October 2022. 11+ exam explained, independent education embraces tradition and latest technology.

Monday October 24th, 2022

Welcome to your October issue. At a time of change and upheaval, we invite you to take comfort from some reassuringly reliable traditions in the independent education sector. As well as exploring the networks and professional connections such an education can help you make for life, we’ll look at the 11+ exams for grammar schools, the welcome U-turn in the cricketing world that will see the centuries-old Eton vs Harrow and Oxbridge matches return to Lord’s next year.

But it’s not just about tradition – we’ll also look at how the education sector is embracing technology and planning to moving the International Baccalaureate exams online in a bid to ‘future-proof’ the qualification.

Cricket U-turn

We covered, in our February 2022 issue, Marylebone Cricket Club’s decision to stop hosting two of the longest-standing fixtures at Lord’s. The world-famous ground had provided the pitch for the Eton vs Harrow match since 1805, and the annual Oxford vs Cambridge university match was first played there in 1827. Members challenged the club’s decision, which they (temporarily) reversed, and two of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world will go ahead in 2023, with their future fate to be decided at the club’s annual meeting next May.

11+ exams explained

Earlier this month, year 6 pupils in some state primary schools received their 11+ results. This is an optional entrance exam for grammar schools, which are academically selective, state-run secondary schools. Only two counties in England have a county-wide selection process, where the entrance exam is set by local authorities. Grammar schools in other regions, which co-exist with comprehensive (i.e. non-selective) state secondary schools, set their own entrance exams.

There are currently just over 160 grammar schools in England, teaching around 176,000 pupils from years 7 to 13. Although they are most densely clustered in Buckinghamshire and Kent, there are grammar schools in 36 different local authority areas across England, including several London boroughs, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Merseyside, the West Midlands and parts of Yorkshire.

The main difference between these selective schools and independent, private or public UK schools, is that grammars are state-funded (not fee-paying) schools. However, some schools that changed their status (from state-run to independent) have retained the word ‘grammar’ in their name, such as Bristol Grammar School.

To confuse things further, students wishing to attend an independent school in the UK might also take an 11+ entry exam, although this usually happens in January (instead of the autumn term for most grammar schools).

Most independent schools have their own entrance exam at 11+, also known as GL Assessment, CEM or ISEB, although the pandemic has had an impact on how schools select students. Some now favour a short pre-test and a longer interview (on video call or in person) over the traditional 11+ written paper.

We always recommend working on vocabulary and comprehension, as well as building confidence in fractions, decimals, percentages and equations. These skills will stand pupils in good stead for 11+ entrance tests to most independent schools and their studies there should they achieve a place.

We can advise on the specifics and support you and your child to prepare for these tests as effectively as possible.  Do get in touch if you’d like to talk it through.

International Baccalaureate to move exams online

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is currently taught in more than 200 UK schools instead of A Levels, giving students access to a wider curriculum.

Headed up by former Finnish education minister, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, the IB is currently taught in 143 countries around the world. It is designed to be for pupils aged between 16 and 19, it enables pupils to study six subjects and write an extended essay. The director-general’s vision is this breadth of learning better prepares young people for a modern world by showing how ideas and subjects inter-relate. And in the same vein, moving assessments online is a top priority to keep pace with the modern workplace.

What such assessments could look like is yet to be explored, but virtual reality assessment could be a possibility, alongside the options for paper-based and / or more ‘traditional’ online assessments in the interim.

An online version of its entire diploma programme is currently being tested, designed for pupils who wish to study the whole qualification remotely. IB believes this could benefit pupils with medical conditions or learning disabilities that make it hard for them to thrive in a traditional education setting, as well as students whose family situation means remote learning is preferable. Heinonen says although it’s a step to modernise the offer, it’s actually “pretty close to the initial idea of the IB created for people during the growth of the diplomatic force.”

Networks for life

Research by social mobility tech platform Zero Gravity shows how privately educated pupils are part of a life-long network that means their self-belief is higher and their opportunities to thrive more numerous. The so-called Gap Zero report links this life success to whom rather than purely what you know. According to the report, a private education makes a pupil more likely to study at a leading UK university. And that’s not simply to do with “better facilities and lower staff-to-student ratio[s]” at independent schools. Instead, says the report, it’s more about the “associated spheres of influence”, i.e. the networks you become a part of during your independent education.

The report found that state school pupils are twice as likely as their privately educated peers to have no professional support as they prepare for university applications. In contrast, students at fee-paying schools are seven times more likely to know a banker or a politician than their state-taught peers. And along the same lines, a lawyer being among their parents’ circle of friends is four times as likely; a doctor twice as likely. You can see the trend. And the point the researchers make is that these professional contacts, connections and role models impart practical advice as well as a sense of self-belief. Tellingly, children who had studied at independent schools were twice as likely as their state school counterparts to have been encouraged to apply for a place at a Russell Group university. And where they might know more than nine Oxbridge graduates, the research found that state school pupils were as likely to know no-one who had studied at Oxford or Cambridge.

If you have any questions about any of the topics here, or any aspect of your child’s education, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Until next time…