ABSTRACT
The sixth form is the institution through which full time academic education was traditionally offered to students in England and Wales in the age range fifteen to nineteen. The public schools which nurtured the sixth form were, at the beginning of the century, an aristocratic institution. The history of the sixth form is part of the history of the development of educational forms and structures which proceeded through most of the nineteenth century with minimal state intervention. By the time that sixth forms became established in state secondary schools, a clear link had grown up between sixth forms, public examinations and entry to universities, though by no means all sixth formers were aiming at higher education. Structural and social conceptions of democracy imply different roles for education. The notion of democracy has, for two centuries, played a central role in the development of English political thought and structures, yet it remains an elusive conception, adaptable to many circumstances and purposes.
