Bute House +11 Results

[Knightsbridge]

They are not on the website yet, but does anybody know how Bute did this year for +11 results? Thanks.

the most useful measure is how many girls got an offer from their first choice. Schools have brighter years / less bright years / exceptional years. A fall in hard numbers of entry to one particular school does not mean that Bute (or any other school) has failed, it could still have produced the best possible results for that year's intake of girls. At our prep, the hard number of elite school entrants went down, but all who applied got places - it's just that far more girls took the state grammar 11+ and got those places - uncertainty over the ability to keep forking out £30k / year probably has a lot to do with it between brexit and corbyn threats to put VAT on private school fees. Certainly lots of families I'd have assumed would continue private have gone grammar. Doesn't mean the school has failed or the girls have failed - they've got their first choices. Similarly, last year's intake won a staggering number of scholarships. Not so much this year - the fall in numbers doesn't mean the school is no longer performing, it's more suggestive of having a particularly bright intake in last year's cohort.

Yes you're right, I guess that it's the whole point of prep/private primaries to get good results. Maybe something like '6 going to St Ps, 4 to Latymer Upper, 2 to...' etc and 'Other schools offered' with a list (no numbers) of the schools that offered places but weren't accepted.

The school that I mentioned with the 'Boy 1' etc way of doing it apparently pressures the parents of the clever kids to apply to lots of schools just to be able to say 'oh yes we got offers from x school this year'.

Sorry crossed posts with Archie. How do you gauge which is a pupil's first choice though? There might be first realistic choice, first state choice, first private etc.

yes - there will always be lunatics who put their kids through a barrage of unnecessary testing, but on the whole, people will have the ability to choose two or three schools and rank them in order of preference and apply to them

I'm not London, but could it be in part change in 'desirability' as well?

I'm in the north west, and there are two mixed schools that are on a par academically. One probably slightly sportier and the other more musical, but not a huge amount in it.

DSis and I were in consecutive school years. My year sent seven to one and one to the other. My DSis's class were completely the other way around and sent one and nine respectively. Most girls sat both and were offered both places.

There were also two all girls schools that gradually changed from being "the one you went to if you were academic" and "the one for young ladies" to "second choice" and "very strong academically".

Since prep school classes are generally quite small, a slight shift in attitude can lead to a big percentage difference.

tbh, first choice does not matter for me either. I don't think it's the end of the world, if DD didn't go to "first choice“ SPG, and ended up in GL as "second choice". And in many cases, there is no clear "first choice", many couldn't even decide which offer to take until the very last minute.

I think the point is less about how to best report the results.
In this particular case - the question is about how the school handles reporting their results in a year where the results weren’t as good as they usually are.
It does seem a little (a lot) awkward that this great school is trying to hide the facts that are already known anyway. People talk.
And - while it’s true that Bute isn’t about only getting girls into that one school - people still want to know the results.

Now the Bute page shows Error: 404 Article not found...

Bute can choose to publish or not publish their results it doesn’t really matter. The truth is the school is so much more than the results it achieves its almost a by product of the incredible non competitive stimulating environment it provides. We can all be sour grapes on here but the fact is Bute delivers happy well rounded, confident girls that get into all the top schools year after year. The headmistress is completely out of the box and a genius and knows she doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

@Jetsethippie I think many of us agree, the school is the sum of many outstanding attributes, which includes a unique culture, excellent teaching, super academic and sports facilities, etc. This thread started out as simply, "Has anybody seen the leavers' results?". There's nothing but respect for the brilliant job that Bute does with its students. My guess is they'll be publishing their results shortly. Have a lovely day everyone.

I agree the school is excellent with nice facilities thanks to SPGS being so close and I am sure teaching staff is particularly outstanding.
However sorry if I am going to be controversial I find the non streaming/non competitive talk slightly hypocrite, especially when you can read on the website:
"the girls are taught in mixed ability groups throughout their time at Bute House. And the girls are of mixed ability; [….] We do not label the girls in any way; there are no sets or streams, no ‘scholarship’ groups and no ranking of the girls." from the headmistress and on another page of the website :
"Our Learning Enrichment Department oversees and provides for children throughout the school and enriches learning by providing either additional support for girls or extension activities for exceptionally able children or children who require some additional input to enable them to achieve their full potential. "

I am not sure to understand how this is not streaming.. There is even an ad advertising for someon to nurture, excite and challenge our very able pupils in order that they achieve their full potential.

So I don t think that Bute is so different from other prep schools in the area on that point to be honest..

@Lolakath19 I think it depends on how you define streaming. Bute does not segregate students by abilities. The smartest kids sit next to the lesser students everyday. Do they provide extra work for gifted students, of course they do. I think their point is just that they don't label them or separate them into different groups. They make the class seem more cohesive rather than "these are the smart kids" and "these are the weak kids".

Maybe.. but the girl that gave us and other parents a tour when we went to visit pointed to small room when we were upstairs saying that it was the room where they have their extension and support lesson.. then she blushed and said she was not allowed to say that.
I don t know how it works in other school, but in my daughter's, girls are most of the time as well all together although they don t have the same tasks to do depending on ability. And some are from time to time taken out of the class into a nearby classroom to have support or extension activities.

