Improving Your Sixth Form: 20 Top Tips for Teaching and Learning

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.

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Improving Your Sixth Form: 20 Top Tips for Teaching and Learning

At Alps Education, our work with schools, colleges and sixth forms consistently shows that the strongest outcomes are achieved where there is absolute clarity: clarity of expectations, clarity of curriculum and clarity around what effective learning looks like in the sixth form. Strong post-16 provision is built through consistent practice, shared understanding and a relentless focus on developing independent, confident learners. 

Here, John sets out twenty practical, experience-driven tips and strategies for improving teaching and learning in the sixth form. These strategies reflect what we see working best across high-performing providers – from establishing pace and purpose in Year 12, to embedding independent learning skills and creating a shared culture of excellence across departments.

Tip 1: Ensure all departments get started quickly with meaningful work at the start of Year 12 

Establish the pace you want students to maintain throughout their courses. Make sure that all subjects use September of Y12 as a transitional period that enables students to clearly understand the skills they require for success and to start acquiring them.

Tip 2: Expect departments to produce brief (double-sided A4) overviews 

These should summarise their course content, assessment structure, key dates and set out potential future pathways. 

1. ‘Unit maps’ that summarise the key content, assessment objectives, mark schemes and typical / recent past questions for each unit will further support student understanding. 
2. Learning Checklists summarising the key skills and knowledge students need to master to achieve high grades are invaluable when used effectively.

Tip 3: Treat post-16 lessons like all others 

Make it clear to all teachers and students that all sixth form lessons have the same start and finish times as all other lessons in the school. If teachers are not in school because of planned absence, do your best to develop a culture where free teachers from the same subject take that lesson – or, at the very least, ensure that meaningful work is set and marked. 

Track how many post-16 lessons are taught by their designated teacher – this can reveal worryingly high statistics. 

Tip 4: Do all your teacher have expert knowledge of the subject(s) they teach post-16? 

1. How regularly is INSET focused on improving post-16 teaching and learning? 
2. Consider running an INSET day to work departmentally, and/or in cross-departmental teams, on outstanding teaching and learning post-16. 
3. You could use short video clips of outstanding teachers from your school as a focus for the INSET day to encourage staff to identify key characteristics or effective practice. 

Tip 5: Advanced level teaching isn’t a dark art 

Ensure all teachers understand that Advanced Level teaching is not a distinctively different dark art, nor an opportunity for them to showboat their extensive knowledge to a passive audience. 

Strategies for engaging KS3 or KS4 students can be just as effective with post-16 students. 

Tip 6: Plan and structure post-16 lessons with clear learning objectives 

Expect post-16 lessons to be planned and structured with clear learning objectives and varied activities. Post-16 learners should not be conditioned into passive recipients of knowledge by didactic teaching. When teaching is didactic, students rarely acquire the independent learning skills they need to make progress or to become confident university students or lifelong learners. 

Tip 7: Recognise that independent learning is taught, not assumed 

It is crucial no-one assumes students magically transform into independent learners by travelling through the ‘Sixth Form portal.’ They need to be given the opportunities to develop these skills and attributes. This works best if there are common experiences and a common set of expectations across subjects, especially in the first half-term in Year 12 during which time study patterns become ingrained. 

Consider a focus on how best to develop independent learning across the post-16 curriculum. 

Tip 8: Encourage staff to share best practice 

Set up a post-16 teaching and learning group to develop a shared understanding of what outstanding practice looks like and / or how best to develop independent learning in the sixth form. 

Encourage teachers to observe in different departments and feedback examples of effective teaching and learning to all staff. 

Tip 9: Let students help define outstanding practice 

If you already run a post-16 teaching and learning group, consider involving students in discussions and / or encourage pilot subjects to allow ‘learning’ observations by sixth form students. 

Incorporate their findings about what outstanding teaching and learning looks like from a student’s point of view to be shared in staff training. 

Tip 10: Build a coherent approach to independent learning skills 

Use your post-16 teaching and learning group to identify the key skills that students need for success and then ensure that these are consistently taught across the curriculum. 

Identify those skills students need to be taught, and allowed to practice, so that they can develop independent learning skills. If you are an 11-18 school, consider how independent study skills could be developed more consistently before students join the sixth form.

Tip 11: Teach students how to learn independently 

Many successful schools and colleges actively seek to develop independent learners using the following techniques:  

1. Developing self-assessment and peer-assessment in all subject areas.  
2. Shared understanding of exam board mark schemes & examiner reports early in each course. 
3. Modelling of good answers early in each course. 
4. Student-led activities in class: lessons that are structured to demand student input such as presentations on specific aspects of the topic. 
5. Clear deadlines (including interim deadlines if significant task such as coursework) which are always adhered to. 
6. Study support in school outside lessons: provision of appropriate silent study area (with computers) and supervision (not necessarily a teacher). 
7. MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and the EPQ 

Tip 12: Create an aspirational culture 

Where teaching requires improvement, it is often because not enough is expected of students. Encourage active learning where students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning and given appropriate opportunities to feedback to their peers.

Tip 13: Identify opportunities for independent study in departmental schemes of work 

For example, researching a topic from specified internet sites or notes (any format) before presenting to the class on a specified topic.

Tip 14: Consider the use of large spaces/combining groups for key lessons 

Use charismatic teachers or team teaching to launch a topic or to provide pre-examination masterclasses. 

Tip 15: Get creative! 

Make creative use of your online environment to support students in discussing and sharing ideas. Subject leaders ought to encourage online collaboration. 

Tip 16: Change the layout of sixth form teaching rooms to best match activities 

Don’t give up on seating plans post-16 – deliberately organise and group students for different activities that are sharply and accurately focused on meeting individual students’ needs. 

Tip 17: Harness modern technologies to achieve high quality learning goals 

The Illinois Institute of Design think tank on Schools in the Digital Age reported that ‘teenagers lead high tech lives outside school and decidedly low-tech lives inside school’ and that this divide ‘is making the activities inside school appear to have less real-word relevance.’ 

Encourage teachers to look for relevant opportunities to harness modern technologies to achieve high quality learning goals. 

Tip 18: Conduct leaving interviews with all sixth form students 

With members of the senior team, ask students their views on the way that they have been taught in different subjects and the wider support that they have received. 

Use these to identify areas of strength and aspects of provision that might need to be reviewed. 

Tip 19: Re-timetable staff during the summer exams  

Produce a period of intensive learning with whole or half-days devoted to individual subjects. 

Co-ordinate revision programmes so all students and teachers know what is happening when, where and why. 

Where possible, place key sessions within 48 hours of an examination and insist staff concentrate on the skills, knowledge and understanding required for success on that paper rather than a summary revision of course content. 

Tip 20: Establish a Results Day protocol to identify 1-2 UMS Students (and act fast) 

On Results Day, each August, spend time compiling a list of all those students within 1-2 UMS off the next higher overall subject grade boundary. 

Have conversations with subject leaders and students about ordering photocopied scripts and asking for Results Enquiries. 

Closing Thoughts from Alps Education 

At Alps, we are passionate about supporting schools and colleges to turn insight into impact. Through clear analysis, trusted benchmarks and expert guidance, we help leaders and teachers identify what is working, where to focus next and how to drive sustainable improvement across post-16 provision. 

When data, pedagogy and culture align, the result is better outcomes – and, more importantly, better experiences – for every sixth form student. 

If you would like to explore how Alps can support your post-16 improvement journey, through clear, trusted analysis and expert support, book a demo with our friendly team to see how Alps helps schools and colleges drive excellence in the sixth form.

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.