Sixth Form

The students’ enthusiasm to return to school in September 2020 was palpable. And while it became evident that the last academic year would not be fully ‘back to normal’, pupils adapted to the Covid guidelines admirably.

Highlights of the year included significant Sixth Form involvement in the Addams Family musical; enthusiastic engagement in House sports competitions in the absence of inter-school matches in the Autumn Term; and the ingenious ways Sixth Form pupils were creative during lockdown, notably the brilliant virtual performance of ‘One Day More’ from Les Miserables put together by Sam (L6SKR) and friends. Sixth Form students continued to look for ways to not only make positive contributions to the school community through participation in the various pupil voice groups, but also to the local community through their active involvement with the hugely successful Primary Ambitions programme, volunteering their time to the Ascent programme and taking part in various charitable activities that included supporting the Christmas hampers initiative for the Ace of Clubs charity and a varied number of fundraising challenges. One particularly inspiring effort came from Head Girl, Lauren (U6JTB), who raised funds for ’43 for BRT’, the campaign for supporting school bursaries.

It was great to see that, despite the challenges of the year, the pupils made really encouraging progress academically and the Upper Sixth were able to perform to a very pleasing level in their summer assessments, with 90% securing places at their first choice university.

As we moved into September 2021, we enjoyed having the opportunity to celebrate the outgoing Upper-Sixth’s impressive school careers at the delayed Leavers’ Ball and also welcome back our 2020 and 2021 leavers and their parents for a drinks reception to celebrate their impressive school careers. At the start of the Autumn Term we welcomed a good number of new joiners and

Year 11 progressing through to the Sixth Form. Fortunately, all of the Sixth Form were able access the Sixth Form Centre this year and this provided opportunities for pupils across year groups to integrate, something which is central to a cohesive Sixth Form community. The new academic year also saw the return to regular sports fixtures, in-person music and dramatic performances, and us being able to welcome back the local primary school children participating in the Primary Ambitions programme at Emanuel. As ever, there were many highlights within our thriving performing arts, which included Livi (U6JED) and other Sixth Formers’ impressive performances in the School of Rock musical; the ‘Night at the Movies’ music performance, ably performed by Upper Sixth pupils Annabelle (U6SPP) and Tom (U6CCG); and the hilarious and adroit production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

As in a ‘normal year’, the summer term saw the crescendo towards the Upper-Sixth sitting their A Level examinations. At the time of writing, we are awaiting their results, but it was pleasing to see the way in which they all worked to put themselves in the best position to perform well. This year drew to a close with a wonderful celebration at the Leavers’ Ball on the penultimate day of term.We wish the outgoing Sixth Form the best of luck for the future and look forward to the exciting contributions that will be made by the new Sixth Form pupils in September.

Mr W Quayle (Head of Sixth Form)