Brighton College

[loowissmum]

I have heard a few worrying stories about Brighton College recently, including several children being failed at Common Entrance last year and asked to leave following GCSE. Does anyone have the inside story on this?

If they failed CE (which actually isn't pass/fail anyway) why wait 3 year to get them to leave . Most schools - state and independent- have a turnover between Years 11 and 12 , and some may not achieve the criteria to take chosen subjects in 6th form.

Thanks Liz. DS' head at current school was at pains to reassure parents that failure at CE is practically unheard of, so I was quite worried to hear that BC had offered conditional places to quite a few children last year who then did not make the grade. Very tricky if you have no back-up!

What are their entry % , 55 /60 ? The head should know who is a risky entrant and encourage a back up or alternative sooner. Very rare for any at dc former prep not to make it but have come across a few who move school again afterwards.

It is a funny way to work.

The results dont come out until June for Sept places and I guess they are only doing this because they have a waiting list. However you are very likely to have TWO sets of school fees for one term because you cannot give enough notice to withdraw from the other school if you want to take a place up.

At our prep school it is very rare to get a complete failure. The Head at our son's current prep school would consider he got it wrong and work very hard to resolve. Unless of course the parents havent taken any notice of him that would be a different matter.

Brighton College don't pretest, unlike many similar schools, but relies on the headmasters report. I guess a couple of children could have done worse than their prep schools forecast. They do pretest if the child is borderline or applying against their head's recommendation though. Presumably if a child doesn't make their common entrance offer, then it may not be the right school for them, though I can see it would be a shock to the parents.

They may over offer as some will be depending on scholarships / bursaries for funding and ultimately turn a place down if not, or accept a non-CE dependent offer.

Realise I'm adding to a zombie thread but Brighton just sent out letters saying they are now going to do a pretest for the 2016 13+ entry.