Queen Ethelburga's Harrogate anyone?

[TessTing]

We just had another prospectus brought home from DD's state primary for QE. The idea is quite appealing but not within our budget. It seems very expensive but mentions possibility of discounts through various bursary's and scholarships. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is the school to be recommended? (middle and high school age)

fatfrumpyfilly (seems wrong referring to someone as that!) what prompted the move for friend's DD was that she got below Bs in her AS levels. Although many school acknowledge that the jump from GCSE to AS leads to many students achieving more highly at A2 (along with the chance to re-do exams) QE don't give second chances it seems. Having said that, the girl in question has now got an uncondional place at her university of choice due to the fact she had done BTEC rather than having the angst of waiting until results day so it turned out well. I think what annoyed my friend though was the lack of choice they had on the matter.

What a fascinating thread. We considered this school earlier today and excitedly looked through the prospectus together (DS and I). However, I decided to take a closer look and a number of things are making me nervous. Their Facebook page does not allow people to post. I wondered why and this thread with it's numerous deletions and apparent threats of legal proceedings explains it clearly to me. As a prospective parent I am absolutely put off by this lack of transparency allowed on on social media. Goodness I'd be terrified to board my children there. If they threaten like this, are our children threatened too? Terrifying. A big thumbs down then, back to the drawing board :(

Hello, are you local, looking for day or boarding?
Day : GSAL, Ripon Grammar (state, no fees!) St Peter's
Boarding : St Peter's. Ashville, Barnard Castle - depends how far you want to travel

Friendface-your friend’s DD’s story is very interesting. Your friend’s DD got a generous scholarship from QE with great GCSE results, which meant that your friend’s DD was very bright student with at least seven A in her GCSEs. However, this bright student went through QE education system and she only managed to achieve one B and three Cs in her AS results. If she would continue with her A2 with the same A Levels subjects, she would only contribute 340 ucas points and 25% A-B towards QE results. By dropping 3 Cs subjects and adding three BTECs (95% of BTECs at QE are D and D, assuming that she achieved D, D, M), her ucas points would be whopping 560. That was why your friend’s DD was not allowed to continue with A2 subjects.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/11050518/A-level-results-2014-Independent-schools-results-table.html#disqus_thread

2014 A Levels results were published by telegraph

Queen Ethelburga's College is ranked 10
Faculty of Queen Ethelburga's is ranked 18

It is too good to be true!

Many of the reasons it's so high on the league tables is that the big players Westminster SPS et al are not included so they are completely meaningless.

The BTECs , brought in by the former labour government, has been a total disaster to the secondary education, and it has been badly abused by someone who wants to boost their rankings.

Happy is correct : 100 of the leading schools are not in that list so its pretty meaningless.

Whitetree
BTECs are an excellent qualification in their own right
the error was in the league table design, not the qualification.

Of only minor interest but QEC is much lower in the the GCSE tables (116) today despite at least the same number of schools missing. I was intrigued boredenough to look at their A level results from last year, almost all their A level entires were in maths and MFLs with very few in sciences and humanities. Only 2 pupils of 76 took English Lit, ditto History. There also appeared to be only 208 A level entries ie less than 3 per pupil.

summerends
the trouble with ALL current tables is that they are self reported, non moderated
DCs school has put in for a full cohort English Language re-mark
so they will not release their numbers (even to the local paper - its a glaring omission)

not until the January official post re-mark ones that include ALL schools
(there is no opt out from the Dfe)
have done

Schools like QE rely on misleading use of limited stats

for some kids they are clearly the right school
but their aggression and advertising says a lot more

I've still not found out if they ARE taking me to court

It seems reasonable to me to wait for remarks etc before publishing final results, quite a few schools do that.
I agree that a school that feels the need to be defensive does not invoke confidence.

TalkinPeace

The trouble with BTECs is that they are self-marked and non moderated, which are open for abusing!

My friend DC with A Level Math "U" was able to gain three D*s in BTECs. Unfortunately, he failed six of eight courses in his first year university studies.

