Beyond the Classroom

At Copleston Sixth Form, we offer a wide range of extra-curricular and personal development opportunities. We believe strongly that the Sixth Form experience should extend beyond the classroom and we encourage students to take up all the extra opportunities that we offer to help them develop important skills and life experience that will enable them to be successful in society, as well as maximising their chances of successful applications to careers and higher education. 

Our bespoke APEX and Enrichment programme is the starting point for this, teaching students important key skills and knowledge such as personal finance, healthy living & relationships, careers education, study skills, as well as engaging them in discussions about personal, community and world issues such as race, gender, the environment, politics and immigration. More details can be found in the Enrichment section of our website. 

We also offer a wide range of trips and visits throughout the school year. Some of these are directly linked to our academic courses, but many are open to all students. In recent years, we have run a very popular cultural visit to New York, a visit to Iceland, and numerous theatre trips, field work and sporting visits. We also arrange visits with local universities and attend higher education and careers fairs.

We regularly invite external speakers to enhance lesson studies or to develop understanding of different aspects of careers, university applications or successful studying. These have included research-based talks on how to revise, talks from universities and colleges about the university experience and our regular "Future Fridays" events in which we hear from speakers from a range of different careers. 

Team Six is our Sixth Form council, who are involved in organising fundraising events, supporting events and activities with younger year groups and having a say in the activities and facilities provided in Sixth Form. We also have numerous opportunities for volunteering including our reading mentors scheme, and peer support for the Year 8 Pathways process and Year 11 Sixth Form applications. 

Our Duke of Edinburgh Scheme continues to go from strength to strength and we now offer all levels of the award, including gold. Students receive full support with all areas of the scheme including residentials, and students get so much out of their experiences on the scheme.