Kingscote sixth form

[chezzachez.livejournal.com]

I've been puzzled as to whether the sixth at Kingscote is one year or two. I think that in FL it says that Rowan is going to miss two years of school; but then Jan Scott in CT is, I think, referred to as having been in teams with Rowan and the sixth with Kay. And surely Lois was in the upper fifth with Rowan, but then stays on, but just for one year? Can anyone shed any light?

Comments

[hooloovoo_42]

Sixth form is 2 years, although some people stayed for an extra year - usually for reasons of applying for special university scholarships. Teams weren't necessarily related to school years. The first team would be picked mostly from the upper forms - 5th & 6th - with younger pupils getting picked only if they were exceptionally good. So it would have been possible for Jan to have been in the 6th with Kay and in teams with Rowan.

[chezzachez.livejournal.com]

But then why is Lois there for this odd extra year - presumably just lower sixth? And why don't they call it upper and lower sixth?

[hooloovoo_42]

Didn't Lois end up going to Bedford to train as a PE teacher? Teaching back then wasn't a graduate profession and probably didn't actually need A levels to get into. There was more likely an age requirement to start the course.

Being in "the 6th" wasn't differentiated so much back then. Although it was a 2 year course to A level, the terms upper and lower weren't so much used. My mum just talks about first, second and third year 6th (she went to grammar school a year early and did 3 years in the 6th form so she was the right age to do A levels).

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

The Chalet School in the similar era refers to girls staying at school until they are 17 and can go to Bedford.

Also possibly not all the girls at Kingscote would be entered for A-levels, if they weren't planning on going to university, so might simply stay until they turned 18.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

That would work, except that she is taking 'A' levels - her absence on exams is one of the factors which frees up spaces in the swimming team for Ginty and Monica.

I think it's what in Harry Potter circles is known as a "Flint" (after the character who ends up spending three years in the Sixth at Hogwarts) where one character doesn't age at the same rate as their compatriots.

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

In the 1960s, anyway, Oxbridge Entry was normally done in the Third Year Sixth - the pupil stayed on for one more term, and did Oxford or Cambridge entry, then left at Christmas. That's what my Dad did, in 1968, anyway. He did his A levels in the summer, then did Oxford entrance in the autumn term (third sixth) and then spent from New Year to the summer working in a youth hostel in Germany before he started university.

My mother, unusually, did Cambridge entry before her A levels, and therefore in the autumn term of second sixth. Then she did her A levels the following summer, and started at Cambridge that autumn.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I did the same as your father. It was possible to sit the Oxbridge exams in the same year as sitting A levels but my school felt that this made the year too demanding and put all one's eggs in one basket (if one didn't get a place on the basis of the exam, it risked damaging one's A level marks and not getting a suitable place at any other university)

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

That's so confusing :-) I'm an Australian but I did attend a girls' school that tried to imitate English schools as well as it could! So for a few years I remember them doing that, using 'lower fourth' and 'upper fourth' and so on before giving up and going back to using Year 8 - 12. But it did help me when reading the Kingscote and other school stories. :-)

Sue

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

My school, in the 1960s, offered a one year "General course" for those girls who didn't want to do A levels but did want not to leave school at 16; often they re-sat an O level for a better grade, or learnt a new language, or something, as well as the "General courses" we all had to take in addition to our A level work. I assumed Lois did something similar.

Although many training colleges did require at least 2 A levels - I know one friend of mine was saying just the other day how much she'd enjoyed the 6th form, as with only 2 A levels to do, she had masses of free time.

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

I think the sixth form in this context is relatively undifferentiated - some girls would have been in it for one year, others for two with a mixture of options. I don't think they are all doing A levels, and certainly not all doing the same number of them. Some will essentially be marking time before a vocational course or a finishing school of some sort.

[chezzachez.livejournal.com]

Thanks all, that's much clearer!

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

The people doing O-level retakes at Kingscote (with the fateful Maths papers in Attic Term) are in the Tutorial Fifth rather than the Sixth, so presumably Kingscote did separate them out from the people doing A-levels.

[(Anonymous)]

Lois wasn't expected to go back to school for the 6th form so maybe she failed one O level course that she needed for her PE training. She came back to do that O level course but spent the rest of the time on A level courses so that they put her in the sixth (which was also necessary if she was to be a prefect and games captain).