Top Tips for Joining CLC at Sixth Form

Top Tips for Joining Sixth Form

04/08/26

Sixth Form

Blog

Head of Sixth Form, Dr Victoria Sherwood shares her advice for new students and parents joining CLC.

The Start of a New Chapter

Joining a new school for Sixth Form is quite a big step – you might be worried about leaving friends behind, making new friends, getting used to new routines and a new environment and starting new courses. Hopefully you are really excited too – fantastic opportunities, deep academic enrichment doing the subjects you love and incredible new people to meet and get to know.

We have so many students joining us in the Sixth Form that it will feel like a fresh start and an exciting change for every single student.

A key thing to emphasise is that everyone is new to CLC Sixth Form. Even the students who have been at CLC since LC1 will be in a new house, have new teachers, have a new tutor, a new uniform, new routines and new academic courses.

Your First Day at CLC

Something we feel is really important at the start of term is not to rush headlong into the term. Therefore, lessons will not actually start until the third day, and you will only have 3 lessons that day!

The whole of the first Monday is devoted to our completely new SFC students – you will spend the day with the Sixth Form Team getting to know your way around College, meeting lots of important people such as the SFC2 prefects, the pastoral team, the medical team, the chaplain, the library team, and you will have support setting up your surface device ready for lessons.

A Home Away From Home

If you are boarding for the first time, you may be worried about being homesick or settling in. It’s completely normal, and your house parents and tutor, as well as the Sixth Form team and pastoral team, are all here to support you.

I actually started boarding for the first time at Sixth Form and I remember being quite surprised at feeling homesick at first.

The key thing is to pace yourself and be kind to yourself – obviously we want you to get involved in lots of different things and throw yourself into Sixth Form life, but it doesn’t all have to happen in the first week!

Finding Your Community

I am a firm believer that the Sixth Form years, your last two years of school, are as important as your very first two years of school. Friendships are a key part of this, and very often your Sixth Form friends will end up being your lifelong friends.

Take the time to get to know others in your tutor group, in your house and in your classes. Join in with house activities when you can and, once you have settled in, you could even try a completely new activity, which can be a great way of meeting people.

A Warm Welcome to College

For parents whose wonderful children are joining the CLC Sixth Form family this September, thank you so much for the privilege of looking after your daughters for these key two years. We know from the admission days how incredible all these students (the Class of 2028!) are and we are so excited to meet them all again and to start their Sixth Form journey with them.

We are here for you too, so please reach out to us if you have any queries or concerns.

For the students joining SFC1 in September, the Class of 2028, we can’t wait to see you again.

The two years will fly by – there is so much to look forward to. There will be exciting new courses, incredible opportunities, supportive new friendships and lots of fun – before long you won’t feel new at all!

Dr Victoria Sherwood, Head of Sixth Form College