EDUCATION
The English Private School System demystiied
Having arrived in the United Kingdom from a country where the majority of chil- dren join the state school system the day they turn five, meant embarking on a very steep learning curve.
Te first thing to understand is the ter-
minology. Although the private school sys- tem is privately funded by tuition fees (that is without support from the state or a local authority), private schools are com- monly referred to as “public schools”. Next, private schools are divided into: pre- prep, preparatory (known as prep) and sec- ondary. Tis classification relates to the years taught by any particular school (more on this below). Tere is an exhausting number of entry
levels into the British private school sys- tem. Any particular school may take pupils at pre-prep, prep or secondary or a combi- nation of all of these entry levels. Furthermore, schools can be single sex, co- educational or single sex until a certain age and then co-educational. Schools can be day schools, boarding schools, weekly boarding, flexi-boarding or a combination of all of these. What all private schools share is that be-
fore anyone, no matter how young, is of- fered a place, they will require the child to undertake some form of assessment or test. Even at the age of three, your child will go through some form of assessment. Tis may be simply watching how attentive
18 FOCUS The Magazine May/June 2018 Tere are an
exhausting numbr o entry lvels int th
Briih privt scol sstem.
your child is when read to. Older children will, at a minimum, take a test in English and Maths and may also face verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests. One thing is for certain, no private school accepts pupils simply due to the proximity of their resi- dential address to the school.
Entry levels
Te usual entry levels for private school are 4+, 7+, 11+, 13+ and 16+. Te “year” sig- nifies the age of the pupil at the time when pupils start at the school. Te ‘+’ symbol means that the school will take pupils from that age onwards. It becomes even more confusing as boys’
prep school entry age is usually either 4 or 7 and they make the move to secondary school when they are 13 years old, while girls’ entry to prep school is usually age 3 or 4 and they move to secondary school when they are 11 years old. Tere are vari- ations to this norm, particularly with co-ed schools. Occasional places do arise at schools
outside the regular entry levels, so it is pos- sible, if your family is posted to the United Kingdom for example, to gain a place at a private school. Even then, the school will carry out some form of assessment.
Getting in early
Generally speaking, for pre-prep and prep schools, a child’s name needs to be put down on the school’s list early on to ensure
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A Wong
Ping Pong
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