ACADEMIC
Our expectations of you
Our happy, successful and nurturing Sixth Form has the strongest foundations — trust and respect. We trust you to make excellent practical and moral choices in all aspects of your lives and we are dedicated to helping you feel confident in making these choices. We trust you to respect the independence that Sixth Form life offers — in return, trust your teachers and respect their experience.
Headington Rye Oxford prides itself on its civilised, courteous and purposeful atmosphere and we expect you to be self-disciplined and mature, to demonstrate integrity in all that you do and have respect for all of those in the school community. Your Form Tutor will guide you in the School’s expectations, because the School’s success relies upon all of us, staff and pupils, adhering to a self-disciplined, punctual and purposeful approach.
You are, of course, answerable for every comment and action that you make within the school environment and its community, including anything communicated by mobile phone, email and through social media. You are advised to publish your comments, ideas and pictures wisely.
Should your effort or performance in your work be a cause for concern, you will be required to spend more of your study periods in supervised study, as agreed with Mrs Barrett. Individual departments may also take action to support your work and ensure that you commit due time and care to your studies.
Should your punctuality and organisation be of concern, your Form Tutor will guide you with more precise expectations and structures and you may be required to sign in with your Head of Year at regular times during the day.
You must also adhere precisely to the rules about signing out and signing in when you leave and return to the School’s campus during the school day. We trust you with great freedom and any failure to do so will result in the loss of these privileges.
Academic honesty
A key part of academic study is to complete work independently. You will be expected to research and write essays by yourself, complete write-ups of scientific investigations and present the results of your own data collection and research. Your work, thoughts and ideas are your intellectual property and are something of which you can be proud. The starting point for many pieces of academic work is to explore the arguments and conclusions that others have previously drawn on a topic. These are an important part of the work and are needed to support your own arguments and conclusions. It is essential, however, that these sources of information are acknowledged in an academically honest way and all students will be expected to sign to say they have understood the Academic Honesty policy at the start of Year 12. Our full Academic Honesty policy can be found under the policies section in the Parent Portal.
End of year examinations (Year 12)
You will sit internal examinations in the Summer Term of Year 12 in all your subjects. These examinations are important as they contribute to to the wide data set used to calculate predicted grades for your university applications. Girls who do not achieve at least a C Grade will be required to take an assessment at the beginning of the Autumn Term to demonstrate that they have reached the level required to continue to a full A Level in the relevant subject. This sitting will also be available for those who wish to increase their predicted grade.
Reports and parent-teacher meetings
A full School Report is issued annually and will be discussed with you before it is sent home. In addition, your Form Tutor will write a report on your progress during the year. Each year group has a parent-teacher meeting in which you and your parents or guardians, with you, meet with each of your teachers to discuss your progress. See Diary Dates for parent-teacher meeting dates this academic year. Girls also receive regular Learner Profile, or LP, grades.
Headington Connect
Headington Connect is the official networking platform for the Headington Rye Oxford community. The online platform allows our Headington Rye Oxford community to engage with one another and develop career mentoring, work experience and business networking opportunities, as well as having access to social opportunities. Headington Rye Oxford is very fortunate to have such a diverse range of professionals amongst our community, and we are keen to offer mentoring and work experience opportunities to our sixth formers and alumnae. We encourage all our parents to join Headington Connect and be a part of the Headington Rye Oxford community as soon as your daughter joins Headington Rye Oxford. For any further information about Headington Connect, please email development@headington.org.
UCAS and beyond
You may already have your sights set on a particular university course and even a career, or you may have absolutely no idea which direction you will take. Your Form Tutor, Heads of Year and the PSHE programme will introduce you to the wealth of opportunities available to you after Headington, including travel and gap years, university education and the world of work. The Sixth Form Centre has its own Careers Area where you can pursue further research in these areas and Mrs Barrett, Head of Sixth Form, and Miss Hannah Leigh, Head of Careers, are on hand to offer further advice.
In the Spring Term of Year 12 you start to investigate the courses and institutions where you hope to study. You will be shown how to make the most of the e-resources available and you will need to plan ahead so that you can decide which university open days you would like to attend. In addition, representatives from top universities will give tailored advice and support to help guide students on course and university decisions. Every year we host the Higher Education Evening which offers a huge range and depth of advice and support to our students. This takes place in early February.
In the Summer Term of Year 12, you will start your university application (UCAS form). You will need to make a firm decision, too, about whether you wish to make an application to Oxbridge or abroad. Mr James Stephenson will be able to guide you through the wealth of options available overseas.
Mr Stephenson will also offer guidance regarding the range and nature of extra university admissions tests you may be required to take. You will write your personal statement and your application will then be completed and submitted at the beginning of the Autumn Term in Year 13.
By May of Year 13 you will have received replies from the institutions to which you have applied and will choose one firm and one insurance offer, which will usually be conditional upon your final exam grades.
Your Form Tutor, Heads of Year and the Head of Sixth Form will assist you through every stage of this process. You will also receive detailed guidance on how to write a personal statement, choosing courses and universities and how to complete the UCAS form. All students also have a Higher Education mentor, with whom they will have fortnightly sessions from February of Year 12.
Ultimately, these are your decisions about your adult life and we aim to offer you a wealth of expertise upon which you can draw. You need to take the initiative — be inquisitive, be ambitious and remember to ask for, and to listen to, advice.
Oxbridge
Every year, several Headington Rye Oxford girls are offered places to study at the world’s most prestigious universities and that includes Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. Both universities are well known for their particularly rigorous admissions processes — a separate application form for the University of Cambridge, pre-interview testing for a large number of subjects (UCAT, TSA, ELAT etc) and a demanding series of interviews in December.
All universities are looking for students who can already prove how passionate they are about their chosen subject area but if you wish to apply to Oxbridge you need to demonstrate an exceptional level of commitment and appetite for learning, as well as evidence of your independent research that reaches well beyond the A Level courses. You should discuss your suitability for Oxbridge with your subject teachers in the spring of the Lower Sixth and start your preparation in earnest by Easter.
Dr Rees, Mrs Barrett and Mrs Bowen support all Oxbridge applicants, to ensure they receive the support and advice that is needed at every step of the way. If you decide to take this path, you will be assigned a specialist academic mentor, with whom you will meet regularly to check your progress as you explore and deepen your subject knowledge. You will also have a practice interview with feedback and opportunities to benefit from support for pre-interview tests. Dr Rees, Mrs Barrett and Mrs Bowen will also meet you on a one to one basis in both Year 12 and Year 13 so that you feel confident and well-prepared to give this competitive application process your very best shot.
