Islanders are incurring huge travel and accommodation costs to be able to attend sixth form.
In England (since 2015), all young people must be in education, training or employment until the age of 18. This is causing a unique problem for young people in the Isles of Scilly as there is no sixth form provision in their local authority. In fact, it is only one of two (the other being the City of London) local authorities in England without any sixth form provision. This means young islanders are having to travel to the mainland if they want to attend sixth form – incurring travel and accommodation costs.
In this BBC article, it is estimated that accommodation options for these students (including staying with host families) costs around £9,000 a year, but for state boarding this would be around £16,500 a year. Plus, of course, all the travel costs on top of this. This year, parents can receive a £9,635 grant (an increase from last year) towards travel and accommodation, but many argue this isn’t enough – especially for those whose children are in boarding schools. The council has asked for more funding which is to be considered in the government’s next spending review.
Parents are also mindful of safeguarding, particularly as host family DBS certificates are ‘optional’. 1 Some parents argued that while boarding options are more expensive, they felt safer having their children living in their schools rather than staying with families they didn’t know.
It is notable that, ‘Scilly has one of the highest proportions of 16 and 17 year olds not in education, employment or training.’ Which could, of course, be in part due to the difficulties of accessing and affording sixth form education. 1
- Ricks, R. (2025) ‘Compulsory education ‘costing islanders thousands”. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14xxen2py0o (Accessed: 09 June 2025)
