Learner support software for sixth form colleges

Sixth form colleges teach 16 to 19 year olds, often on A levels and other level 3 courses. Many learners arrive with support already in place from school, and the first weeks are when that support is most likely to get lost. This page explains how the support journey fits a sixth form college, and is honest about where the pilot starts.

What duties apply to a sixth form college?

Sixth form colleges are further education institutions, so section 91 of the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against applicants and students, and the reasonable adjustments duty applies. Section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014 applies to further education institutions: the governing body must use its best endeavours to secure the special educational provision a learner’s needs call for. The SEND code of practice 0 to 25 explains what this means in practice for post-16 settings, and where an EHC plan names a college, the college must admit the learner. See EHCPs in further education.

School sixth forms are different. They are part of a school, so school duties apply, and that is part of why a school edition needs separate validation. See schools. This page is general information, not legal advice.

What is distinctive about supporting 16 to 19 learners?

• Transition. Information from school may arrive late, incomplete or in a different format. See school to college transition.
• Exam access arrangements. Learners often had arrangements at GCSE and expect them to continue. Whether they do depends on current evidence and JCQ rules. See exam access arrangements.
• Short courses, high stakes. A two-year A level programme leaves little time to fix a support gap.
• Growing independence. Learners are expected to take more responsibility, so their own voice matters more, not less.
• Mixed ages and routes. Some learners are under 18 and some are young adults, which affects who is consulted. Mental capacity and consent questions can arise. See the glossary entry on the Mental Capacity Act.

How does Understand, Agree, Deliver, Review fit?

1. Understand. Ask new learners, early, what helped at school and what they want now, in their own words. See learner voice.
2. Agree. Write a support plan the learner has seen. Record where the learner disagrees with a suggestion.
3. Deliver. Tutors and support staff record support given and missed, and how missed support is recovered. See delivery tracking.
4. Review. Ask the learner whether it helped, then keep, change or stop support, ahead of key points such as mock exams. See reviews.

Who would use it?

Learning support coordinators and inclusion leads, personal tutors, subject teachers, exams officers working alongside them, and learners. Each sees what their role needs. See inclusion leads and tutors and assessors.

Where does the pilot start?

Be clear about the order. The pilot starts with general FE colleges and apprenticeship providers in England. Sixth form colleges are relevant because they share the same legal framework and the same journey, and a sixth form college may be able to take part later or contribute to design. We cannot promise dates or a place. Inclusion Studio is pre-pilot: the production application is in development on synthetic data, with no customers or certifications. See the pilot page and roadmap.

What would learner support software need to do differently in a sixth form college?

The shared journey would stay the same. Likely differences to validate with real users include the format of transition information, how exam arrangements are recorded alongside support, and how often to review across a two-year course. These are questions for the pilot, not features to assume exist today.

What might a fictional example look like?

This is a fictional example, not a real learner. A learner joins a sixth form college with extra time and a reader at GCSE. In the first fortnight the learning support coordinator asks what helped, and the learner says the reader was useful but the room was a problem because other pupils could hear the reader. The plan records both, the learner sees it, and it notes that formal access arrangements for the qualification are a separate application decided with the exams officer. In the autumn mock exams the room is booked correctly for one paper and not another, which is recorded as missed support with a recovery date. At the review the learner is asked whether the arrangements helped, and the answer informs what is put forward for the real exams.

How does Inclusion Studio support this process?

Inclusion Studio gives one place to keep the learner’s voice, agreed support and review trail, so that support survives the move from school and the busy first term. It does not decide who qualifies for an access arrangement, and it does not replace the exams officer’s work with awarding bodies. If you run a sixth form college and want to talk, contact us. See also FE colleges and the solutions overview.