Highgate Sixth Form offers 30 A level options to around 350 sixth formers. Our small class sizes and opportunities to go beyond the syllabus allow you to build your knowledge and study skills. We provide extensive support for future academic endeavours and careers.
Every encouragement is given to those at Highgate to participate in drama, as actors, in stage management, or assisting with sound and lighting via skills learnt at our Theatre Tech Club. We have a separate drama studio that provides additional rehearsal and performance space, as well as a Theatre Technician and Director in Residence. In the Sixth Form, pupils have the opportunity to work entirely independently by directing their entry into the House Drama Competition. In addition, we stage a biennial musical at a professional theatre, and take a Sixth Form production up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.
At Highgate, our musical activities encourage the beginner or further the talented musician. We have instrumental ensembles open to our sixth formers which include a senior symphony orchestra, a chamber orchestra, senior woodwind ensemble, several jazz bands and brass group, not to mention numerous other pupil-led bands and groups. Our three choirs provide music for Sunday Choral Evensongs, with a further three covering a range of repertoires. Numerous chamber groups rehearse weekly, and we have regular concerts, plus masterclasses, workshops and an annual house music competition.
Highgate does not exist in a bubble: we are connected to, and part of, a community. In our Sixth Form, there are opportunities to take part in many different partnership and volunteering projects. These range from helping children with special needs at a neighbouring school for Autism, to taking part in musical performances at elderly care homes, to fundraising for our partner school pupils and becoming a Chrysalis Fellow as a Gap Year project.
We have over 350 pupils aged 16-18 in our Sixth Form.
Applications for entry in September 2024 have now closed.
If you’re interested in joining us in September 2025 or later, please click the button below to register your details so we can:
30 Sixth Formers received places
at Cambridge or Oxford in 2023
A choice of 29 subjects are offered at A level
84% of all Year 13 grades
awarded A* or A in 2023
Registration with your tutor. You have daily contact time with your tutor who provides helpful advice on your work and life at Highgate. Your tutor will monitor your academic progress and provide guidance on looking ahead to higher education and careers.
Your first lesson of the day begins. When starting in our Sixth Form, you take four academic subjects and your timetable will also include PSHE, critical method, and sport and exercise periods. You will have 12 lessons per fortnight allocated to each academic subject. Each lesson lasts 50 minutes, with a five-minute changeover between lessons.
The first break of the day. You will have two tutor slots, one year group assembly, one house meeting, and one religious assembly per week. In the other half of your breaktime slot, you will have the opportunity to relax with your peers in one of our Sixth Form common rooms, go into Highgate Village, or catch up on some work in the Library.
Lessons resume. In Year 12, you will have three to four periods of private study each fortnight. During these periods, you work unsupervised, so you need to be self-motivated! You can also make use of our common rooms, reading room and Sixth Form study space in our Library.
You can take a short walk with friends to our nearby Dining Hall, which serves a range of hot and cold food. There is also time for lunchtime clubs, talks and debates, plus music lessons and rehearsals. From January in Year 12, departments begin extensive classes and all Sixth Formers are expected to attend at least one per week to help with preparation for future study at university.
Your next lesson begins. For Year 12, this could include our one-year Critical Methods course or in Year 13, this could include our one-term course in Critical Independence. On Wednesday afternoons, you’ll take one of many options in sport and exercise.
After two more lessons, school ends and after-school activities take place until 5.30pm on certain days. Our Library remains open until 6pm if Sixth Formers wish to study or collect books.
In my time at the school all the way from nursery to 6th form, the academic, extra-curricular and social environment has continued to inspire me and enabled me to explore a wide range of interests and community issues.
Y13
MATT
When I joined Highgate in Year 10, I was nervous about what it would entail. However, I found the students and teachers to be warm and welcoming, and I was quickly made to feel at home
Y13
Iman
Y13
Naomi
‘Every other year, my Department takes GCSE pupils to Iceland. It’s an incredible trip and chance to get up close with some of the environments and landforms studied in class.‘
Geography teacher
Ms Mynott
‘My Department is comprised of supportive teachers who help pupils become the best mathematicians they can be. Our success shows in our uptake, Highgate’s most popular A level is Mathematics!’
Head of Mathematics
Mr Wright
I have really enjoyed the camaraderie of friends and inspirational teachers who have a real passion for their subject.
Y13
Seb
‘Our jazz ensembles play annually at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in SoHo. As interest in jazz grows, we have even more bands and pupils learning from our jazz specialist staff.’
Head of Jazz
Mr Canniere
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