Silverdale School

Bents Crescent, Sheffield, S11 9HQ

About us

At Silverdale our aim is to provide the opportunities, encouragement and guidance to enable every student to develop their abilities and achieve their potential. Our students benefit from a safe and secure environment, clear guidelines and high expectations as well as individual support from their form tutor. Staff work hard with students and parents to ensure that these basic principles are a daily part of school life. This genuine partnership is based on open communication and the belief that by working together we can achieve continuing success for all at Silverdale. We believe this provides increased opportunities for our pupils and the wider school community, that extend to our primary and secondary partners, and the local and international community. We aim to create a learning culture that is international, technological, enterprising and vocational in which all young people experience success. All courses are offered subject to sufficient demand. We will inform students as soon as possible if a course is no longer available.

Application Instructions

Students should ensure that they meet the entry requirements for the courses they are applying for (available on subject pages) as well as the overall entry requirements (5 grades at level 4 or above but must include English and Maths).

Students need to choose a minimum of three subjects to study. Please note that all of our BTEC courses are single BTEC's and equivalent to 1 A Level, you will need to choose two further subjects if choosing a BTEC course.

Please ensure you have put contact details for yourself and a parent should we need to contact you.

Student support

The school inclusion and special needs unit is available to offer assistance to Sixth Form students with specific learning needs. In addition, all students undertake a study skills programme at the beginning of Year 12. Those in need of additional help are identified and supported . Sixth Form students also have access to the school inclusion team who provide support and advice on a wide range of emotional issues as well as acting as a link between the school and more specialised outside agencies. All students are encouraged to undertake enrichment and supercurricular learning activities alongside their studies. This aims to ensure that students develop a wide range of skills in addition to their academic success to support applications to university, apprenticeships or employment. All Sixth Form students are encouraged to join in a wide range of extra-curricular activities. These include regular drama productions and music events. Our Sixth Form Head Team, are very active in organising events with the lower school, fund raising for local and international charities and co-ordinating the school council.

What makes us different?

Silverdale is proud of its diverse Sixth Form and welcomes students from a wide range of backgrounds. We provide a wide range of challenging A Level, BTEC and other Level 3 courses, whilst offering students the individual support they need to succeed through a structured tutorial programme. All students have regular meetings with their form tutor allowing accurate academic monitoring of every student as well as effective pastoral support.

We are very fortunate to have a new building, housing the sixth form centre, with excellent facilities available to sixth form students. There is a Sixth Form common room including vending machines and a separate study area, with access to the library in the main building. Our school has a wealth of modern up-to-date facilities, as well as a dedicated drama studio, and several ICT and art rooms (including laptops for loan in the sixth form common room).

Transport

Please use the South Yorkshire travel planner https://journeyplanner.travelsouthyorkshire.com/ to see which buses to use. The school address is Bents Crescent, Bents Green, Sheffield, S11 9QH

Additional information

Silverdale Sixth Form regularly achieves the highest A Level results in the city, as judged by our Level 3 Value Added score. Our Sixth Form was also ranked in the top 1% of all Sixth Forms in the country by ALPS, an organisation that measures student progress at A level based on GCSE attainment. All of our students progressed into either employment, apprenticeships or Higher Education courses at the end of their time in our Sixth Form, 90% of our students progress into Higher Education, some after a gap year, with 60% going to Russell Group Universities. We are ranked in the top 100 comprehensive schools in the country for admissions to Oxbridge. In 2020 we were given the State School of the North Award by the Sunday Times and in 2022 the sixth form was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.