QEB v Wilson's - which is the leading/best school

[StrugglingPa]

Hi everyone,

I find myself in a bit of a good dilemma! My DS has scored well in both the 11+ exams for QE and SET/Wilson. While QE was my natural choice, I've recently discovered more about Wilson, and now I’m quite confused about which would be the best fit for him.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what I see as the pros:
QE:

• Has a strong academic reputation and has been consistently at the top for years.
• Offers some opportunities in sports and music, though it seems to be more academically focused.

Wilson:

• They have a rigorous selection process, possibly ensuring a higher standard of entry.
• Appears to offer more in terms of sports and music, which might be a good fit for my DS too.

Speaking of my DS, he’s academically aligned, does well in music and computing, and is an avid reader.

I’m feeling a bit biased towards Wilson, but I’m also hearing good things about QE's international expansion, which could be beneficial for their brand. Plus, I’m open to relocating for either school, so that’s not a deciding factor.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you have any experiences with either school or general advice, please share. I need to make a decision in a week, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!

This article appears to be well over 30 years old….! Am not sure how helpful it is to be citing it.

(I questioned the date of 1992 as that’s well before the internet as we know it, but they must have put archived articles online as the head they refer to left in 1999).

We haven't heard of any 'culling'. But there is a minimum GCSE grade requirement to study certain A levels, which, frankly, is the norm in many secondaries (selective and non selective) to ensure the student can keep up. There is a significant step up from GCSE to A level.

We live fairly centrally and almost equidistant from the two. I am happy to discuss our thoughts about the two schools and why we chose the school that we did (a few people have DM'd already)

All schools with a sixth form will have minimum requirements for studying A levels, both overall and for specific A level subjects. There is both a perfectly reasonable aspect to this, as @terrifiednewbie has - you really aren't going to be able to access A level content, if your natural level at GCSE was a grade 2 or 3, and a 'preserving our reputation' side - with a 4 or 5 at GCSE, you may well be able to make something of the A level curriculum, but come out with Ds / Es. Yes, they are still A levels, but how willing a school is to have them on its record will vary somewhat from school to school (to put it politely).

The issue with the way that QE selects / selected for sixth form (no personal experience of the school, just going from historic threads on another forum), seems to have been that whereas everywhere else bases its selection on achievement in national exams, at QE, you could be predicted an A* / 9, but still told that you couldn't take that subject, based on internal assessments (said by one poster to be 'harder than GCSE'). This was also a (?the) rational behind not allowing 'outsiders' to join at year 12, because they couldn't possibly have gone through the school's special selection process.

NB any 'culling' after years 12 on grounds of academic results constitutes unlawful exclusion (see St Olaves, London Borough of Bromley, 2017).

You might find this thread interesting, particularly the OP's first response (fifth post overall). Re: QE's criteria... to decide whether a student can continue into the sixth form?

in years 10 and 11, we had our usual tests for all GCSE subjects (based on the GCSE curriculum) that determined our sets. In addition we had “essential skills” tests which were partly based on GCSE curriculum as well as some A level type questions (but no new content). In order to get an “offer to study” one had to reach the pass threshold - the requirements differ by subject and are made very clear in year 9. E.g. to be able to do maths A level, one needs an average of 80% or above in the first 9 essential skills maths tests and 75% or above in each of the final 3 tests. You can only take an A level if you get the offer to study. Many people leave because they didn’t get an offer to study a subject they wanted to.

to give you a sense of what this looks like, I’d estimate about a third of my year group left for sixth form. I got offers to study for all of my subjects, I’d estimate there were about 20 of us.

I should clarify that this is at Wilson's. I've heard very differently re QE (as others have alluded to)