Oldham Sixth form College

About the organisation:

Oldham Sixth Form College is located on a single, purpose-built campus in the centre of Oldham in Greater Manchester. It was awarded Learning and Skills Beacon Status in April 2005.

Context:

The college opened in 1992 following major reorganisation in Oldham to address poor post-16 participation rates and poor A Level pass rates. Then only one-third of school leavers continued in education at 16 and the A Level pass rate was just 55 per cent in school sixth forms.

Within a local learning partnership seeking to widen participation and raise achievement, the college is the major provider of academic and vocational A Levels. It acts as the sixth form for eleven local high schools. There is an open and inclusive entry policy and it has more than 2,000 students.

Strengths

In 2006 the A Level pass rate was 99 per cent, of which 42 per cent were at grades A and B. The vocational A Level pass rate was 96 per cent. The post 16 participation rate had doubled since 1992 to 66 per cent.

According to the ALPS system for measuring value added achievement in relation to prior attainment, it was in the top 10 per cent of sixth forms nationally and top in Greater Manchester. Some 78 per cent of students went on to higher education and 11 per cent directly into employment.

Beacon activity:

The college has been involved in a project to develop a website of compensatory material to address under-performance at GCSE level in the local area, particularly in the core subjects of Maths, English and Science.

The college is a post 16 Citizenship Champion and has been involved in developing projects to promote active citizenship and community cohesion in the local area.

A series of open days for schools with sixth forms and colleges have been held focusing on widening participation strategies both at 16 and 18. A Junior University initiative, which supports young people 'at risk' of not making a successful transition to post 16 or post 18 education, was established.