Welcome to sixth form!
Whether you are continuing your journey at Claremont or entering for the first time in our sixth form, this page provides a wealth of information for current and new students. More information will become available during summer term 2025.
Academic Enrichment
The Joyce Grenfell programme is a bespoke and innovative course designed for all students in lower sixth. The programme incorporates study skills and independent learning techniques and offers students a range of courses, programmes and qualifications that can be pursued alongside their A Level studies, such as the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), TEFL, LAMDA qualifications, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) or CISI Financial Services Award.
The programme is timetabled and is structured to ensure that all students have the qualifications, skills and academic interests to make competitive applications to university and professional life, including Oxbridge and medicine.
For more information about our student futures evening, please click here.
Note: Joyce Grenfell OBE (1910-1979) writer, actress, performer, was a former Claremont pupil.
Student Futures
Our student futures programme helps guide pupils as they make choices at each stage of their education. This is supported by taught lessons as part of the PSHEE curriculum, access to specialist software (Unifrog), careers lunch events hosted by professionals representing a broad range of career paths, one to one meetings with our head of student futures and – a major event in the school calendar – the annual student futures evening.
Sixth form students receive UCAS support via university talks and one to one support from our higher education co-ordinator. Those who wish to pursue Oxbridge, medical sciences, engineering, law or apprenticeship courses will receive additional support. We are always delighted to hear from parents who wish to offer their own expertise and experience, or even a work experience placement as our students consider their future careers.
Pastoral
Houses
A vibrant house system lies at the heart of Claremont life. All pupils are allocated to a specific house for the duration of their time at the senior school, including in the sixth form. The six houses are: Banstead, Esher, Longcross, Norwood, Radnor and Stanmore.
House competitions run across the year to allow pupils of all ages and interests to play a part in the advancement of their particular house.
House allocation is at the discretion of the head of middle school and the deputy head, pastoral. Siblings typically join the same house although are unlikely to be placed in the same tutor group.
Sixth form students are also members of one of the six houses and contribute to the overall success of their house. However, day to day pastoral supervision is provided by the head of sixth form and the head of lower sixth and a team of tutors.
ID Cards
Upon joining the school, pupils are provided with an id card which enables them to use printers and access buildings across the site. Should the card be lost, the loss should be reported to the pupil’s tutor who can arrange for a replacement – a small charge will be added to the account for lost id cards.
Dress code
Sixth form students are required to wear a ‘business style’ dress (suit or jacket/trousers/skirts) with shirt and tie or a blouse (see details in specific sixth form dress code). For those wearing skirts, they should not be significantly above the knee (a hand width above the knee is acceptable, but no more).
The 2024/2025 uniform guide can be found here. The 2025/2026 uniform guide will be released summer term 2025.
Counselling
Qualified and BACP-accredited counsellors provide individual counselling sessions in Cedar Lodge (our pupil hub) during the school day. A pupil can be referred by a teacher, parent, carer, or request it themselves. Once a pupil is referred, our school counsellor will meet with them as soon as possible to assess their needs. Once confirmed, the pupil will meet with the counsellor weekly for 45-minute sessions. Typically, pupils see the school counsellor for up to six sessions.
The content of the sessions is confidential. However, if a child is at risk, the school process for safeguarding pupils will be implemented. In line with national guidelines, counsellors do not always require parental consent to work with a young person.
Transport
A school bus network is provided exclusively for the use of our pupils, offering a safe and convenient way of travelling between home and school.
We have partnered with Vectare, a specialist school transport company, to run this service. A dedicated online booking system and personalised journey planning portal is available to parents, visit claremontfancourt.vectare.co.uk for further information and booking arrangements.
Sixth form student parking
Sixth form students who have passed their driving test may apply for permission from the head of sixth form to park in the school grounds. Students who are given permission must park their vehicles as directed by the estates team. Anyone reported for inconsiderate parking or dangerous driving will forfeit the privilege of being able to park on the school site, either temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness or frequency of the misdemeanour.
Sports and Co-curricular
Sports
Sport plays a key role in Claremont sixth form life for many students. It’s often a perfect counterbalance to the demands of academic work, a chance to engage different parts of the mind and body and generate plenty of endorphins!
As well as core competitive sports like rugby, football, cricket, lacrosse and netball, students have the chance to try a range of other sociable activities.
Alternative sports on offer are:
- Tennis
- Trampolining
- Hiking
- Table Tennis
- Archery
- Cross Country
- Fencing
- Golf
- Fitness suite
Wednesday afternoon is when games takes place. Not only do our sixth form students take part in the on site activities listed above, but they are also given the opportunity to try out various sports off site too. This includes golf at Clare Hill golf course and fitness classes such as Spinning and Boxfit at Sandown Racecourse.
House days bring the whole school together, including sixth form. Pupils enjoy competing in various activities for their houses, enriching their co-curricular life with school spirit.
Co-curricular
There are more than thirty five co-curricular clubs available for any pupil from Year 7 to upper sixth, providing a huge range of choice for sixth form students, along with the opportunity to help younger pupils develop their interests. Activities on offer range from debating to car maintenance, self defence to university cooking skills, as well as organisations such as medical and law societies. Some of these activities are set up and run by the students themselves, with our guidance and support.
Sixth form students also play an integral role in all major Senior School performances, including the carol service, annual theatrical production and musical teas. They also act as captains of each of the houses, take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme and Young Enterprise programmes.
Community
Community partnership is an important aspect of being in the sixth form; it enables students to develop a wider sense of responsibility and world view.
A new community partnership project was launched in September 2019 for sixth form students, the aims of the project are to enable students to:
- make a positive difference to other people’s lives
- become more involved in the world beyond school
- gain greater awareness of issues facing other communities
- reinforce their subject knowledge
- build upon communication and team-working skills
- learn new skills and gain work experience
- become well-rounded and empathetic individuals
Technology and laptop scheme
Pupils in the sixth form will continue to need a device both in school and away. However, we believe that pupils at this stage in their education should be encouraged to take ownership of the choice of technology which suits them and their learning – and aspirations for life after school.
To this end we operate a full ‘bring your own device’ scheme. Pupils should choose their own device and bring that into school. The choice of device might be guided by the subject they study – many students studying Art, Media or similar subjects might choose Apple Macbook; those studying computing or DT might choose very high end devices, those studying humanities might choose lightweight but simple laptops. Some may choose to use a tablet in school and a desktop at home.
We do consider it very important, however, that the device chosen includes a tablet and pen mode – our styles of teaching will continue to require students to annotate and write on documents on screens and maintain their handwriting as well as keyboard skills.
Equally, the Easy4U scheme remains open to parents of pupils entering the 6th form and a Surface Pro provides an excellent device for most subjects and, moreover, a device which will serve them well in their first few years of Higher Education.
FAQs
Do students stay in school for the whole day?
The sixth form at Claremont uses a privilege pass system. After the first half term, students can earn a privilege pass which allows greater flexibility during the school day to leave early depending on other commitments.
What size is the sixth form cohort and the subject classes?
The 2024 Year 12 sixth form group is just over 100 students. At the time of writing the sixth form was made up of 54 girls and 50 boys. Class sizes vary from a minimum of 3 or 4 to around 12 to 14 students. This offers a small enough size for focused study and individual attention, yet large enough for stimulating debate and discussion.
If you have any questions about the sixth form at Claremont, please contact the admissions department and we will be happy to help. admissions@claremont.surrey.sch.uk or 01372 473780.