Rejecting educational apartheid: Flying in the face of selection

Above: Students take part in Futures Day

Birkenhead Sixth Form College won the 2023 Social Mobility Award from SFCA for their excellent educational offer to a comprehensive intake in a grammar school area.

Our students at Birkenhead Sixth Form College come from some of the most socio-economically deprived areas in the UK, with one of the lowest average GCSE score intakes in the sector, yet they get some of the best results in the country.

Social mobility runs through the core of our college’s ethos, enabling students with the scientifically proven approach that all can succeed with purposeful hard work – we eschew the notion of ‘gifted and talented’. Our belief in the science of cognition is unwavering and informs the performance of all teachers and staff in the classroom: every interaction counts. 

Social mobility programmes

Right from an applicant’s guidance interview at the college, their circumstances and background, plus their future goals, are all part of profiling our students, even before they start with us. Our tutorial system means that a student’s personal tutor will foster a strong pastoral relationship with every student, while their teachers will be highly aware of students’ attainment and work ethic, so identifying suitable candidates for our specific social mobility programmes is a holistic process at the college. We aim to inspire every student to aspire to great things, and no one gets left behind.

Our careers support encompasses a huge number of programmes with university and employer partners, with proven benefits to individuals who may not have had the opportunities elsewhere. For example, Lewis and Sam defied the odds to gain places on degrees in medicine through the in2medschool programme, having joined us with G-scores lower than the expected standard for medicine. Callum came to us from one of the underperforming schools in the local area, but through our Oxbridge Programme support, he now has an offer to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge. And these are just some of the successes enabled by our teaching, our support, and our innovative, determined careers programmes. Overall, more than 600 students have benefited from our social mobility programmes since 2019 – all of whom have fallen into a spectrum of economic or social deprivation.  

Grammar schools

The College services an area of educational apartheid in Wirral with a staggering number of grammar schools (six) operating within the community, leaving swathes of young people segregated and abandoned by the 11+ system; Birkenhead and the Wirral are classed as ‘highly selective areas’ by DfE, alongside only 32 other local authorities in England. Many students come to the college after GCSEs from underperforming schools, but rather than giving up on them, we instil the positivity and belief to succeed. All opportunities are afforded to all students, no matter their background or starting point, and the approach flies in the face of the need to be selective in recruitment.

Alongside the belief we have that every student can succeed, we also both stand against and truly represent the opposite of the belief that only grammar school education is good enough for high-achieving students. There is no evidence to support this notion – in fact, at our college, our cohort of students who had the option of grammar school sixth form education outperformed every single grammar school in this densely populated peninsula by quite some distance. Over 70% achieved high grades of A* - B at A Level, compared to an average of 60% across the six grammars.

House teaching and management style

The college’s identity is built upon a commitment to getting the processes right so the outcomes look after themselves. Success is not what happens just in the exam period; the foundations of success are built every day, every week – every lesson counts. 

Our house teaching style empowers teachers as the experts in the room. Cognitive load theory drives the delivery of lessons, and the style is underpinned by distinct procedures at the heart of staff development.

An innovative ‘pack’ of cards sets out the ‘BSFC Approach to Teaching’ which includes the core processes and pedagogical principles that underpin college culture. The simplicity of this approach empowers teachers and maximises the efficacy of what they do in the classroom to drive the deep processing of learning. Teachers boss their classroom and the ’BSFC Approach’ supports them to be as creative as possible in owning the room. There are bespoke ‘packs’ of cards for different staff, with a focus on enabling every individual to be innovative and process driven. Roles are developed to meet the student body’s specific needs. Most recently, our Academic and Social Care Progress Mentors have led the way nationally in developing evidence-based intervention programmes with maximum impact. This is possible through a staff development programme that doesn’t micro-manage but which inspires personal and professional development through subsidiarity.

Decisions are made at operational level, which is achieved through three key factors – Clarity, Ownership and Accountability. This is our management approach, and by management, we mean that every single teacher and member of staff is a manager within their remis. Clarity of role, ownership of the boundaries of one’s authority, and accountability creating a ‘no blame’ culture mean that subsidiarity (see below) can be achieved in the entire college culture. The effect of this upon students’ learning is evident in their success.

We installed a new timetable structure in 2021 to add the equivalent of an extra 13 weeks of contact teaching time to each student’s time at the college, and it has contributed to the success of the teaching process. Fridays now round off the week with a lesson in every chosen subject for the students during the day, giving the opportunity for the teacher to cement that week’s cumulative learning.

ENRICHMENT

Where ‘enrichment’ is often seen as playing a sport or two, or maybe taking part in DofE, we see enrichment as an umbrella term for the all-round development of students and all of the opportunities we strive to give them at their fingertips. It encompasses our award-winning careers programme, our programmes of partnerships with universities, pathways to the professions programmes, educational and extracurricular trips and visits, a bespoke Friday assemblies programme with visiting speakers, taking part in national competitions in science and maths and debate and law, student festivals held across the year, the annual cross-college production, fundraising events, volunteering, clubs and societies and more.

Fairs across the year bring professionals and HE providers to the College, bringing insight and advice for specific career paths, which students always report are extremely useful, and can often inspire their final choices of career aspirations. Futures Day at the end of Year 1 is a culmination of the careers programme where more than 60 universities, apprenticeship providers and employers visit the college to give expert talks of the students’ choices and also hold an HE Fair. This event has had a sizeable impact since its inception, resulting in students making totally informed decisions about their next steps.

Overall, more than 80% of our cohort each year go on to university, many of whom are the first generation of their family to do so, and our progression rate to Sutton 30 universities has been deemed ‘remarkable’ by the SFCA on Six Dimensions. Average expected progression to these universities for A level students like ours, with an average GCSE score of 5.9, is 17%; our rate is 24%, seven percentage points higher.  This shows the value that not only our academic approach adds to the students’ outcomes, but also the part that our enrichment plays in sculpting all-round individuals who are ready for the challenges of the future.

But, of course, our approach to sixth form education and the experience therein is ultimately validated by the students themselves and their commitment to bettering themselves. We believe in our teaching, and our culture, and our processes, but most importantly we believe in our young people. They are the most powerful driver of the college’s success and are our biggest credit. 

Look out for more blogs from award winners in the coming weeks; this is the first in a series.