Sixth forms and further education must deliver an additional 40 hours of teaching from September, but the guidance is vague. Post-16 specialist Kevin Gilmartin offers some reassurance


For a decade, most of us involved in 16 to 19 further education have voiced a common plea – we desperately need more money for sixth-formers in schools and colleges.

In simple terms, while funding for secondary school pupils stood at about £5,500 per pupil and universities received up to £9,250, state sixth-formers in schools and colleges have been the poor relation over the last 10 years or so, getting closer to £4,500.

And as year-on-year class sizes in school and college sixth forms have gotten bigger, less popular subjects like arts and languages have been cancelled and all the “basic extras” – university visits, theatre trips, sports programmes, and holiday revision classes – have become luxuries for too many.

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