Top head calls for all state schools to take pupils up to 18 Any move towards wholly school-based sixth-form provision would spell the end of England's existing 93 sixth-form colleges, he suggested. The comments came as it emerged that City of London - a leading fee-paying school - was helping to establish a new sixth-form for a nearby east London state comprehensive. Staff from the school will help to train up teachers from Stepney Green Boys School in five disciplines - including maths, science and history - to enable them to deliver the subjects at A-level. They will also work together on lesson planning and syllabus organisation as part of an £80,000 project. Mr Levin said that all independent and grammar schools with a track record of successful A-level teaching should take part in similar projects. It coincides with the introduction of Government reforms that require all pupils to remain in some form of education or training up to the age of 18 by 2015. Around 1,000 schools currently only take pupils up to 16. But Mr Levin said: "In an ideal world I would want all successful schools to have a sixth-form. Now that we are moving to a system of compulsory education up to the age of 18, I don't think the sixth-form college model is to be encouraged. It is out-dated and we should be concentrating on the capacity of schools to take pupils up to 18. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said that 11-to-16 schools "limit pupils" ambitions and struggle to appoint the best staff." "Every secondary school teacher who loves their subject wants to teach in the sixth-form," he said. But David Igoe, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said evidence from the National Audit Office showed that his members performed better and were more financially efficient than schools. "The headmaster of City of London School may have his own reasons for arguing that we do not need sixth form colleges but they are not based on rational arguments or any concern for value-for-money," he said. Sixth form colleges do a brilliant job providing world class sixth form education leading to university entrance and employment with Government funding which is less than a third of the fees charged by the average independent school.