You could not believe that 95% of their BTECs were D* and D!

Are BTECs an excellent qualification?

summerends

Please read a comment in Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/11050518/A-level-results-2014-Independent-schools-results-table.html#disqus_thread

lightingfast • 2 days ago

This league table is totally meaningless, in particular there
are two schools at Queen Eltheburga’s, they
entered 83 candidates in the College and 65 candidates in the Faculty. They had
total over 200 upper sixth students in 2014, and where other 52 students went? However,
the results published in the Times shows that Queen Eltheburga’s College
entered only 64 candidates with 159 entries, which are only counted 2.48
A Levels for each candidate. By adding further controversy, in their
website they claim 501 ucas points for each candidate, which will count
4.25 A levels if every A levels are A. Where is the truth?

Only 2 pupils of 76 took English Lit, ditto History

That's really strange in a girls' school, given that classically girls tend to opt for those subjects more than boys do. I'd be quite seriously concerned about the standards of English and History teaching if they can't interest more pupils in those subjects at A Level.

I had a read through their prospectus and felt very uneasy. Talk about trying to sell a school! Glossy brochures and glossy children does not, a good school, maketh.

I have read a few of the threads about Ethelburga's school in York. My son actually goes to this school and has done since he was 12 years old, he is now 17. Before this he went to a state grammar school and was bullied by the local children. He would come home on the school bus and have black eyes or cuts to his hands and became somewhat depressed at the thought of having to go back to the grammar. We decided to look at the independent schools in the area including Leeds Grammar, St Peters and Queen Ethelburga's. After visiting them all and after my son sitting the entrance tests for all three schools, we personally decided that Queen Ethelburga's was probably better for him. My son is not gifted academically and so St Peters and Leeds Grammar were a bit of a non starter. He fitted into the life at Queen Ethelburga's very quickly and over the years he has become a super person. They not only teach the usual maths, english and other course work, but they also teach their students to respect others, learn good manners and above all, have high standards. My son has excelled at this school and I am so very pleased that we sent him there. He is in his last year at the school. He is a member of the rugby and football groups and has been on several of the school trips. I saw a change in him the first year he was there. He grew in confidence which was a relief given his experience of the previous state school. He has also many friends of different nationalities not all of them from wealthy backgrounds but many of them are children of services parents. The only downside, I would say is that he has had several temporary teachers throughout his years at QE which do not help and if I had one thing to say to the school it would be look after the teachers and the children will excel. My son is a happy contented boy who is hoping next year to go to university to study sports science. If I had left him in the state school like so many of his primary school friends, he would have become a very sad, drug fuelled young man. That is no life....... If I had other children, they too would be at QE.

The main reason is really because so few students even study A levels happygardening! This is a breakdown of their 2013 A level results - the only subject the school performs well in is maths and MFL which, for a school full of overseas students, is not at all surprising.

welshery - you mentioned your son is "a super person", and has excelled under QE system. What has he actually achieved over there?

If your son was a non starter at St Peters and Leeds Grammar, he would find difficulties to get into a state grammar school, which are selective.

I don't think any boys at a state grammar school will make your son black eyes or cut his hands!

QE is a non selective, and any non starters can get into it as long as you pay money.

welshery
If I had left him in the state school like so many of his primary school friends, he would have become a very sad, drug fuelled young man. That is no life
That says a lot more about his friends (and thus yours) than it does about State schools

let alone QE (who must decide wether to take me to court soon

I assume this is Ripon Grammar wishery is talking about, or Ermysteads since they are the only state grammars in the vicinity of QE. I have known many young people go through those schools and her son would be in a minority of one if he had become a sad drug fuelled young man....... Very odd thing to say.

In fact they are all now lovely young people pursuing rewarding careers, one is in a band admittedly but they played Reading /Leeds a few weeks ago so certainly not sad.....

I've noticed that quite a few who post stating how wonderful QE is, it's there first and in fact only post they make under that username.

HowsTheSerenity

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