The application process for independent
senior schools is a bit of a mine-field as all schools handle it a bit
differently and there aren’t any hard and fast rules. Some schools ask for
pre-testing and/or interview prior to offering the opportunity to sit for places
at 13+ through Common Entrance and other schools do not. One rule doesn’t cover
all schools – sadly!
As a general rule of thumb,
with some exceptions meaning parents should always check carefully with the
schools they are considering, registration with the senior school and visiting
it to review the suitability of its provision for your individual child, should
be made while the child is in School Year 5 (Age 9 on 31st August)
or School Year 6 (Age 10 on 31st August) and a final decision as
to your first choice of senior school should be made by School Year 7 (Age 11
on 31st August). Deposits to confirm places, conditional on Common
Entrance results, are generally paid by parents between 12 and 18 months prior
to entry to the senior school. Parents, in conjunction with the advice of the
prep school, really should know their senior school choice decision by this
time.
If the school has a
pre-testing process, you and your child will be invited to the school during
year 6 or 7 depending on the school, to take part in a pre-assessment day. This
is likely to involve your child sitting some tests in Maths and English or
possibly a more general aptitude test such as Verbal and/or Non-Verbal
reasoning tests which may be in paper or online format. It is also likely that
they will have an interview with a Housemaster or Housemistress, so it is
important to prepare them in advance to answer questions with confidence about
their interests, strengths, what they hope to try that is new and why they
would like to attend this school in particular. If their first language is not
English, they will also need to demonstrate that they have a good enough grasp
of spoken and written English to assure the school that they will be able to
access the curriculum fully. The school is also likely to contact the Head of
their current school to ask for a report on their aptitude, attitude and
potential. For this reason, it is very important to listen to the advice of the
Head of your child’s current school when making a short-list of potential
senior schools. They know your child well and experience of working with senior
schools over many years means they are best able to evaluate which school best
meets the individual interests and capabilities of your child.
If successful in the pre-test,
your child will be offered a place at the school, conditional on their passing
the Common Entrance test at the end of year 8. If the school does not have a
pre-testing process, you will be asked to confirm that they are your first
choice of school and that your child will be sitting Common Entrance for a
place at this school.
In addition to the above, it
is also possible after pre-test that your child may be offered a place on the
waiting list, or declined a place at all. With this in mind, you will need to
make sure that you have back-up options ready, should your child not be offered
a place nearer to the time from the waiting list, or if they are declined a
place at time of pre-test.
Common Entrance, often
shortened to CE, is the collective name for the examinations taken at age 11 or
13 for entry into independent senior or public school.
Examinations are taken by
all children in English, Maths and Science. History, Geography, French, German,
Spanish, Religious Studies, Greek or Latin are also offered. The number and
range of subjects taken depends on the entry criteria for the chosen senior
school and the capability of the candidate. For example, children who do not
have English as their first language are often required to sit fewer subjects,
but this is dependent on how long they have been studying in the UK prior to
sitting the CE exams.
The syllabus and question
papers are set and monitored by the Independent Schools Examinations Board
(ISEB) The exams are supervised by the prep schools and take place in November,
January or most commonly June. The papers are marked by the parents' chosen
senior school and each senior school has an accepted CE pass mark, which they
expect children to reach to gain entry.
A report from the Head of
the child's current school is also required.
Resources for Common
Entrance exam practice at home can be found on the Galore Park website
www.galorepark.co.uk
The relationship between the
prep school and parent is key to this process and they are the ones who should
be advising on which school is right for the child and if it is worth trying
for a scholarship. A parent might feel that their child is fantastic at sport
and is in all the first teams. However, he might be at a small prep school
where most of the children have to be in the first team! Without comparisons it
is difficult for parents to gauge their children’s abilities against
expectations and so it is best to take advice from the prep school, who should
know all about the scholarships their senior schools offer. Parents can find
information about scholarships on school websites and should take note of what
the senior schools require for a child to be eligible as well as looking at
past papers to gauge the level.
The Common Entrance list
(i.e. the senior school for which the child is sitting Common Entrance) is
published centrally so all senior schools can access it. A child can only be
down on this list for one first-choice senior school, as this is the school
that will mark their CE papers.
This list is published on 1
March of the year of entry.
If a child doesn’t appear on
the list of a school where the parents have paid a deposit to confirm the offer
of a place, perhaps because it is considered to be their ‘back up’ option,
there is a risk in doing this that their child may be taken off the ‘back up’
school list and is unlikely that there will be a refund of the deposit. The
place may then be allocated to another child from the waiting list. Honesty is
often the best policy here so the senior schools know exactly where they are in
your ‘pecking’ order and why. They can then open up the possibility of that
place to another child.
We support 100's of families each year with the transition process between prep and senior school. As well as
choosing the right senior school for your individual child, we can help with interview and pre-test preparation, understanding the timeline for applications as well as calming parent nerves! For more details of how we can help visit our website by clicking this link Choosing the right UK senior school
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