UK EDUCATION
School type Setting the league tables aside, what are the factors that parents should focus on when looking for a new school? Barnaby Lenon, former headmaster of Harrow and current chairman of the Independent Schools Council, advised in his session, How to Choose the Right School for your Child, that parents needed to address one or two big questions when looking for an independent school: day or boarding, and coeducational or single sex? Parents may have a strong view either
way about the boarding-versus-day and single-sex-versus-coeducational question, but Ben Thomas believes they should make the decision based on a full consideration. Even if they feel they already know what they want for their child, he counsels them to take a look at the alternative. “Go and look at, at least, one school,”
he told his audience at the show. “At least discount a school on what you see rather than on what you hear.” According to Dr JoAnne Deak, a
neuroscientist from the US who has spent years studying the teenage and adolescent brain, 75 per cent of girls are likely to perform better academically in an all-girls school and 75 per cent of boys will do best in a coeducational school. Antonia Beary, headteacher of Mayfield
School, Sussex, a Catholic independent boarding and day school for girls aged
Culford School
11–18, endorses this view. “Girls and boys mature at different rates, so, in a learning environment, it makes sense to give both girls and boys what they need at each varying stage in their development. Girls’ schools provide an education that’s carefully tailored to the needs and developmental stage of each girl.” “One of the great benefits of an all-
girls school is that there is no gender stereotyping,” she says. “Girls don’t just enjoy equal opportunities, they enjoy all
Mayfield School
opportunities. Girls excel as much in physics, engineering and design technology as they do in English, drama and art.” However, Ben Thomas advises that
parents take a step back and look at the bigger picture. “The most sensible advice I’ve ever heard is that a good school is a good school. You have to decide what your priorities are as a family. You may feel it’s more important to take advantage of the social aspect of growing up alongside each other, that this is great preparation for the world. You may be very focused on academic achievement and so decide that single-sex is best.”
Entrance exams and admissions Owing to the complex nature of the admissions process and selective examinations system for independent schools in the UK, parents are advised to start their research as early as they possibly can – not always an easy thing to do when families are in global transition. Barnaby Lenon explained that the first
thing parents would need to do was to make a shortlist of the schools that they were interested in, and then establish and confirm the timings of these schools’ admissions arrangements. “For some schools, it’s absolutely fine,
there’s nothing to worry about,” said Mr Lenon. “You can apply right before the beginning of the school year. For others, the deadline just to fill in a registration form can be years in advance.” Ben Thomas backed this up. “It can be
enormously frustrating for a parent to find a school they really want for their child only to be told that it’s too late to register,” he
58 | Re:locate | Winter 2016/17
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