ABSTRACT
Of the various forms of post-sixteen education, the sixth form college is probably the most glamorous. Although the private Atlantic College and the War Office’s Welbeck College were set up for post-sixteen education before the creation of the first sixth form colleges, they do not seem to have been used as prototypes or as sources of legitimacy. The origin of the idea of the sixth form college is generally associated with the Croydon plan for the introduction of such a college-a plan that was never put into operation. On the basis of accounts made mainly by headteachers and education officers, it is clear that sixth form colleges vary in size, organisation and, most significantly in the view of some commentators, in their conditions of entry. The literature of the sixth form college is in part descriptive but mainly consists of discussions of the cases for and against the arrangement.
