Sevenoaks School

[candiline]

What type of students is this school looking for?

Someone who is strong across the board (English, Maths, Reasoning), or someone who is exceptional in one or two areas but average in the other (eg highly able in English and Reasoning but ok in Maths) - would they still consider the latter?

What do they look for in a group interview?

NC as current parent. I think it's totally normal to be stronger in one subject than another, but don't forget it's an IB school, so they presumably want to be sure a child's going to be able to do well in English and Maths right up to 18. Besides, it's a competitive school to get into, so I don't suppose they'd need to take someone who wasn't pretty good in both. With the interview, we had a long chat with them about this when we were applying, as we were worried that our DC might not be sufficiently 'impressive'. They were very reassuring, and said they placed a big emphasis on kindness and natural 'spark' rather than over-confidence and alpha types. Certainly seemed to work for us.

Thanks for your comment, very helpful, especially about the interview. Makes sense with strengths needing to be across the board being an IB school.

Can I also ask, was there anywhere to write about their achievements on the application form?
My daughter goes to a state school and definitely lacks the experiences that kids get in private schools. I'm hoping this won't stop her from applying.

OP the admission form is online why not have a look? These forms tend to ask just for basics details (name dob address, current school) as the school relies on its admissions process to uncover any superstars with amazing achievements.

The experiences that your education has given you to date is irrelevant.

IIRC there were more detailed forms later on to write down extra curricular stuff. My kids were state primary too, so definitely no Grade 8 violin and championship yachting on their forms either 😂. Honestly, don't sweat it - they seemed perfectly happy to be offering places to normal (albeit bright) 10 year old kids. The interview sounded pretty chilled out as well - from the kids'description, more like an observed lesson than a grilling.

I would say average in Maths might be enough if other 3 areas are strong.

As it is an IB school, they will actually most likely teach Maths very well because everyone is meant to do it for IB (can be done at Lower Level IB though).

If your DC is very bright maybe they are just average at Maths because it wasn’t taught that well in state primary.

My suggestion would be to work through the Maths past papers on the website in the allocated time and work out a percentage range DC falls in. Then ask the school if that is enough. We used these papers to prepare for the St Olaves exams and they were pretty good. Start of easy and then get much harder. With a weaker mathematician you want to get as many of the easy answers correct to up overall score. The harder questions at end will be for the brightest mathematicians aka superselective maths.

Thank you all, with lots of very helpful advice. Great idea about getting in touch with school before applying and ask for their opinion.

Sevenoaks seems like a place for happy and caring bright kids which is exactly what we're looking for in a school

Are you able to share how much homework they get in Year 7? My dd doesn’t get homework at her current school (though she has a tutor) so we aren’t sure what the expectation will be.

Not that much. They seem to not give much on principle (at least in the early years). Which is good, because there's lots going on after school. Maybe 30 mins a night in Y7, sometimes a bit more, sometimes none?

I’ve heard negative reports about Sevenoaks from friends who are parents of both a boy and a girl - especially re. girl, who has now gone elsewhere for 6th form 🤷‍♀️

Could you please clarify the negative review, what are the issues related? Thank you

“Going elsewhere for Sixth Form” is not necessarily a poor marker.
In London and South East loads of kids change schools for many reasons. If you get good GCSEs you can pretty much go to any selective state school you want, of which there are plenty in the area.
If you don’t do so well in your GCSEs then Sevenoaks School with the very rigorous IB might not be ideal anyway. So the very lowest performers at a place like Sevenoaks may simply just not be up for the IB.
Tonbridge Girls loses some post GCSE too due to IB and all girls environment. My own DD’s grammar also lost lots of girls who went to the boys grammar especially if they wanted to do sciences which were outstanding at the boys grammar. Equally though some of the boys moved across to girls grammar though.
So loss post GCSE is not a negative marker.

In fact, many of my friends have intentionally done strong comp 11-16 plus some tutoring with every intention to do selective grammar or independent at Sixth Form.

think a lot of people leave sevenoaks at sixth form if the Internatonal baccalaureate is not for them. It's not for everyone and sevenoaks doesn't offer A levels.

Anecdotally, I don't think that many leave at the end of Year 11. Of course a few will, whether because they're unhappy or want to switch to A levels (or some other reason), but it doesn't feel like more than a handful.

@bairhand yes apologies - I should have said "a lot of the leavers at sixth form" leave because they are opting for A levels.

Sevenoaks is a fine, academically selective, well-funded, private school. What it does overall, it does well. The IB is fashionable and has helped the school's reputation, especially internationally. And yes, the A Level question is important. I want to share three examples.