Not sure to see how this is different..

@Lolakath19
What your daughter’s school does is the same what Bute does, and other schools with similar set ups.
Occasionally taking groups for support/extension, as well as giving differentiated worksheets (in math predominantly) while in class depending on the level/ability - is totally normal.
It is also NOT called streaming.
Streaming is more commonly used in secondary schools. There - students are put into different classes for math - top/med/lower stream. And streams are taught by different teachers.

The reason people chose Bute are varied. It is a nice school that doesn’t feel as pressured as other nearby high achieving preps.
It does have best facilities in the area.
And for a bright girl - it does provide an environment where there are a lot of other bright. 2/3rd are selected at 7, when selection is more precise than selection at 4.... So - the distribution of ability is skewed to higher ability.
Basically - in simplest terms - Bute gets a good group of girls and then teaches them well.

To those who are checking the Bute website hourly with anticipation, the results are up! And in typical Bute fashion they have been delivered elegantly, sensitively and purposefully. It’s an all encompassing representation of the results with 100% focus on their core belief and ethos (more links on the homepage about that too). And as expected without the pomp and flair the results seem to be Excellent. Someone very recently in this thread mentioned “things are changing...” referring to other schools doing better than Bute, you are right things ARE changing and Bute is leading the way. There’s more to school results than “how many girls made it to SPGS”, which btw is still MORE than any other prep school........😉👍

A bit late for a post at this hour. How many times did you hit the refresh button?

Well done to your school @jetsethippie although I don’t think people were attacking Bute in anyway.
Of course Bute will have stronger results that prep that are non selective or select at 4 as most of their girls come at 7+ and are in a large proportion some of the best girls from those other prep. those girls may have gone into spgs whatever prep they attend.. we ll never know ;)
Spgs offers have always been very impressive at Bute and a lot of people call Bute spgs feeder although proportion going there has decreased since last year when 40% of the girls going to day school went to spgs.

@Jetsethippie

If Bute changed the way they present results last year - where the results were higher than average for the top three schools - then yes. One could have said that it’s driven by a desire to change the focus from being StPg feeder....
However, as anyone who has ever worked in business and dealt with public communication - spin is everything. And in a year when SpG results are worst in the last 5 years - this change is sadly just a reminder that school is a business and has the same shortfalls.

The really unfortunate thing here is that Bute didn’t need to do this. A little over than 50% of the class still got into top 3 - StPg, G&L, LU...
and in previous years it was 50-60% anyway...
So the spin wasn’t really needed.

I wonder whether bute teacher is following this thread?

I love the ethos and if they really mean it then great for them.
Having said that I can clearly see the spin. Very clever, to change completely the way they presenting it, to try to smooth the average over last 3 years of girls going to top schools (including SPGS). Also clever to show the high % going to Wycombe. Finally they are saying "well if you want to know how many girls went to SPGS, you will need to ask the HM when you meet her, and she will not like it".
Meh - show me the data.
I wonder who is advising on the back, smells of consultant/banker spin.
I still love the ethos though!

And they are listing 40 schools now under 2019 leavers destinations. Surely that is a typo - so all a bit rushed

@DancingbytheRiver the list of 40 schools they posted is indeed accurate. Keep in mind that since so few students got into the traditional Bute destination schools, that this year's class had to accept offers from schools that traditionally they would have turned down in favour of going to the usual GL+LU+SPGS trio. There are some excellent schools in the list of 40 and it shows the real breadth that their students were able to achieve.

@DancingbytheRiver

It’s more like a politician’s approach.... Spin, spin, and spin again.

Consulting/banker approach would not recommend this. It’s a very silly and unnecessary way of hiding information that is already in the public domain. Businesses know that nothing can be hidden in this day and age.

I think if you look at it with the pre conceived notion that they did badly and are trying to hide something then it seems like a spin. However if you know the culture of the school and know for how many years the head has been trying to say “ we are not a feeder for any particular school” and that finally decided before the results this year that she was going to focus on the more macro side of the exit results then you will see that it is indeed consistent with their ethos. Look they may have had a year if not very typically successful results according to West London culture, the fact remains they still get too results. And here is a headmistress that is trying to really change the toxic competitive 11+ culture that is in fact harming all our kids, while STILL getting amazing results. If you cannot be supportive of that perhaps you really are the problem, and will find this whole new approach sinister, and definitely NOT welcome at schools like Bute. And like she said if you are that curious and think the school is trying to hide something, give them a call, meet the head and discuss. Otherwise it all seems like you are trying to spin “jealousy” into “concern”. Case of sour grapes! 😂

I don’t understand why Bute parents are so defensive / aggressive .. personally I think Bute is an amazing school with excellent staff / teacher and outstanding results for several years. I don’t see the pb in comparing school not in a competitive way but to help children progress and see what can be done differently.
The only thing I still don’t get is why they are making such a “fuss” with these so called ethos as for me most of girls school like FH, KPS, glendower are doing the exact same thing: ie teaching group as a class while extending supporting from time to time.