Aims & Ethos: your Time to Choose Specialist Subjects

 

Truro School Sixth Form offers the academic route to the best universities and jobs. Its continuing success can be attributed to the outstanding quality of the teaching, a strong system of tutorial support, excellent facilities and a commitment to ensuring that every young person achieves his or her individual potential.

 

Truro School Sixth Form is at the top of a thriving independent school. It is part of the school, and yet distinct from it, with its own areas for study and relaxation, its own dress code and acknowledgement of students’ growing independence. But there are good opportunities for leading and helping younger pupils through the prefects system and the ACHE "Listening Ear" scheme.

 

High expectations and wide horizons

We will expect a lot from you in our Sixth Form. You will work hard, but we will also give you all the support you need to help you achieve your goals.

Academic qualifications are important, and we are proud of the results that our students attain. However, the rest of life does not go on hold while you are studying for ‘A’ levels. You will have plenty of opportunities to involve yourself in sport, music, drama and all the other extra curricular activities that flourish at Truro School. We hope that you will discover that you are capable of more than you ever thought possible. We will do all we can to help you build up an impressive portfolio of achievements and experience to prove to admissions tutors and employers that you are a "self-starter" who thinks independently and works well in co-operation with others.

 

How is study time organised in the Sixth Form?

During the Lower Sixth most students will be studying four AS-levels and this will occupy thirty two of the thirty eight periods in the week. In addition everyone participates in a General Studies course for two periods each week. This course will include a module in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within which they are prepared for a qualification in ICT. It will also include a module on Critical Thinking and a Careers module.

 

In the Upper Sixth, where most students usually study three A2-levels, academic time is organised a little differently. Each subject has eight lessons and this will occupy twenty four periods in the week. A General Studies course is offered for two periods each week. During the year students complete their ICT course and do some sport or other activity. In addition, in General Studies time, we hope to be able to give students an opportunity to follow an AS course in Critical Thinking which we believe will be of especial interest to students who may wish to apply to Oxford or Cambridge or other very selective universities. Outside speakers are invited into the school to give lectures on a variety of subjects which aim to broaden the Sixth Formers’ education. It may be possible for students to choose to study four subjects at A2-level, but if they choose to do this they will have very little time for Private Study.

 

Students will, therefore, have a good number of “free” periods each week. There is no compulsion to work in these periods but our experience clearly suggests that those who use their free time wisely profit hugely in terms of their final results. Perhaps just as importantly they will have more time to pursue their other interests in or out of school. We also encourage students to undertake some sport during the course of the week. Newspapers are available in both the Sixth Form Common Rooms.

 

We aim to get the Sixth Formers into a good working routine and encourage independence and self-motivation. When students go on to university they are very much thrown on to their own resources and we hope to prepare them for this challenge, by providing a phased transition that gradually adjusts the balance between support and direction on one hand, and independence and freedom on the other.