Academic Excellence
The Academic Excellence Pathway is designed to improve our students’ chances of securing places on the most competitive university courses. It is also an opportunity for students with outstanding GCSE grades to stretch themselves further and develop their study skills by researching an Extended Project in a topic of interest.
Every year, many of our students progress to Russell Group universities. In recent years, students from Marple Sixth Form College have secured places at Oxford and Cambridge to study Engineering, History, Biological Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Natural Sciences (Physics) and Natural Sciences (Biology). Increasingly, some students are looking to study abroad with one former student securing a place at Yale with full financial scholarship.
Programme Features
Support with UCAS Applications
Support with applying to Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group Universities.
Links with Local Universities
We work with the University of Manchester and their Access Programme to prepare students for University.
Trips to University of Manchester
We take students to a study skills day at UoM, taught by their academic staff focusing on research and learning skills.
Access to University Library
Students can become members of Manchester University Library if they wish
Entry Requirements
The Extended Project is of full A-level standard and as such the A* grade is available. To enrol onto our Academic Excellence programme students must be on the traditional A-Level pathway and considering applying to University, a Higher Apprenticeship or Degree Apprenticeship.
As this is a programme that demands a lot from students we generally say an average of Grade 7 or higher at GCSE is required to meet entry requirements.
Students on the Academic Excellence Pathway will have all of their subject lessons as normal but they will also be placed in an Academic Excellence tutor group with students of similar ability and ambition, and will be timetabled for an extra session a week.
In the early part of the course we look at Higher Education and focus on how to make an outstanding application to the most prestigious universities. In the later part of the course we take students through the application to the most prestigious universities. In the later part of the course we take students through the Extended Project Qualification, which is one of the most pro-active things we can do to give our students the skills they will need to thrive in Higher Education.