Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, City of London Academy

A strong personal statement highlights your interests, goals, and alignment with the sixth form’s values. For tips, visit our personal statement guide. https://sixthform.london/personal-statement-tips-2026/

For The NCS, your personal statement should be up to 800 words, with an additional 500 words for hobbies and interests.

Applications for sixth forms typically open in January. It’s best to start preparing in the autumn term by researching institutions and gathering required documents an information. At The NCS applications will open on January 1st 2026 and close at 18:00 on 13th February 2026.

You’ll need to meet our general and subject-specific entry requirements. Visit our entry requirements page for details. https://sixthform.london/ncs-entry-requirements/

You can apply to multiple sixth forms, but tailor each application to show why you’re a good fit for that institution.

A strong application demonstrates your academic ability, personal interests, and enthusiasm for your chosen subjects. Tailor your personal statement to align with The NCS’ ethos.

You’ll need the following: Your personal email address (not a school email). If you don’t have one, you can easily setup a free account with Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, etc. Your parent / guardian contact details. Predicted grades and Unique Learner Number (ULN). A completed personal statement. Referee details (typically your Head of Year). SEND students with an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC) should provide it in the relevant section of the application form.

No, so ensure everything is accurate before submission.

No. You can save your progress and return to the form at a later point. This will allow you to complete it at your own pace and check the contents. However, you must submit your completed form by the deadline.

No! You gain no advantage from being the first to submit your form. We’d much rather you spent the time checking the content and making sure you submit the best application possible. However, you must submit your form by the deadline.

Yes. You will need to provide details of a teacher at your current school. This is usually your year head. You will need to provide their email address.

We try to confirm references as quickly as possible. However, do not panic if we don’t contact referees to check your statement and predicted grades are accurate immediately. We received over 4000 applications last year and it takes some time to contact every single referee.

We aim to notify all applicants by 31st May. Please do not contact us before this date.

Yes. There’s a reason why it’s called a personal statement. Ensure you use your own words, character, ambitions, skills, and experience to tell us why you want to study with us and are a great candidate for the subjects chosen. Read our guide on writing personal statements to get a full idea of what will make you stand out from the crowd, Our application system uses detection software to quickly identify statements that have been written by (in part or full) AI language models and/or have been plagiarised. Any detected use of AI or plagiarised content may invalidate a student’s application to join us.