Sleaford Joint Sixth Form

Sleaford Joint Sixth Form
Location
Map
Sleaford
,
Lincolnshire

England
Information
TypeSixth Form
MottoChoice – Opportunity – Success
Established1983
Local authorityLincolnshire
Department for Education URN132951 Tables
GenderMixed
Age16 to 18
Enrolmentc. 800[n 1]
Websitehttps://sleafordjsf.org/

Sleaford Joint Sixth Form (SJSF) is a partnership in Sleaford, England, between Carre's Grammar School, Kesteven and Sleaford High School and St George's Academy. It enables sixth-formers based at them to study individual courses offered at any of the schools. This makes provision more economical and gives students a choice of approximately 60 A-Level or Level 3 vocational courses.

After the Second World War, Sleaford had three secondary schools, each with sixth forms: the boys-only selective Carre's Grammar School, the girls-only selective Kesteven and Sleaford High School and the mixed secondary modern, Sleaford Secondary Modern School (the predecessor of St George's Academy). In the 1970s, the government encouraged and later mandated the local authority to replace this arrangement with a comprehensive system. Having three schools was deemed uneconomical so the government wanted the town to have two comprehensive schools with sixth forms or two comprehensives and a sixth form college, but local councillors and many parents preferred to retain three schools with their own sixth forms. This caused a protracted controversy which only ended when Margaret Thatcher's government reversed the previous policy on comprehensive schools in 1979, allowing the town to retain its selective system and the three schools.

This arrangement left the town's schools with small, uneconomical sixth forms which limited options for students. From 1979, Carre's and the High School began informally coordinating their timetable and from 1980 the local authority proposed formalising a collaboration involving all three schools. Each schools' governing body approved the plans, which were then signed off by Lincolnshire County Council in early 1983. This was rolled out in September 1983, with the sixth forms having a common timetable and sharing teaching. Initially having 200 students on roll, it expanded to almost 800 pupils by the late 2000s and went from having 19 course options in 1988 to over 40 by 2007. In 2010, the High School departed from the arrangement, but returned in 2016 after the school joined the multi-academy trust that manages Carre's.

Admission to SJSF does not require any aptitude testing, but there are minimum GCSE requirements. Pupils remain legally registered at one school, but can study courses at any of the three schools and can access all their premises. At their latest inspections, Ofsted ranked each of the sixth forms in the consortia as "good".[n 2] As of 2023, the average A-Level result for Sleaford Joint Sixth Form students was a B- grade, which is the average grade nationally.[7] In 2023, 18.9% of pupils achieved at least 3 A-Levels at grades AAB or higher including at least two "facilitating subjects".[7] Of pupils completing Key Stage 5 in 2021, 94% stayed in education or were in employment for at least two terms thereafter; this was above the national figure (87%).[8] 75% went on to study at higher education institutions; 26% were at Russell Group universities and 1% at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge.[9]

  1. ^ Ofsted 2023, p. 5
  2. ^ Ofsted 2013, p. 9
  3. ^ Ofsted 2015, p. 10
  4. ^ Ofsted 2023, p. 1
  5. ^ Ofsted 2013, p. 1
  6. ^ Ofsted 2015, p. 1
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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