Students entering our Sixth Form look forward to excellent educationally and personal support. We recognise this is time when important decisions are made about the future and young people at this age are defining their personalities and character. It’s a time when a sense of direction and purpose kicks in, and more importantly, a time when individuality is shining through.

Our Sixth Form students share common aims to develop academic rigour, close friendships, career ambitions and independence in a caring and lively environment. Dedicated staff who support them, encourage each and every student to embrace a sense of possibility in what they can achieve, and to obtain the ambition and confidence to be the best they can.

The pages within this section will give you a real flavour of Sixth Form life as a Dukie, from the academic opportunities and expansive array of lifestyle activities, to the independent living and leadership responsibilities.

Being a Dukie is a very special credential to have in this competitive world, and past students are fully committed to developing a Dukie network with our current students through development of The Dukies’ Association and the Next Step Programme.

Highly successful A Level and BTEC results

Students are celebrating success at A Level with an increase in A* and A grades, BTEC with an average of Distinction, and some 66% gaining A*- B results.

Subsequently, the vast majority of students now head off to university, having gained their first-choice place. Several students will begin military careers, while others have chosen engineering apprenticeships with major companies such as Amazon.

Outstanding success includes: Ruth Adewole with A*A*A*A* in English Literature, French History and EPQ; Guido Rowe with A* Geography, A* History, A* Religious Studies, A* EPQ; and Sebastian Brown with A* Chemistry, A* Maths, A* Physics, A* EPQ. Ruth will read Law at Cambridge; for Guido it is Politics and History at London School of Economics; and Sebastian will read Economics and Finance at University College London.

Principal Alex Foreman said: “As England’s only state full boarding school, we utilise our unique situation to protect students from both the virus and loss of learning. We do things our way, and what is best for our Dukies, to deliver quality classroom time resulting in these stunning set of grades. In addition, all our students are provided with laptops which enabled online learning from April 2020 to cover any enforced closures; I’d like to thank our teachers for their unconditional dedication. During these unprecedented times, both staff and students have risen to the challenge and performed with great resilience and integrity to further improve our Sixth Form academic excellence. Our full boarding environment also allows us to encourage students to immerse themselves wholeheartedly in a wide variety of activities beyond the classroom to boost life skills and achieve their best in everything they do. I’d like to congratulate all our students and wish them well for the future.”

Scholarships

The school offer 80% academic scholarships to students that gain at least 8 GCSE passes including English and Mathematics, with grade 8 or above in at least three GCSEs and grade 7 or above in a further three GCSEs. All scholarship candidates must be able to demonstrate an excellent behaviour record.