On 20th March 2020 Townsend School closured due to Government guidelines.
Staff were required to provide work through online platforms and provide resources for home learning, however, few live teaching lessons took place until after May half term, where individual teachers would hold online lessons for students. On 15th June 2020, year 12 returned to school for a 3-hour subject specific masterclass in each of their A Level subjects spread over a 4-week period. As well as this masterclass, students were still provided with online resources and online lessons, via uploaded narrated PowerPoints or live online lessons to raise questions and develop understanding of topics being covered.
Although we are a secondary school in St Albans, much of our intake is from places outside of St Albans. Our current year 13 is made up of 27% of students from St Albans and 73% from areas outside of St Albans. As a sixth form we take students from the top 9, 27 & 60% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We are a small cohort of 48 students in year 13 currently. We have approximately 70-80% of students’ progress to higher education each year.
As a sixth form we offer the traditional 3 A Level route, with no entries into AS exams except where appropriate for individual students. We offer students the option to take Further Mathematics as a 4th A Level and EPQ as an additional qualification. Three years ago we introduced a vocational qualification – offering the diploma and extended diploma in Health and Social Care. Students taking this qualification are taught in lessons covering both year 12 and 13 topics and separate year 12 and 13 units. We feel that these routes and individual programmes of study are the most suitable options for our students and careful planning goes into individual study programmes.
Predicted grades have been formulated through a range of data, including recent October assessments for year 13 based on work completed throughout year 12, with a period of recap and revision since September 2020.