Eight students started the T Level in Finance at SBUSixth two years ago. 
This summer all eight finished it, and five of those eight came away with a Distinction — the highest grade the qualification awards.
They didn't do it in a classroom alone. A T Level is built around a substantial industry placement, and all eight completed theirs with employers working in investment banking and wealth management. Three hundred and fifty hours or so of real work, real deadlines, real colleagues. Six of our T Level students across all routes achieved a Distinction in their occupational specialism — the part of the course where you prove you can actually do the job.
SBUSixth students did better than their starting points, especially those that are disadvantaged. BTEC disadvantaged students either performed equally or better than their peers, and students with SEN support made the same progress as their peers.
A Sixth Form that 'adds value'
Grades on their own don't tell you much about a school. A sixth form that only takes students with excellent GCSEs will always post excellent results. The question worth asking is a different one: given where a student starts, how far do they get?
That's what value-added measures, and it's the number we're proudest of this year. Across our 85 BTEC Extended Diploma students, our ALPS value-added score improved from grade 5 to grade 4 — on a scale where 1 is the strongest and 9 the weakest. In plain English: our students made more progress from their GCSE results than they did last year, and more than students nationally who started in the same place.
Some individual courses went further. The Engineering Extended Certificate group posted an ALPS grade 3, one of the strongest value-added scores anywhere in the sixth form - though with a small group, we'd rather tell you the number of students than a percentage: four of the five who completed it achieved a Distinction or Distinction*.
Business, rebuilt
A year ago, our BTEC Extended Diploma in Business achieved 61.5%. This year it achieved 80% for the same qualification. That's a 18.5-point improvement in twelve months, on a course of twenty students.
Health, Engineering and the wider picture
Half of our BTEC Health Extended Diploma students — nine of the eighteen who completed — achieved a Distinction or Distinction*, and 88.9% achieved Merit or above. Our Foundation Diploma in Engineering, our largest single group at 43 students, finished at 88.4% against a national average of 81.8%, with 95.3% of the students who started it still there at the end.
Enrolment - secure an early appointment now
If you're finishing Year 11 and deciding where to go next, come and talk to us. We run A Levels, BTECs and T Levels on the same site, which means you can ask about all three in one conversation instead of guessing which one suits you from a prospectus. If you've already applied - enrolment appontments have been sent out. Not applied yet? Don't worry! If you apply in the next few days, you can still secure an early appointment for a chance to join a thriving sixth form. Click here to take the next step to success.
Photo: successful student Sarah Jalloh: high grades in her course andnow progressing to Aston University to study Psychology and Business