13+ academic scholarship

[Suki2]

I've been looking at the recent thread about music scholarships at 11+ with interest.

I'm planning for my son to go to boarding school at age 13, year 9, and am hoping he'll get an academic scholarship. His teacher mentioned this to me; he's effortlessly top of the class and usually top of his year, but there are only 88 in his year in a non selective school, so it's very difficult for me to see if he's just bright or exceptional.

Does anyone have any experience of an academic scholarship? He's now year 6, and I'm happy to give him a little extra work, but not sure what I should be doing to increase his chances. He loves school work, so wouldn't object to doing something over and above his homework.

[amerryscot]

Is he currently in a 13+ prep school?

[LIZS]

Depends on the school, some will use the ISEB Common Academic Scholarship papers , others will just select based on performance in their regular entrance papers or CE. Preparation for each voer the next 2 yeasr will differ. CAS tends to demand an ability to apply knowledege to a generalised topic or argument, pretty much as used to be for A level, or a higher level and tuition can be very intense. Does his current school go to 13+?

[Colleger]

88 is a big year group or do you mean 88 in the school? If the former then to be top of 88 is good. He shouldn't need any extra help and I'd leave it to the school. Scholarships are about a higher level of thinking not knowing more. Where do you intend for him to apply to?

[Suki2]

No he isn't in a 13+ prop school, amerryscot. He's in an international primary school; we're based abroad (hence the need for a boarding school aged 13).

Lizs thanks for this info; it makes me realize how little I know about these matters. I went to a comprehensive and know nothing about scholarships. The school we're looking at is Shrewsbury; I don't know if they use their own papers or the ISEB one you're talking about; I know that they wouldn't give him the CE exam as his school doesn't prepare for this. We're also going to look at other boarding schools, just not sure which ones yet.

I want to ensure that he gets the best shot at passing any exams thrown at him at age 13, entrance or scholarship, but feel a little in the dark.

How would a child be prepared for the CAS? Or the CE exam? I know Galore Park have some CE exam past papers.

[amerryscot]

The normal way to prepare students for scholarship is to have a scholarship class in their prep school. Depending on the size of school, this would be a stream for all their subjects, or it might just be an extra lesson a few times a week.

It would be typical to go through the scholarship papers for their chosen schools and discussing how they would tackle the questions.

As you are coming from a non-standard route, you need to work with the senior school to see what they want and how you can give your son the best chance possible.

The typical procedure for entrance to a 13+ public school is a pre-test in year 6 or 7, followed by CE in June of Year 8. If doing scholarship, it is anything from January to June of Year 8.

The pre-test is typically verbal and non-verbal reasoning and mathematics. It is a measure of the child's potential rather than what they already know. The CEE, IMO, is a bit of a formality. Very few students fail, as the selection is really made at the pre-test.

If you want to do scholarship work with your son, you need to get past papers from the school. Each school is a bit different, so the preparation should be for the right one. The knowledge needed is the whole KS3 curriculum, so you will need to do some work to help him cover Y9 work.

[grovel]

Shrewsbury don't have a pre-test. I strongly recommend that you arrange a visit to the school (through the Registrar). This will give you a chance to discuss all this with the Registrar and Headmaster who will have "dealt with international children" loads of times.

[missmiss]

I'm not sure about Shrewsbury but many senior schools base their scholarship papers on the ISEB CE syllabus. The syllabus is available here for free. Be careful - he will probably be expected to have French and Latin (at the very least French) at a high level: scholarship Latin is more advanced than GCSE Latin!

If you are currently abroad, could you move him to a prep school as a boarder for years 7 and 8? Most prep schools begin the CE course in year 6 or 7, so he would have time to get up to speed with requirements. If not, he will have to do quite a lot of independent work t make sure he's at the appropriate level.

*Disclaimer: some schools will waive the Common Entrance requirement for pupils coming from abroad - they can sometimes sit a test more similar to the school's pre-test instead, along with providing recommendations from their current school. However, as the academic scholarship tends to be very competitive, I'm not sure how many allowances a school like Shrewsbury would make. Their Head is keen to drive up academic standards at the moment so may prefer tangible proof of achievement within the public school curriculum.

[Idratherbemuckingout]

If he's already in year 6 you need to do some serious research as some schools close their books pretty soon.

[missmiss]

As grovel said, it's definitely worth speaking to the registrar: if you've got one particular school in mind, then you need to find out their specific entrance criteria and what allowances they'd be prepared to make.

Idratherbenuckingout - I'm pretty sure Shrewsbury will take pupils all the way through year 8 if there are available places. I agree it's best to get moving though!

[Suki2]

Colleger yes it's a big school! Agree with you up to a point that extra help shouldn't need to be given but I've recently had friends whose children have applied to boarding schools and not passed the exam to get in (not scholarship); apparently the exam went above what's taught in the schools here, so they felt their children didn't stand a chance, particularly in maths. My son has extension work given in maths (within the top maths set), so I'm happy but still aware that it may not be enough.

Grovel and missmiss thank you I understand that I should visit the school and in fact am going to do so at the earliest opportunity; more difficult from abroad. I'd love to put DS in a prep school for years 7 and 8 from the point of view of preparing him properly for boarding school but at the same time don't want him to board before age 13, so am not going to go down that route.

I think that Shrewsbury don't take children before age 13, but understand he needs to be registered.

Thank you for the ISEB link, it looks very useful. I think I need to get more information from the schools we're looking at particularly regarding how the academic scholars are chosen. The whole of the KS3 syllabus seems wide, but on the other head has to be learnt at some point!

[grovel]

Suki, can you tell us where you are? Friends of ours in Dubai found a tutor to supplement the international school and prepare their DS for Common Entrance.

[LIZS]

What curriculum does his current school follow ? Standard UK NC won't work on the specific skills and syllabus for CE papers let alone CAS. However Galore Park is one publisher, think ISEB do some materials and ds used a Letts KS3 Workbook for Science. Agree most will have other options for those applying from non Prep schools and abroad so you need to speak to each individually. Also I know of several schools which have closed applications for Sept 2014 already, even though they have yet to pretest in year 6.

[Suki2]

School follows the Uk NC. I'm a bit reluctant to say where we are as the internet is not anonymous, but we will be moving to Abu Dhabi, I hope we can find a tutor there. How did your friends go about finding a tutor, Grovel?

I think I've realized that a standard international school won't prepare him properly for the CE, but I think that he will take the boarding schools' own non CE exam, and also, with Galore Park books and KS3 books, I hope to cover some ground not covered by his school; he works well with me.

I think in some ways it would be clearer if he was taking the CE exam, as at least then I'd know what material to cover.

I need to talk to individual schools to see how they assess their scholarships.

[basildonbond]

If you're going to be in Abu Dhabi have you looked at the new branch of Brighton College which opened this year? It is very closely connected with the 'home' school (i.e. not just a franchise using the name/branding) so should have a much better idea of what's required by British schools

[LIZS]

BC don't require CE for 13+ entry, there are alternatives for those coming from non-CE schools.

[MABS]

BC in Abu Dhabi is brilliant, but quite oversubscribed so I wouldn't waste time. I should have been livining in AD now and my kids were accepted there, but for various yukky reasons we ended up staying here :(