Long Road Sixth Form College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Long Road Sixth Form College | |
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| Established | 1974 |
| School type | Sixth form college |
| Principal | Sandra Hamilton-Fox |
| Location | Cambridge, England |
| Enrollment | Roughly 2000 students |
| Homepage | www.longroad.ac.uk/ |
Long Road Sixth Form College (LRSFC) is a sixth form college in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is situated on Long Road, from which it draws its name, and is close to Addenbrooke's Hospital.
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[edit] History
The college was established in 1974 and occupies a 23-acre site. Prior to this it was the Cambridgeshire High School for Girls. A significant portion of the college's current buildings date from this period, although there has been extensive renovation and the construction of three entirely new blocks, as well as a new sports centre that opened in 2005 (the college's first new sports building since 1939). Other recent renovation projects included the expansion of the Learning Resource Centre and the creation of two new classrooms.
[edit] The college today
The college has approximately 2,000 full-time students enrolled, the majority of whom are between the ages of 16 and 19. Most of these students study on AS and A-Level courses, although an increasing number are taking National Diploma courses or Vocational A-Levels) and many also study on one-year GCSE courses (typically 10%). The college is considered very successful in terms of "Value Added" results, that is to say that post-16 students at the college tend to achieve A-Level grades above what their GCSE results would suggest they would obtain. In terms of added value, Long Road could be considered to outperform nearby Hills Road Sixth Form College. The college is also typified by its custom of all members of staff, regardless of seniority, being referred to by their first names, which fosters a sense of "informality".
Around 75% of students go onto Higher Education from Long Road each year and students tend to apply for a broad range of different universities, from redbricks to former-polytechnics. A significant proportion of students each year also go into full-time work, often in management traineeships, or take a gap year before further study or work.
[edit] The Hills Road - Long Road debate
Long Road is one of the two main state funded-sixth form colleges in Cambridge, the other being Hills Road, which is located nearby. There is often a large amount of debate, particularly among secondary school students considering which sixth form to apply for, over which of the two colleges is better. While Hills Road students achieve higher grades, Long Road appears to 'add more value' - that is, Long Road students develop more over their period at the college. Various interpretations could be put on this data: it could be that Long Road mops up less able students and tackles the inadequacies of 11-16 schools, or caters well for a range of students with different GCSE experiences and qualifications.
[edit] Alumni
- P. D. James - when the school was the Cambridgeshire High School for Girls.
End of the College day
[edit] External links
[edit] Trivia
It has been suggested that the school was referred to in the 1967 hit single 'Arnold Layne' composed by Syd Barrett of The Pink Floyd. According to Roger Waters, 'Arnold Layne' and his 'strange hobby' was actually inspired by a real-life episode from Waters and Barrett's Cambridge youth, after both their widowed mothers took in women lodgers from the nearby Cambridgeshire High School for Girls on Long Road.
