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Showing posts with the label Eton College

More Scores on the Doors - Sunday Times Parent Power Rankings 2024

   As we all know, there is more to a school than rankings! They don't show the rich cultural or sporting lives of a school or indeed differentiate between schools with selective and unselective intakes.   Every year, the Sunday Times produces a ranking of all the schools in the UK based on GCSE and A level performance. This year, the 2024 Sunday Times Parent Power rankings have used A level, IB and GCSE results from 2023. Top schools remain constant with a few new arrivals in the top 20 which have made for interesting results for the normal incumbents!  1: St Paul's Girls 2: Guildford High School 3: St Paul's School  4: North London Collegiate (ranked 1st for GCSE) 5: City of London School for Girls (ranked 10th for GCSE) 6: Tonbridge School (ranked 14th for GCSE) =7: King's College School, Wimbledon =7: Magdalen College School 9: Westminster School  10: King Edward VI High School for Girls    Close but no cigar.. 11: Brighton College Surprise of the year - Wycom

Scores on the doors - the Sunday Times Parent Power Rankings 2022

 As we all know, there is more to a school than rankings! They don't show the rich cultural or sporting lives of a school or indeed differentiate between schools with selective and unselective intakes.   Every year, the Sunday Times produces a ranking of all the schools in the UK based on GCSE and A level performance. This year, the 29th Sunday Times Parent Power rankings have taken an average of results from 2017 - 2019 for their 2021 results (formal exams were disrupted due to the pandemic so schools used centre assessed grades in 2021) and the top ten schools are:   1: St Paul's Girls 2: King's College School, Wimbledon 3: Wycombe Abbey School  4: Magdalen College School 5: Guildford High School  6: St Paul's School  7: Westminster School  8 (joint) Brighton College - City of London School for Girls 10: Sevenoaks We've had Brandon students going on to all schools! Also enormously popular this year for our students are Eton College (11th), Radley (58th) Downe Hou

Interview season - get ready now!

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  Interview Season  If you child is going into year 6 and you are applying to UK selective schools, you will be heading into interview season! Remember these stages:  1: Create your timetable. The first step is going to be taking the ISEB Pre-test (Winchester, Eton, Westminster, St Paul's, Tonbridge) and you need to be ready for this. Try the mock tests on www.pre-quest.com. 2: Think about the different interview styles you might encounter. Will they be group interviews (Wycombe, Downe House, Wellington), individual sessions + testing (St Paul's, Eton) or even academic interviews (Westminster, Winchester). Talk to your child about what to expect. 3: AVOID memorising answers! Schools hate this... INSTEAD... start discussions with your child about their interests and try to encourage them to develop their answers.  4: Choose a book, reading it together and discuss ideas.  5: Look for experiences which will develop your child's interests: visit a museum or gallery, talk about

Our Top TWELVE FAQs from parents about the ISEB Pretest - updated!

Which schools ask for the ISEB pretest? The list has grown! Check here:   Schools like Eton, Winchester, Charterhouse and Wellington will ask your child to sit the ISEB Pre-test ahead of inviting them for an interview. Other schools such as Benenden will ask for the test in addition to their assessment day. Check the admissions pages of the school websites. Top Ten questions from Brandon parents!  1: How do I enter for the ISEB pretest? Once you have registered with your senior schools, they will enter your child once the appropriate year comes around.  2: Where do I take the test? Brandon, of course! Notify your senior school that you are taking the test with us and they will send us test codes.  3: When do I take the test?  Your school will give you a window during which the test must be taken. Some schools have early deadlines. You need to check!  4: So what does the pre-test consist of? The test is taken online and there are four sections: Maths (50 mins) English (25 mins) Non-Verb

"My friend says that the ISEB Pretest pass mark is ... " and other myths!

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  If your child has just taken the ISEB Pre-test as part of their Eton, Winchester, Tonbridge, Charterhouse, Wellington, Cranleigh, St Paul's (continue ad infinitum, see the list here! ) then you may well be surrounded by a fog of panic and misinformation. So here we go, the top myths...  1: There is a pass mark of X... No... there really isn't. Schools use the Pre-Test as part of their application process in conjunction with school reports, references and additional information. Most schools will apply a range to the results they receive from their cohort which may be broader or narrower depending on their intake.  As a rule of thumb: a school with fast-paced teaching and highly academic focus (such as St Paul's), will take the top end of their cohort. A school with excellent support and a broader intake (e.g. Stowe), will use a wider measure.  2: So and so scored 100%... The scores of the test are not released by schools...  3: So and so took the test twice... Not in one

Charity Seminar - What on earth is Common entrance? What are scholarships?

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  Applying to British school application process can be a bit daunting. Why are scholarships known as Election at Winchester and King's Scholarships at Eton?  Wycombe Abbey use the ISEB Common Entrance and Oundle have their own papers, are they the same? Is the 13+ the same as common entrance?  To find the answer to these and other puzzles, join our seminar. Learn from our experience preparing students for UK schools since 2005 and help us to raise money for the needy elderly in Helping Hand care homes. 

Will ISEB exams take place this year?

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13+ and 11+ Common Entrance exams are designed by the Independent Schools' Examination Board. Students sit the exams in their prep schools (or at Branodn for Hong Kong students), and the scripts are sent to individual senion schools for marking. The decision about whether 13+ exams will be issued is made by the ISEB. So far, the ISEB has indicated that they will be producing the summer 2020 papers. With UK schools closed though, the bigger question is where our students will be taking their exams! Individual senior schools may decide that they do not require their 2020 candidates to sit the exams, or may opt for home 'open book' testing. If this is the case, they will contact parents individually and through their schools. Most girls' schools sit the 13+ or 11+ exams in January, with boys' and mixed schools normally opting for the June dates. Eton has made all 2020 offers now unconditional but their boys can choose to sit the exam where p

Choosing a school: what are the co-ed options?

