Sixth Form Open Evenings: What to Ask, and What the Entry Grades Mean for Year 11

Sixth form open evenings run through October and November, and they are the first time many families see the grades in writing. A grade 6 in the subjects your child wants to study. A 7 for maths. Five passes, including English and maths.

This guide covers both halves of the evening: what to ask while you are there, and how to work out afterwards whether your child is on course for the grades, with real requirements and real grade boundaries.

Before you go: three things to find out

The deadline matters more than it looks. At Archbishop Tenison's in Croydon, for example, students who apply by the published deadline are ranked ahead of later applicants if the sixth form is oversubscribed. Missing it can cost a place even when the grades are there.

12 questions to ask at a sixth form open evening

You won't need all twelve. Pick the ones that matter for your child, and ask subject teachers the course questions directly. They give franker answers than the main presentation.

About getting in

About the courses

About teaching and support

About what comes next

What the entry requirements actually say

Every sixth form and college sets its own requirements, so there is no national rule. But most published policies follow the same shape: a general bar to get in, and a higher bar for each subject. Here are two real examples for September 2026 entry.

Two things stand out. First, a grade 4 overall can still leave the A-Level choices closed, because the subject bar is higher. Second, maths sits behind more than A-Level maths. Spalding asks for a 6 in maths for chemistry and physics, and Tenison asks for one for computer science.

If you want the grades themselves explained (what a 4 and a 5 mean, and why maths and English carry extra weight) our guide to grade 4 vs grade 5 covers it. This post is about the gap between where your child is now and where the sixth form wants them to be.

How far is a 4 from a 6? The answer in marks

"Two grades" sounds like the same distance in every subject. It isn't. Grade boundaries are set separately for each subject and each series, and the gap between a 4 and a 6 varies a lot. Here is what it was in AQA's June 2026 exams, the most recent summer series.

So the hardest grade 6 to reach from a 4 is usually maths, and it is also the one the most courses ask for. In English Language, 18 marks across two papers is often a matter of technique: answering the question that was asked, planning the long answers, and leaving time for the last question. In maths, 68 marks means whole topics that are not yet secure.

One more thing to check. Foundation tier maths only goes up to a grade 5, so a student entered for Foundation cannot get the 6 that A-Level maths asks for. If your child is on Foundation and wants a maths-based A-Level, ask the school whether Higher is possible. Our guide to being moved to Foundation maths explains how tier decisions are made.

Predicted grades: where they come from, and when they change

Predicted grades are the school's judgement of what your child is likely to get. Teachers usually base them on classwork, tests and, above all, the Year 11 mocks, which many schools sit between November and January. Some sixth forms use predictions to decide who to interview or offer a place to.

But the offer itself is normally conditional on the real results. Spalding's policy puts it plainly: offers are made "subject to the outcome of the actual exams". A low prediction does not close the door, and a high one does not guarantee the place. What decides it is the grades in August.

That makes the mocks the next turning point, because they will move the predictions. Our guide to the six weeks before GCSE mocks sets out what to do now. If the mocks have already gone badly, read what bad mock results actually mean.

If your child is below the grade now

Being a grade short in October of Year 11 is common, and it is not a verdict. It is a gap with a size, and the useful questions are how big the gap is, which subjects it is in, and how much time is left.

1. Find out which subject is actually short

Line up the entry requirement for each chosen A-Level against your child's current grade in that subject. Usually one or two subjects are the problem, not all of them. That is where the time goes.

2. Work out the gap in marks, not grades

Ask the subject teacher where the last test or mock landed in marks, and how far that was from the next grade. A student two marks below a 6 needs something very different from a student twenty marks below it.

3. Ask the sixth form about a plan B

Ask what happens if your child misses one subject grade. Some sixth forms will offer a different A-Level or a vocational course with a lower bar. At Tenison's, for example, vocational courses need five GCSEs at grade 4 rather than grade 6. Knowing this now takes some pressure off, and it helps your child choose between subjects with different requirements.

4. Start on the biggest gap before the mocks

The mocks set the predictions, and the predictions shape the rest of Year 11. Work done in October and November shows up in the mock. Work started in January only shows up in May.

Where a tutor fits between now and May

From mid-October to the start of the exams in May is about 30 weeks. Allowing for school holidays, that is roughly 24 weekly lessons. That is enough to close a real gap in one or two subjects. It is not a promise, and we would never make one: 68 marks in maths is a lot of ground, and how far a student gets depends on where they start and on the work they do between lessons.

Our GCSE online tutoring is one-to-one and taught to your child's exam board, in maths, English and science. Lessons are one hour and start from £20 at GCSE, with no contract and no sign-up fee. Full rates are on our pricing page.