Research needs to be done to find out why so many Powys school pupils are leaving the county to continue their sixth form education.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet on Tuesday, May 13 councillors agreed to start discussions to shape the way post-16 education is conducted in Powys.

The aim is to address the exodus of sixth form pupils from the county, improve A-level outcomes, and make the post-16 education system in Powys more financially sustainable.

A report to cabinet revealed that in 2023/24, 24.5 per cent of Powys A-level pupils achieved A* to A grades – below the Wales average of 30 per cent. Meanwhile, 73.1 per cent of Powys students achieved A* to C grades, also falling short of the national average of 78 per cent.

In 2022, the council introduced the Chweched Powys Sixth model, aiming to create a more collaborative, digitally connected approach to post-16 learning. The model allows pupils in one part of the county to be taught certain sixth form subjects by teachers based at schools many miles away.

Education portfolio holder Cllr Pete Roberts (Liberal Democrat) said: “When we look at the wider issues, I do agree that the Chweched model has not delivered in a way we expected it to.”

He believed there was “no reason” why pupils in the county should be “underperforming” and receiving results especially below the Welsh average “unless we are losing our brightest and our best.”

Cllr Roberts said: “I want to see greater depth in that analysis because it is very easy to look at the headline figures and say there is a problem, when in actual fact if we had all of our pupils staying in our schools, we should be achieving significantly higher (results) than this.

“We need to understand why.”

He believed this could be added to the final report.

Director of education Dr Richard Jones said: “We’ve noted those points, they are for a future paper after the engagement work has taken place.

“The point you make is that we cannot uncouple key stage five (16 -18 years) from the implications on key stage, four, three and two.”

Cabinet member for a safer Powys Cllr Richard Church (Liberal Democrat) said: “The prime objective is that young people have a range of choice and a quality of teaching that they have a right to expect.

“The young people’s voices are the most important in this.

“Those coming up to post-16 education and those who are in it.

“I’m also interested in the views of those who are just leaving it and are moving on to university or other careers, as they will have been through the system and have the most recent experience in it.”

He said that he would be interested in “comparing” the views of those who had studied in a “school” or “college” environment to find out “which they might prefer.”

Cllr Church hopes this could be done before the end of the summer term “before they leave for university when it would be difficult to track them down.”

Dr Jones said: “It is encouraging to be asked for that deep engagement with the youth voice.”

Dr Jones explained that a strand of the engagement proceed would be to “capture” the opinions of these youngsters.

“We will have the right level of consultation with right range of young people,” added Dr Jones.