The Sixth Form and Life After 51³Ô¹Ï

The Sixth Form

The Sixth Form at Merchant Taylors' offers a wonderful opportunity for boys to discover and develop their talents.  It is about far more than great teaching and learning; it is about individuals thriving as they forge their characters and being allowed to follow whichever path they so choose. 

Special Features of Sixth Form Life Include:

  • Smaller class sizes.
  • New subjects in the curriculum (Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Psychology).
  • Academic Supervisions.
  • Specialist form teachers to act as UCAS advisors.
  • Enrichment classes to assist with University applications.

Those starting out on this journey at the beginning of the Lower Sixth, will hopefully find both tangible and more subtle differences to their school experience thus far: studying fewer subjects to a much greater depth, having study periods in one’s timetable and being able to wear a suit rather than school uniform, are examples of the former; developing greater independence of thought and recognizing the increasing expectations upon Sixth Form pupils, are indicative of the latter.

Academically, the Sixth Form at Merchant Taylors’ offers the opportunity to really stretch oneself: subject teachers will certainly have high expectations of their pupils, given the excellent GCSE results with which they will have come to the school, and this will be reflected in the quality of the work they will demand from their charges.  

Beyond the classroom, the Sixth Form at Merchant Taylors’ marks, we hope, an exciting phase in a boy’s life: a whole range of extra-curricular opportunities open up, from a wide range of sporting options to Young Enterprise, the Sixth Form Committee, Charity Drive and PHAB.   

Sixth Form pupils also play an important part in assisting with the smooth running of the school: all members of the Lower and Upper Sixth have a responsibility to set good examples to younger boys, whilst election to the Sixth Form Committee and eventually the JCR provide more formal ways of providing leadership to the school community.

Merchant Taylors’ offers a huge amount both within and beyond the classroom to those in the Sixth Form. The more a pupil involves himself in the life of the school, the more satisfaction he will get from his time at the school.

University

Applying to university marks a very exciting time in a boy’s school career and at Merchant Taylors’ this process begins during the Lower Sixth year, starting with advice on how to begin their research into courses and universities through formal testing and information delivered via assemblies and the school’s virtual learning environment.

There are over 50,000 degree courses on offer in the UK and we pride ourselves on the support we give to our university applicants, with regard to the documentation supplied and the expert advice that is given throughout the process by our experienced UCAS Advisers. 

We have an outstanding record of helping boys to secure their first choice university place: our success rate is typically more than 85%.

All who wish to do so go on to read the subject of their choice at a first rate university. Some boys do this under the auspices of Armed Forces Scholarships. Taylors’ boys currently win more of these than at any comparable school in Britain.

University Destinations
Over the six years, the most popular universities have been:
Warwick
Oxbridge
Nottingham
Durham
University College, London
Imperial College, London
London School of Economics
Bristol
Exeter
King’s College, London
Birmingham
Manchester

The most popular subject areas studied in that have been:
Economics and Business Engineering
Medicine/Dentistry
Geography/Environmental Science
English
History
Politics
Modern Languages
Computing
Mathematics
Biochemistry/Chemistry