Improving Your Sixth Form: 9 Top Tips for Establishing Your Priorities

Foreword from John Philip, Alps Senior Education Consultant

I originally wrote the first edition of 99 Ways to Improve Your Sixth Form in the early 2000s while still teaching at Little Heath School. That decade brought two Ofsted Outstanding judgments, a second SSAT specialism, and a journey that connected me with Alps and PiXL, both of which played significant roles in the development of our sixth form. 

The success of that sixth form and the insights gained from working with schools across the UK and beyond led to what’s now a well-travelled piece of work – continually updated to remain relevant. What strikes me most after 20 years of policy shifts and social change is how enduring the fundamentals of a great sixth form really are.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL VERSION OF “99 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SIXTH FORM – ENGLAND” HERE

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Driving Excellence Post-16: Turning Data Into Student Success

Exceptional sixth form performance doesn’t happen by chance – it’s the result of focused leadership, meaningful data and an unrelenting commitment to improving outcomes for every student.

As the new academic year begins, now is the perfect time to reflect on the summer’s outcomes and use those insights to shape your Post-16 strategy for the months ahead. Start by asking yourself these critical questions:

Key Questions: The Exam Results & Value-Added

• What priorities have emerged in terms of subjects and student groups from your analysis of this summer’s results?
• Were there any results/VA that came as a shock?
• How accurate were predicted grades during the year and is any training required?
• Reflecting back, what might you need to do differently in the year ahead?

Key Questions: End of Y12 Grades and Value-Added

• What priorities have emerged in terms of subjects and student groups from your analysis of end of Y12 grades and VA?
• Which subjects may need the most support moving forwards based on that analysis and your Y13 exam results?
• Do any student groups stand out as needing additional support?
• What is your Post-16 Improvement Plan and when is your first review date?
• May it need tweaking based on this analysis?

These reflections provide the foundation for your improvement journey. Once you’ve identified priorities, use the following strategies to drive progress, strengthen accountability and ensure your students – and staff – thrive in the year ahead.

9 Top Tips for Improving Your Sixth Form: Establishing Your Priorities

Tip 1: Define Your ‘Wildly Important Goals’

Ensure there is a strong focus on improving outcomes for students and student groups. Decide each year what is your ‘Wildly Important Goal’, the achievement of which will leave all at the school or college ‘rocking in the aisles’ next August.

Tip 2: Set Clear, Measurable Targets for Improving Your Sixth Form

Then after defining your ‘wildly important goal’, the next step is to ensure clear targets are set at school and departmental level, for example:

1. Average Grades
2. Progress Scores / Bandings
3. %A*-B at A Level or %D*-D at Applied General / Tech Level (and once measured, T Levels)
4. Alps’ targets, such as to ‘get out of the blue’ or ‘to be red-hot’ or to at least match grade 5 (nationally average) performance

Tip 3: Use Mid-Year Data to Drive Action

Ensure systems are in place to provide useful mid-year performance data.

Then track student progress relentlessly making subject leaders responsible for tackling any key areas of weakness or underachievement.

What would be the Post-16 value-added based on teacher monitoring / tracking grades?

Remember that your subjects with larger cohorts have by the far biggest impact on your Average Grades, your value-added (Performance Tables & Alps) and – importantly – the outcomes and post-18 pathways of more of your students. Focus on them first just as at KS4 you might first focus on maths & English. 

Tip 4: Identify and Act on Underperformance

Senior Leaders need to know if any subject or student group or teacher is underperforming over time, and to implement an action plan aimed at improving provision:

• Which subjects or student groups are ‘in the blue’ and require support / intervention?
• Which subjects are predicting far higher value-added than based on either their Mock results and / or last summer’s results? Can they evidence that improvement or are they possibly telling you what they think you want to hear?
• Use the Monitoring Accuracy tool in Alps Connect to check for this.
• No teacher should give up on a student but identifying which students in their subject / set are most likely to gain a higher grade with the right support can be key.
• Use the ‘What-if’ tool in Connect to visualise the impact of those students improving their grade.
• Which students seem vulnerable to failing one or more courses and what support might be put in place to secure passes? 

