Prep School Baccalaureate - is this the way forward?

[Celt98]

We've been looking at prep schools for our DS, and one of them has formally moved away from Common Entrance preparation to adopt the the Prep School Baccalaureate (PSB) as its preferred model.

Recognising that there is increasing use of Common Entrance pre-tests at 11+ to be the principal means of assessment for senior schools, I am just wondering if PSB is likely to be the way forward and adopted by more schools in future years, and won't be considered a less rigorous model in comparison to Common Entrance?

Given that our DS is academic, I would prefer to avoid signing up to a school that may hinder his chances at getting into a top senior school simply because of the teaching model that has been adopted.

I think people have been disillusioned with CE for a while - partly because it is dull and partly because everyone knows it is irrelevant.

Admissions to 13+ senior schools are done on the basis of reports from prep schools (where the prep is trusted by the senior school), or by the senior school’s own exams - both for scholarship candidates and for the growing number of students applying from outside the UK private prep system

The prep school bacc looks like an effort to replace CE, but I am not sure how likely it is to be adopted. Who is behind it? Is it commercially driven? What does it offer over and above the national curriculum? Given that most students in the private system go on to sit the same exams as students in the state system at 16 what is the added value of a separate system of exams at 13+?

My son did PSB as the first full cohort at his school. It allowed them to record things on their curriculum that CE ignores. My impression is that it could become a very good system if it continues to expand; school based assessment is reasonably moderated by having subject teachers regularly meeting with others in the system.