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Sixth form courses under threat as funding reaches crisis point

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Unless ministers take action on sixth form funding, post-16 courses will continue to be cut, class sizes will continue to rise, and some sixth forms will disappear altogether, it was warned this week. Pete Henshaw reports

There will be further and continuing cuts to sixth form courses across England’s schools and colleges unless the funding crisis in post-16 education is addressed, it has been warned this week.

Class sizes post-16 will also continue to rise and more sixth form closures are likely, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), and the Association of Colleges (AoC) have said.

The three associations are behind the Support Our Sixth-formers campaign, which is calling on the government to introduce a £200 per-student uplift in funding post-16 and to conduct a review of sixth form funding to “ensure it is linked to the realistic costs of delivering a rounded, high-quality curriculum”.

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