MANY students who have been less than enthusiastic about school find a more agreeable world waiting for them in the sixth form.

A good sixth-form education is quite different from the first five years of secondary schooling: it provides a bridge between school and the worlds of higher education and work.

Students learn to study in their own time. With a reduction in the number of formal hours of teaching, and greater emphasis on studying alone, students need to learn to organise their work as well as to think for themselves.

Tadcaster Grammar School has seen a significant increase in sixth-form numbers and the school is well on the way to completing the new sixth-form block needed to accommodate the extra students. This follows completion of new science laboratories.

Head teacher Geoff Mitchell says: "This year saw the school's best ever GCSE results when 71 per cent of our students achieved five or more A*-C grades and 30 per cent of the grades achieved were A* and A.

"At A-level, where our students achieved an average points score of 24, the school was placed 15th in the national league table of A-level results.

"These results mark the completion of a very successful year. The hard work of our staff, the high expectations of our students and the support of our parents have all helped to deliver these achievements."

St Peter's School in York is a co-educational boarding and day school for pupils aged 4-18. There is an open morning for St Peter's and St Olave's (the junior school for boys and girls aged 8-13) on Saturday, October 5, 9-30am-noon. This Saturday there is an open morning for the Pre-Prep school, Clifton Preparatory School, 9-30am-11-30am.

The school celebrated a 100 per cent pass rate at A-level this year, with 28 pupils gaining grade A in all subjects taken.

New sixth form scholarships have now been created through the work of the School Foundation and generous donations from outside benefactors. They are to be awarded to scholars who show the greatest aptitude and potential in modern languages, business studies and economics, design and technology, and science - one scholarship per subject per year. Students wishing to hear more about the Sixth Form Foundation Scholarships should contact the school secretary on 623213 for further details.

At Bootham School, there is an open morning on Saturday. Typically, families will spend about two hours in the school, meeting staff, pupils and the headmaster, Ian Small.

He says: "We are finding that more local families who come to look at Bootham think purely in terms of a day school, see the 'flexi-boarding' which we offer and decide to take up a two or three night per week boarding option; this is just one example of how a visit can reveal more about a school than you might at first expect."

For more information about open mornings at Bootham contact admissions tutor Jenny Daly on 623261 or visit the website at www.bootham.york.sch.uk

Updated: 09:09 Wednesday, September 25, 2002