As with our pastoral support, our academic approach is to treat every student as an individual – we want each and every student to be stretched, challenged and supported to achieve their absolute best academically.
This individual approach is also apparent in the range of different academic pathways we offer at Sixth Form; students can select from 25 different A-Level subjects, or choose to study the IB Diploma, or take a mix of A-Levels and BTECs. Every individual student can choose their own best academic pathway. Overall, around two thirds of our Sixth Formers tend to choose A Levels (or a combination of A Levels and BTECs) and the remaining third will study for the IB Diploma.
We also seek to foster the critical thinking and independent research skills, with the ability to robustly evaluate sources, which are so crucial in a world increasingly powered by AI. This is fundamental to the Enquiry & Evaluation component of our World Ready programme.
“Pupils experience a broad curriculum and achieve well due to the high quality teaching they receive”
To ensure every pupil achieves their own full academic potential, we set individual Challenge grades for every student. These Challenge grades are carefully considered and every student’s performance is then rigorously tracked by their Tutors against those Challenge grades. This approach means that students are held to account against their own stretch targets, rather than competing against each other.
We also ensure students access a range of academic enrichment and extension activities to stretch and challenge them. This provision sits alongside a highly qualified specialist Learning Support team who can provide extra support if needed.
More details of the breadth of Academic courses on offer at Ardingly, at each stage of the Senior School, can be seen in the Academic prospectus below.
“GCSE, A Level and IB Results, compared with baseline data, show that pupils make very good progress”