A family we know moved out of NW London for this school and they are very happy with it. They are also very comfortable with the IB, coming from continental Europe.

Another family we know, a British family, love the school but now wish their kids had done A Levels as they themselves did a generation earlier. Their elder child, choosing a STEM subject, simply did not have enough subject knowledge starting his University first year, never caught up, lost heart and dropped out. He then studied a completely different subject which required no prior knowledge. His Sevenoaks IB had given him good grounding in the research and the essay writing his new subject required and, accordingly, he did very well.

The younger sibling was a star at Sevenoaks and became a good friend and a good course mate to our daughter at University. Their degree required significant prior knowledge for a key part of it, as well as research and essay writing skills. She, too, struggled to catch up on her core knowledge, never quite managed it and her academic morale suffered. Half way through, she gave up on the expected top degree class and settled for a respectable finals result.

This clearly does not apply in every case, but it would certainly concern me if I were a prospective parent expecting my kids to eventually join the English University system.

@Dido2010 My impression has been that IB does not offer comparable intensity in maths preparation to the option of doing double maths A levels, but gives broader and arguably better preparation for most other degrees. One could expect IB students to struggle if commencing a mathematical degree where a large percentage of the cohort had taken A level further maths and the 1st year programme was organized to cater for students with that level of (maths) preparation. This would apply particularly to maths, physics/natural science or engineering degrees at the top few unis, which often have a further maths requirement/preference for A level candidates. I read a few years ago that KCS Wimbledon first switched completely to IB, then partially switched back to offer A levels in parallel, because they were finding that IB was not preparing their candidates to do well at interview for these courses.

Would this fit with the cases you refer to in your post?

Worth noting that the university drop out rate is slightly lower for IB students than for A level students, supporting the argument that the skills they develop doing the IB prepare them very well for degree study. That statistic might hide individual fluctuations between subjects though.

@ChnandlerBong oh I see what you mean. In that case, I agree. A few leave for A levels, while lots join for the IB.

Just saw this thread. I have one who completed the IB and is in her last year at Oxbridge doing languages and is on course for a first. No issue at all with lack of preparation in terms of in depth knowledge - and IB language B doesn't do a lot of literature unlike language A levels but if you do English Lit too you cover the same critical thought analysis structure. Good friend of hers doing NatSci at Cambridge and Engineering at Manchester also have had no core issues (IB too). Both were not at 7Oaks but did the IB so the comparison is relevant. That said, another friend's son took a gap after changing mind halfway through sixth form and wanting to apply for Econ to do A level math and FM as had only done SL Math (which mean't most top unis would not take him). And yes he felt that having looked at what HL maths covers (Analysis) that there are missing elements covered in the FM course. However, there is a course in the sixth form at 7oaks for mathematicians who want to ensure this is covered to take (second child is at 7oaks). Mix of taught and self taught.

I have applied for Sevenoaks and I can see loads of club for year 7+

are these clubs inclusive or do we need to pay for each club my child would select ?

Apart from fees mentioned in their website , what all other expenses do we need to take care of?

thx

Unless it's mentioned on the website, no extras for any of the clubs that I know of. We pay for sailing as that is my child's preferred sport but it was clear upfront there is a charge.

@Montaguesmum thank you

so music lessons are paid gir n if club has been specifically mentioned

can I assume tennis/ cricket/ badminton/swimming /chess are all inclusive ?

Surely ask the school directly because these things do change. If you want your kid to play tennis 5 times a week and they are not a sports scholar, I bet you pay a fee. But in the summer term they probably play tennis for free. Same probably applies to cricket. Ask the school’s sports department directly. Many of my neighbours’ kids go to this school and they always said most clubs are included. Let’s say drama productions and clubs are but not 1 to 1 lamda. Also these schools respond to supply and demand so can change Year on year with eg fencing type sport.

Friends kid had an interview - he’s lovely lad - highly competitive swimmer, very good academically. They asked him questions on art and rejected him. Then when they obviously had space from kids they had accepted getting into grammar (which had easily been accepted for)- they decided he was suddenly good enough for them and came back and offered him a place

@Ikeasucks - these schools have their processes and rank kids in some kind of order following their own assessment process. Better and fairer that way than a school who interviews kids individually to find out whether they might prefer another school or the grammar… some private schools are known for doing just that. So your example actually puts this school in a good light. If this school does IB only then they would be looking for an academic all rounder foremost, so someone who can manage both maths, sciences, languages and English to a good standard.