There needs to be a clear focus on the Post-16 progress and attainment of student groups such as gender, disadvantaged and SEND. Use the comparison tools in Connect to ensure you are on top of this at school / college, subject and student levels. 

Tip 5: Strengthen Line Management

Line-management of subjects must be rigorous and effective.

• Some schools place responsibility for line-managing Post-16 course leaders on the Head of Sixth.
• Other schools allocate subjects from 11-18 to members of the SLT. Where this is the case, who reviews subjects that only exist Post-16? 

Whichever system is used, consistency of approach is crucial.

Ensure that each line-manager reviews the performance of each course and agrees targets with course leaders that are subsequently reviewed regularly throughout the year.

These targets should include value-added progress as well as attainment. In an 11-18 school, ensure sixth form lessons are proportionately observed for learning walks and performance management. 

Tip 6: Review Sixth Form Leadership Structures

Review your sixth form management structure to ensure all roles and responsibilities are clear, and that fair but robust accountability systems are in place and understood by all.

Appoint a Sixth Form Manager (member of the support staff) based permanently in the Sixth Form – (s)he can be the first point of contact for staff and students during the day to ensure there is always someone available to mop up minor problems and inform relevant parties about more major ones. (S)he can supervise the silent study area as well as helping your most needy students with their social and emotional issues.

Tip 7: Listen to the Student Voice

Hold regular round-table meetings with representative groups of your students.

Ask them to tell you where teaching and their learning / progress is currently outstanding.

Encourage a frank and open discussion of teaching and learning issues so you know, from the students’ point of view, where good and outstanding practice is happening and where intervention may be required.

Try to ensure each student has a chance to participate in such a forum over the course of the year.

Tip 8: Build Student Leadership and Resilience

Find ways to develop all students’ leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative, and communication.

VESPA have great ideas and materials to help transform student motivation and mindset. Support students in developing a leadership role in school: give their elected Committee a say in the running of the Sixth Form and ensure they are consulted about major decisions.

In 11-18 schools the sixth form committee should play a lead in whole-school student voice activities.

Ensure your students have other opportunities to demonstrate leadership, for example Duke of Edinburgh to Sports Leadership to community service including supporting the learning of younger students, assisting with lunch-time supervision, working with local primary or special schools or with other appropriate community groups. 

Tip 9: Create Opportunities for Broader Development

Each Autumn, when students are considering careers, apprenticeships, UCAS applications and gap years, consider advertising the post of Student Voice leader, a one-year paid post to support the further development of student voice in the school or college. This had a beneficial impact on the development of student voice under Jon Linz when I was at Little Heath. 

Closing Thoughts on Improving Your Sixth Form – from Alps Education 

Driving excellence at Post-16 requires precision, passion and people-first leadership. The most successful sixth forms don’t just respond to results – they use data intelligently to shape the journey ahead, focusing relentlessly on what makes the biggest difference for students.

At Alps, we’ve spent over two decades helping schools and colleges bring that clarity to life. Our Connect platform transforms raw performance data into meaningful insights, empowering senior leaders to set ambitious goals, monitor progress with confidence and intervene effectively, all within a trusted, easy-to-use system.

If you’re ready to take your sixth form strategy to the next level, we’d love to show you how Alps can help you turn reflection into results.

Book a demo with our expert team and discover how your sixth form can drive excellence, year after year. 

About the author: John Philip

John started working with Alps in 2008, while he was working at Little Heath Comprehensive School. At Little Heath, John used Alps to achieve top 2% performance in value-added progress. Whilst at Little Heath, John worked with schools regionally and nationally through the SSAT Raising Achievement Partnership Programme. Since leaving Little Heath in 2010, John additionally worked as an associate for many secondary schools through PiXL.