Some helpful advice regarding choosing a Secondary School for your child by Joe Sullivan, Chairman of Governors at Dover College Independent school.
This is an anxious time of year for many parents as they get the results of the Secondary School places allocation, announced Monday 1st March. Having Grammar schools, means that Kent offers a wider choice for parents than most parts of the country but that choice also causes a dilemma for many. True, the grammars achieve great academics results, but a group of children who can pass the Kent Test should be expected to do well wherever they are educated.
Options if your child doesn’t get allocated a place at their chosen school
Parents whose child, having passed the Kent Test, is not allocated a place in a Grammar school or has been offered a place in a school not easily accessible to them should consider the options of independent education. It is not always as unaffordable as is generally believed.
Kent is lucky also to have a number of well known Public schools – the term Public School, Private School and Independent School being used to describe the same schools. The grammars are reported to do better in examination achievement than the Independent sector. This will not be true of the top flight of public schools in the county. It must be remembered however that much of the Independent sector is not as selective as the Grammars and includes a large percentage of international pupils for whom English is not their first language. The results must also be compared with the performance of the rest of the State schools. The Sunday Times reported that the number of pupils gaining at least one grade C at GCSE is 47% for Comprehensive, 86% for Independent and 95% at Grammar. This high figure for Grammars reflects the successes achieved nationally and is not necessarily mirrored here in Kent. In 2008 and 2009, Dover College which creates a broader base of opportunity academically for young people, achieved results that exceeded many of the local Grammar schools. The advent of the Academies and of schools with specialism, add to the wide choice available to parents. No one school will suit all children so how does one choose?
The move from primary to secondary school is a very important step in a child’s development.
Moving from the protective environment of primary into the growing-up world of secondary, is a big culture change. The experiences, opportunities, motivation and friendships at the chosen school over the subsequent years, will have a substantial, perhaps formative impact on the child’s life.
The Kent Test, while being an efficient way of selecting the more able pupils, is not a perfect system.
It can be very damaging for a child to be told at this young age that they are not bright. Children develop at differing paces. Success or failure at 11+ may be affected also by the standard of teaching in primary school. If a child is bright they deserve the best opportunity to go to university so results are very important. The child who fails the Kent Test at eleven may well exceed the ability of many who did pass at eleven, a few years later. If the less able child is placed in the right environment they will exceed predictions of achievement based on tests at this age. A question therefore to ask of any school is of the ‘value-added’ to such children at GCSEs and A Levels. But surely we have the right to expect good educational opportunity from any school.
Many parents today know that success in life comes from being confident, personable and sociable as much as from good A level results.
There are many starting out in business whose prospects will be limited because they lack the confidence necessary for selling and networking, an essential skill to any business, and the ability to speak in public. There are very many lawyers, accountants and other professionals who suffer the same limitations. The pursuit of exam results alone does not lead to a well rounded person.
Choosing a school for one’s child will normally have been a long slow subconscious process, one of understanding the child’s strengths and weaknesses. It will also stem from a parent’s experience in their own school days. The choice of school will evolve from having observed the local schools as represented by their pupils and how they behave in public. What is the uniform like? How it is worn, will be a guide to the control the Head has over discipline. Casually observing how the pupils behave and present themselves will give an indication of the influences likely to affect your child. This experience may also indicate the type of friendships your child may develop.
But a new parent arriving in the district would have no such experiences. Where should they start?
Word of mouth is always helpful.
Watch out for Open Days. A walk about a school will give a feel for how life will be for your child over the next seven years.
All schools have websites. It is here that a school sells itself. Here one will find out about the facilities in the school. Here also one will learn where the school places educational emphasis. What opportunities does the school offer for your child? Choir, orchestra, drama, public speaking or a wide variety of sport may offer opportunity for your child regardless of ability. But many schools now
seem to emphasise or major in these subjects rather than pushing pupils to achieve GCSEs in maths, English and the sciences.
Another good starting point is to read the latest inspection reports. These can be found on the OFSTED website for State schools and ISI for Independent schools. These are very helpful authoritative guides to all aspects of a school.
Truancy rates are very important. Truancy is a complicated problem. Not all, but many of the causes are to be found at school. Bullying, lack of discipline and poor teaching are but some. Almost 200,000 children in England missed one in five or more of their classes last year. Such a level of disruption in the classroom creates an impossible environment for a teacher to follow a curriculum and for the conscientious pupil to learn or be taught. A culture of high truancy will be associated with many other social problems. For example; low academic achievement is known to have a direct link with teenage pregnancy.
League Tables can be very informative. But on occasions, very misleading. Many independent schools take a number of international pupils. Such pupils often spend their first year learning English and sit GCSE a year late, adversely affecting reported results.
The academic outcomes of a school whilst being very important tell little of the whole school experience.
A bright pupil intending to go to university will need good grades but over the coming years when university places are being restricted, pupils will have to shine at interview. For example, university Medicine department interviewers will be far more interested in the applicant who plays football, gardens and likes astronomy than the one who arrives with an anatomy book under one arm and a copy of the Lancet in the other hand.
Choosing a school is about understanding a child’s needs, both educationally and pastorally. If a child needs to excel academically, a suitable school where pupils are pushed must be found. But having chosen a school which the child will attend through the 6th form, parents should be confident that they can support his/her development in every possible way.
To use the example of a university medical applicant again, he/she will benefit from training and experience in: Team building; Team work; Leadership; Confidence; taking responsibility; Public speaking; Work ethic
The school chosen therefore should help discover latent talent in a child and nurture it.
It should broaden the individuals knowledge in many areas. It should be able to accommodate many levels of ability and in a safe environment in which a child can be taught how to study and manage their time.
All parents know that every child is different in academic ability, personality and talents. A school should cater for the whole family. The bright child, the shy child and the sporty child should be enabled to grow in confidence and friendship together.
Secondary school prepares many children for university but it prepares all children for life. It should build confidence and help a child to explore widely so that talents and areas of interest can be discovered and fostered. Perhaps above all a young person should be able to develop lasting supportive friendships and happy memories.
The Independent sector offers opportunities not so easily found otherwise.
The scope for and the extent of extracurricular activities is far greater in a school with boarders than in day schools. An International school like Dover College blends over 30 nationalities with a high number of British boarders and local day pupils. It is co-educational, giving pupils the opportunity to experience a taste of life beyond school days. It is not a big school.
All the pupils, parents and even visitors, remark on the feeling of community. This is another consideration for parents concerned for their child’s preparation for leaving home for university; giving a young person enough independence and freedom within the safety net of a boarding school. Getting a good education should be assumed. A good school should be measured on all the other aspects of development. Independent schools offer a variety of boarding options; from overnight stays to weekly or for a term. Many local pupils become boarders for the 6th form as it is more conducive to study and offers such a wide range of opportunity.
Dover College is the least expensive of the local independent sector. It offers education from Pre-reception to sixth form with excellent results at A levels.