Times are changing and boarding schools are alive to the need to offer options. The traditional single-sex or co-ed division has changed. The diamond structure of schooling (mixed until 11 - single sex until 16 - mixed sixth form)  is possible when single-sex schools are in close proximity. Students benefit from having time to develop at their own pace but can take advantage of a greater range of facilities. Examples include: Berkhamsted School with more to follow (for more information, look at this article from the Spectator:   Insight into diamond schools) Mixed Sixth forms allow schools to offer a breadth of subjects and to introduce a new cohort at 16+. Successful examples include: Westminster and Charterhouse (who recently announced that they will be going fully co-ed!) Schools which remain single-sex but take advantage of geographical proximity to offer joint activities  throughout the school include: Sherborne Girls partnering with Sherborne Boys and St Mary's Ascot wi

The Golden Rules for School Interview Preparation

Here are my top five rules for interviews, none of which are earth-shattering news to most parents but all of which are worth bearing in mind! 5: Understand the format of the interview: will your child be tested (Eton, Westminster) if so, what style is the test? Is there a group interview?  4: Do you have to bring anything to the interview ? A school exercise book? An item to discuss? If so, spend some time discussing the items with your child. Flick through the work book and ask your child to select the piece of work they are proudest of. Ask them why they chose their special item. Choose your own item and compare. Have fun finding out about your child!  3: Is there a dress code? Some schools (e.g. Downe House) ask girls to bring sports kit as part of the day includes a group exercise activity. If you are unsure, call the school. Wearing school uniform is always a safe bet and may help your son or daughter to put themselves into school-mode. If you opt to buy a suit or new

What is the ISEB Pretest? The format explained

Entry to schools used to be relative easy: register, interview, get an offer, sit Common Entrance and start in September. All has changed. Why? Simple: the sheer numbers of students applying to UK schools has increased dramatically and schools have elected to use pre-tests in order to identify applicants who will be able to thrive in their classrooms. So what does the pre-test consist of? The test is taken online and there are four sections: Maths (50 mins) English (25 mins) Non-Verbal reasoning (32 mins) Verbal reasoning (36 mins) Students may take breaks between sections but, once started, the test cannot be paused. A timer at the top of the screen shows the student how much time remains and there is an indicator at the bottom of the screen showing which question number the student is on and how many he/she has left to answer. There are no prizes for finishing first! We recommend that our students pace themselves and aim for accuracy rather than racing though the quest

Time running away? Practising for the ISEB Pre-test

One of the challenges a number of our children appear to be encountering when they are taking the ISEB and other pretests is runnning out of time. The maths section in particular can present problems as students try to extract the problem from the test. Try this: Give you child a sheet of word-based maths problems (e.g. three boys bought a six litre bottle of orange squash which they divided equally amongst them, how much did each boy receive?) and ask your child to write out the resultant sum. As your child becomes faster, increase the complexity of the arithmatic. Include: fractions, percentages, measurements. Allocate time to completing the sheet. Use a large kitchen timer which rings when "time is up" so your child gets used to working to time constraints. Talk to them about how they are going to be dividing his time. You can use the timer technique are you practice verbal/non-verbal reasoning.

Testing for a test! The world of the ISEB Pre-Tests (and others!)

School entry used to be relatively straightforward: apply, interview, take a couple of exams and join. No longer... welcome to the world of the pre-test. Why have pre-tests become so prevalent? A couple of reasons: firstly, the increase in applications to UK schools has put already over-worked admissions departments under incredible strain and pre-tests represent a way of filtering students and reducing the number to a manageable size. More importantly though, schools say that they do not want candidates who have no chance of gaining a place going through the stress of an application. Sounds fair enough... There are a number of pre-tests but I am going to focus on the ISEB pre-test as has been adopted by a number of big schools (Eton, Radley, Wellington, Westminster amongst others) and is therefore a hot topic amongst our parents. What is the ISEB Pre-test? The test consists of four sections: English (25 minutes) Maths (50 minutes) Verbal (36 minutes) Non-Verbal reasoning

Testing for a test! The world of the ISEB (and other) pre-tests

School entry used to be relatively straightforward: apply, interview, take a couple of exams and join. No longer... welcome to the world of the pre-test. Why have pre-tests become so prevalent? A couple of reasons: firstly, the increase in applications to UK schools has put already over-worked admissions departments under incredible strain and pre-tests represent a way of filtering students and reducing the number to a manageable size. More importantly though, schools say that they do not want candidates who have no chance of gaining a place going through the stress of an application. Sounds fair enough... There are a number of pre-tests but I am going to focus on the ISEB pre-test as has been adopted by a number of big schools (Eton, Radley, Wellington, Westminster amongst others) and is therefore a hot topic amongst our parents. What is the ISEB Pre-test? The test consists of four sections: English (25 minutes) Maths (50 minutes) Verbal (36 minutes) Non-Verbal reasoning

What is the difference between Common Entrance and Schools' own papers?

If I had a pound for every time parents had asked me to explain the difference between Common Entrance (11+/13+) and schools' own papers, I would have a nice little pot of savings! So here we go: 1: Common Entrance is an examination created by the ISEB (Independent Schools' Examination Board). The exam is available for a board range of subjects and different levels are available (maths has three for example). Individual schools decide: which papers candidates should sit and, the level required. You need to check requirements with the school (ask for subjects/levels). Registration is done through the ISEB website. Schools are provided with a suggested marking scheme but some adapt to suit their needs (e.g. rewards for correct spelling/forgiveness of incorrect spelling) Depending on the selectivity of the school, Common Entrance could be used to confirm an offer or just for setting purposes. Common Entrance can be sent to ONE school. The only way that it can be used fo