If your sixth form admissions process kicks off in the autumn of Year 11, you're operating on a remarkably short runway.
By the time students attend your open evening, submit applications, and go through interviews, you're making critical staffing and curriculum decisions based on just a few months of data - and often, a fair amount of guesswork.
Some schools are starting to change this. They're engaging with Year 10 students - both internal and external - much earlier, not to formally recruit, but to gauge sentiment and build a pipeline.
Sentiment analysis, not early offers
To be clear, this isn't about pressuring 15-year-olds into commitments. It's about understanding the landscape.
When a multi-academy trust we work with started surveying their Year 10 cohort about post-16 intentions, they discovered something surprising: the students they assumed were "definites" for their sixth form weren't nearly as certain as expected - and a pocket of students they'd written off were genuinely interested but hadn't been engaged.
This kind of early sentiment data is invaluable for:
- Curriculum planning - knowing which A-level and BTEC courses are likely to be viable before you commit staffing
- Targeted engagement - focusing open evening invitations and taster days on the students most likely to benefit
- Spotting retention risks early - if your internal Year 10s are already looking elsewhere, you have time to respond
Use expression of interest forms, not application forms
The mechanism doesn't need to be heavy. A simple expression-of-interest form - shared digitally, perhaps linked from a Year 10 parents' evening communication - can capture:
- Which subjects a student is considering
- Whether they're thinking about your sixth form or alternatives
- What would influence their decision
This isn't a binding application. It's a conversation starter. And it gives your sixth form leadership team real data to work with, rather than anecdotes from corridor conversations.
Applicaa's expression of interest forms are designed for exactly this. You can share them with Year 10 students and parents, capture subject preferences, and feed that data straight into your planning - without creating any sense of formal commitment. The responses sit alongside your wider admissions data, so you can see the full picture developing over time.
💡 Tip: Frame it positively for parents and students - something like: "Help us shape next year's sixth form offer - tell us what you're interested in." It's collaborative, not coercive.
Taster days that actually inform decisions
Once you've captured early interest, taster days become far more powerful. Rather than running a generic one-size-fits-all event, you can offer students a personalised experience based on the subjects they've expressed interest in.
With Applicaa's Events module, students choose which subject sessions to attend, and the system generates personalised timetables for each student. You can even limit taster day options to the subjects a student has applied for or been offered - keeping the day focused and relevant.
It's a better experience for the student, and it gives you a much clearer signal about genuine demand for each course.
Internal vs external: two different challenges
For your own Year 10s and 11s, communication is straightforward - it falls under normal school communications and there are no data protection hurdles. You already have their details.
External students are different. You can't cold-contact them using data you hold for other purposes (ICO guidance is clear on this). But you can make your expression-of-interest forms publicly available - on your website, on school listing platforms, at community events - and let interested families come to you. Once they've opted in, you have a legitimate basis to stay in touch.
This is where ApplicaaOne comes in. Think of it as a discovery platform for sixth forms - similar in concept to what UCAS does for universities. External students can browse sixth form options, explore your course offering, and register their interest, all in one place. It extends your reach well beyond families who already know your school exists.
One school told us they now treat their sixth form recruitment like a 12-month cycle rather than a 12-week sprint. They publish events and open evenings on ApplicaaOne year-round, capture expressions of interest from Year 10 onwards, and by the time formal applications open, they already know their likely cohort.
Track it, compare it, plan from it
Early engagement only pays off if you can see the data clearly. Applicaa's Insights dashboard lets you compare registrations and applications year-on-year, so you can spot trends:
- Are more students expressing interest this year than last?
- Are certain subjects gaining or losing appeal?
- Is your external reach growing?
These aren't vanity metrics. They're the numbers that drive curriculum viability decisions, staffing plans, and marketing spend.
The payoff: fewer February panics
Every head of sixth form knows the February anxiety: are we going to have enough students to run three classes of Psychology? Is Economics viable? Should we have offered Engineering instead?
When you start gathering data in Year 10, those February conversations shift from panic to planning. You're not guessing - you're refining. And that makes for a better sixth form, better timetabling, and ultimately a better experience for the students who enrol.
The bottom line: Year 10 isn't too early. It's exactly the right time to start listening.
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