (Art is a strong subject here), two science labs, plus a dedicate biology lab, ITC suite and common room. That&#8217;s kind of it!</p>



<p>Being so utterly central, there are no sports facilities on site, though a sports hall is booked each week for basketball and badminton, and soccer nuts have access to a floodlit pitch for five-a-side football. Swimming, squash and tennis are all available also, but the head believes that by 15 years old, kids can choose what they want (or don&#8217;t want) to take part in so exercise is not enforced here.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">ACADEMIC RESULTS</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="665" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Art0840a.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94621" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Art0840a.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Art0840a-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Art0840a-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Art0840a-720x479.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>The big calling card here is the class size – it averages just 10 students for GSCE and B-TEC classes, and no more than eight students in any A-level course, so what it lacks in facilities it certainly makes up for in attention. There&#8217;s also a degree of flexibility here that&#8217;s not available at mainstream schools, with variable course lengths and start dates, plus over 30 subjects on offer across A-Level, GCSE and BTEC.</p>



<p>Results in 2021 for A level were a whopping 55% A-A* with Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology being the best performing subjects. BTEC results are excellent for 2021 – 82% Distinction/Distinction (equivalent to A/A* at A-Level). University destinations included Cambridge, UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester, Warwick, Bristol, Glasgow and other top UK universities.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BOARDING</h2>



<p>The boarding provision is&nbsp;be upped substantially, with&nbsp;accommodation for 15-18 year olds across two locations, staffed by house &#8216;parents&#8217; seven days a week with breakfast and dinner thrown in, and there&#8217;s also host family accommodation available. For those 18+ who can&#8217;t think of anything worse than a house or host parent, there&#8217;s also fully fledged DIY indie accommodation on offer.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">THE HEAD</h2>


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<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-Mark-Love.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94623"/></figure></div>


<p>Mark Love has been busy since he took over the helm at Oxford Sixth Form College. Energetic and open, he&#8217;s spent his time taming the chaos, taking on new staff,&nbsp;upping the number of kids who are full time (now 100%) to give the school&nbsp;what he calls its&nbsp;&#8216;heart&#8217; and also introduce stronger pastoral care with a dedicated pastoral senior tutor role. Love has a slightly maverick air &#8211; you kind of feel that the school&nbsp;has craved his brand of energy that&#8217;s now seeing through some developments such as&nbsp;money for new science labs next summer and enhanced boarding.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">QUIRKS</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s strictly first name terms for teachers here, plus there&#8217;s no school uniform, even for those doing GSCEs – not unheard of in Oxfordshire but still quite unusual. The lack of extra-curricular emphasis is rare, though perhaps not surprising in a college that has to adapt to children joining at different times of year and at no fixed length. The emphasis on B-TEC here is not so much quirky as smart, offering less traditionally academic kids the chance to stay on and gain a qualification that&#8217;s the equivalent of three A-Levels.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FEES</h2>



<p>I&#8217;d say on the expensive side given the lack of facilities, <em>except</em> for the fact that really you&#8217;re paying for the super-flexibility and the central Oxford location.&nbsp; A two year course taking three A level subjects or the five term B-TEC course is £8,525 per term; the single GSCE year is £8,495 per term.&nbsp;Retakes are&nbsp;is&nbsp;£3,050&nbsp;per subject per term. For the full flexible price list&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oxfordsixthformcollege.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-2020-Fees-updated-July-2019.pdf">read here</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WORD ON THE GROUND</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-94625 size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-plasticgoldfish.co_.uk_116A4931_2_3.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94625" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-plasticgoldfish.co_.uk_116A4931_2_3.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-plasticgoldfish.co_.uk_116A4931_2_3-150x100.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-plasticgoldfish.co_.uk_116A4931_2_3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/Oxford-Sixth-Form-College-plasticgoldfish.co_.uk_116A4931_2_3-720x480.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>The reception area</figcaption></figure>



<p>In the past Oxford Tutorial College had a reputation for being a bit chaotic, but the rebrand as Oxford Sixth Form College, a new head and more focused approach&nbsp;appears to be working.&nbsp;Its respectful first name interactions with the children&nbsp;goes down well, and the results are good when you consider the vast breadth of ability at this academically non-selective school. A few grumbles about lack of facilities, and it&#8217;s agreed&nbsp;by&nbsp;everyone I spoke to&nbsp;that the buildings inside could do with a&nbsp;more personality and&nbsp;TLC.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">THE MUDDY VERDICT</h2>



<p><strong>Good for:&nbsp;</strong>Those needing flexibility with schooling &#8211; kids can come here for retakes, single year GSCEs, A levels and B-TEC. It&#8217;s a viable option for children who struggle in traditional schools or who want more of a halfway house between school and university.</p>



<p><strong>Not for:&nbsp;</strong>Anyone in love with the halcyon idea of bucolic private schools. Behind the grand facades, this is a working college, with none of the bells and whistles you might expect as a fee-paying parent.</p>



<p><strong>Dare to disagree?&nbsp;</strong>The school is planning to offer regular group tours and mini open house events, starting from November.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.oxfordsixthformcollege.com/"><em>Oxford Sixth Form College</em></a><em>,&nbsp;12 King Edward Street,&nbsp;Oxford,&nbsp;OX1 4HT. Tel: 01865 793333.</em></p>


Oxford Sixth Form College, Oxford

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