Posts Tagged ‘independent schools’

Debate of the week: Children denied their first choice of school

Monday, March 8th, 2010

It’s a tough time for thousands of Year Six pupils and their families. Last Monday was “national offer day”, when local councils send out letters to around 540,000 families across the country to let them know whether they had been given a place at their preferred choice of secondary school.

Sadly, around 100,000 children were left disappointed as they were told that they would be unable to attend their first choice school.

That’s even more children left out in the cold than last year, when around 91,000 children and their families were forced to reconsider their secondary school options.

Experts say that this increase has happened because many parents who may have opted for an independent school have applied to state schools because of their changed financial circumstances.

The admissions criteria for state schools have changed in recent times and certainly seem to be quite complicated. However, they don’t appear to be working. If we invite children to apply for places at their preferred schools, then these preferred schools should have places for them. Otherwise, what’s the point? We may as well go back to the old days when everyone lumped in together and simply went to the school that was nearest to them.

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5 online resources for scholarship exams

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Thanks to the economic climate, more pupils than ever are sitting scholarship exams for independent schools with the help of private or home tutors. Help your child to beat off the competition with these resources.

1. A great starting point here – FundingEducation.co.uk gives a good overview of the types of academic scholarships available and how to get them.

http://www.fundingeducation.co.uk/tips-achieving-scholarship.html

2. Tonbridge School, an independent school in Kent, has very detailed information about its scholarship examinations. A good insight into the process from a school’s perspective.

 http://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/admissions/scholarships/

3. The Independent Schools Council not only provides information about school scholarships but also helps you to search for schools which provide them.

http://www.isc.co.uk/ParentZone_Scholarships.htm

4. Music scholarships are becoming increasingly popular. This excellent article from The Times investigates what’s required of music scholars.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1029830.ece

5. First Tutors recommends a range of excellent study aids in a range of subjects, designed to help your child get lots of practise before their scholarship exams.

http://www.firsttutors.com/uk/learning-resources.php

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Debate of the week: All work and no play

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Teachers, tutors and educational campaigners have expressed alarm at today’s announcement that a state school with a 10 hour working day is to be piloted in the UK.

Based on a charter school programme in America, the new academy will open at 7.30am and run until 5pm or 5.30pm to “maximise opportunities for learning”. The philosophy behind the programme, which is being piloted by the Sutton Trust, is honourable: the idea is to give children from deprived areas the same educational opportunities as those whose parents can afford to send them to private schools or pay for private tutors.

However, our view at First Tutors is that quality, rather than quantity, is the key issue. Independent and public schools have smaller class sizes, more 1-to-1 attention and pay top dollar for the best teachers; furthermore parents are often in a position to pay for home tuition if a child needs extra help with a particular subject.

Many state schools are over-populated and under-funded and the pupils get little – if any – individual attention. We do not believe children simply need longer working days; rather, they need the same quality of education that is available in the independent sector.

We also believe that children benefit from a well-rounded education, rich with extra-curricular activities. If they’re at school for 10 hours a day, what opportunities will they have to learn instruments, join the Scouts or simply play with their friends?

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GCSE results show 20% of entries received A or A*

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

750,000 students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their GCSE results today. An analysis of overall trends in this year’s GCSE results yields findings almost identical to those of last week’s A-level results.

These were the main trends:

  • One in five exam papers received an A or A* grade – the best GCSE results to date.
  • The overall pass rate was 98.6%.
  • The gap between boys and girls has narrowed, with boys performing better than girls in Maths for the first time since 1997, although girls performed slightly better in most other subjects.
  • The number of pupils sitting GCSE English and English literature and scoring a C or above fell by 0.2%.
  • There has been a decline in the number of pupils taking language GCSEs – this statistic has declined each year since 2005 when the government removed the mandatory requirement for pupils to take at least one language GCSE.

It seems that the choice of school makes all the difference to pupils’ overall performance at GCSE. Grammar schools yielded the best results this year, with 55% of all GCSE exams receiving an A or A*. This figure was 53.7% for independent schools and just 17.3% for comprehensives. However, the biggest year-on-year improvement came from private schools, who experienced a 2.5% increase in the number of A and A* grades awarded, compared with 0.4% in grammars and 0.9% in comprehensives.

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