Academic Support

Many of the familiar aspects of  school life carry on in a similar vein at the College, but in a more ‘university style’ young adult environment. You will join academic subject classes with an average of 17 or 18 students. You will meet with your teacher for a regular pattern of 4 double lessons per week in each A Level subject, as part of a timetable day that goes from  9am to 4pm.

For example, you will have a teacher as a personal tutor, who you will see every day and who will be the first point of contact for you and for your parents.

We have one job to do: A Levels and associated subjects are "what we do.

Our students, on average, consistently achieve a package of sixth form qualifications and results, which are much higher than the average level of student achievement in schools and colleges in England, including those in the independent school sector.

We send over 1,000 university applications a year, invite hundreds of colleges and employers in to advise our students and have a whole team of dedicated careers staff permanently on site.

The College offers one of the widest selections of A Level courses in the country – whatever you choose, we can in most cases guarantee that these courses will run and that they will fit together upon your timetable.

Including, for students with strong GCSE grades, the opportunity to study 4, or even 5 A Level options, from a range of approximately 50, including options in ‘harder to find’ subject areas such as A Levels in Further Mathematics, Classical Civilisations, Geology, Art History, German.

Including, for example, opportunities drawn from approximately 100 additional studies options in areas such as sport, modern foreign languages, performing arts and the Duke of Edinburgh Award; including, for example, the Debating Society, the Holocaust Memorial Programme, external speakers etc.

At the Sixth Form College, we teach all of our courses in specialist sixth form accommodation on one purpose-built site, located in a very accessible central area of Colchester.

The College has strong links with a wide range of universities in the UK, including Oxford, Cambridge and a number of medical schools.

Support is available at every stage of the process, from initial A Level choices, through to application and interview preparation. The programme involves trips, guest speakers, advice for parents and specialist one to one support for students. The College supports the prestigious national ‘Year in Industry’ scheme for high achievers.

There are specialist support programmes available to guide those seeking careers in areas such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, law and teaching.

Including STEP (for Mathematics), BMAT and UKCAT (for Medicine), LNAT (for Law) and the range of Oxford and Cambridge ‘extra tests’ linked to many of their courses.

We offer A Levels and GCSEs in a wide range of languages including German, alongside opportunities to explore languages such as Latin, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.

With lots of one-to-one support, we can tailor an individual Extended Project Qualification (similar to a university dissertation) to exactly suit your needs, interests and aspirations: in the past, students have completed excellent projects in areas such as law, medicine, anthropology, archaeology and creative writing.

Over recent years college students have seen real success in national competitions such as the Biology, Chemistry and Physics Olympiads, The Maths Challenge and The Bar Mock Trial Competition. They even won a competition where knowledge of physics was required to crack a safe!