St Perpetua’s Sixth Form College

As part of the job offer St Perpetua’s has sent you several brochures about itself and what they expect from you.

St Perpetua’s is a prestigious all-girl private Sixth Form College, for girls aged 16-18. It has nearly 200 students across its 2 years, the Lower Sixth (for girls aged 16-17) and the Upper Sixth (for girls aged 17-18).

All girls are studying for their A-Levels. These are nationwide exams, which tend to take place in the summer at the end of the academic year. The scores in these exams are one factor used to determine which universities the girls will go to for further education, or whether they go to university at all.

For most subjects (of which history is one) each year is divided into 3 streams, keeping classes small for best educational outcomes. The extra information provided suggests that each stream holds between 5 and 10 students. The A-stream is for the best students in the year, generally academically inclined and interested in the subject, the B-stream is for those for whom the subject is not their main priority, whilst the C-stream is for the others. The way you should interpret this is those in the C-stream will be the biggest problem when it comes to teaching.

(For the purposes of this story Lower Sixth lessons may well be mentioned in passing, but no details of these lessons will ever be given. For the Upper Sixth only girls who have celebrated their 18th birthday will ever be mentioned in the text. All girls mentioned by name will be over 18 at the time their names are mentioned.)