留英選校，有什麽要注意

CPU1995

1. I only believe ft.com ranking and choose school within your target ranking according to your kid’s ability.

                               http://rankings.ft.com/secondary-schools/secondary-schools-2011

2. Don’t believe school ranking sorted by agency but you can ask the agency whether the school has an edge in science subjects or arts subjects.

3. Preferably choose school located in southern part of UK as students can learn the most traditional English accent.

4. Schools located in northern part such as Wales and Scotland might have an odd English accent though school fees are generally much cheaper.

5. Preferably choose girl school instead of co-edu school for girl. I have seen a case of messy relationship of a Year 9 girl with her classmate.

6. Preferably choose full boarding (not weekly boarding) school with boarders over 250. A large boarding school usually has some compulsory 2-3 hours after-school ECAs like cricket and cross-country every day. On the contrary, many boarding schools like my son’s school with only 60 boarders has no compulsory after-school activities and he usually chooses to stay in the boarding house without enrolling any ECAs after school.

7. Ask the target school the percentage of Chinese students in the boarding house. Even some high-ranking schools such as Warwick School have 99% Hong Kong student population in the boarding house.

8. Ask the school whether the school has policy to require students to drop the subject during the interim of school term if the student performs badly in subject such as the foreign language subjects. I have seen some cases of Year 10 students being compelled to drop the foreign language subjects such as French after one term’s study.

9. Beware that some high-ranking schools might have policy to only allow students with good academic performance to sit for and study GCSE triple science in Year 11. Otherwise, those average performed students are not permitted to sit for triple science subject but have to sit for and study double award GCSE science in Year 11. This might have an adverse effect for average performed students to study A Level science subjects in Year 12.

10. Beware that some high-ranking schools might have policy to requirestudents with a min of 4 GCE AS Level Grade B to promote to Year 13. It is quite tricky for this policy that some students falling short of the academic requirements might have to repeat Year 12 or not permitted to sit for all GCE A Level subjects in Year 13.

11. Ask the school the GCSE exam board opting for students. Edexcel is the least challenging GCSE exam board out of exam boards such as OCR/AQA/Cambridge Pre-U.

Honey917

Thanks for your sharing.  It is useful.

Honey917

demio

Thank you so much! It's very useful!

安安

真係好實用。  謝謝你。

GettingLost

原帖由 CPU1995 於 13-08-19 發表
本帖最後由 CPU1995 於 13-8-19 17:58 編輯

1. I only believe ft.com ranking and choose school withi ...

「choose school within your target ranking according to your kid’s ability」

How to tell which ranking of school is suitable for my kid's ability ?

CPU1995

It really depends on what kind of schools your kid currently studies and his academic performance in HK.

Regarding my elder son's case, I applied nearly 10 independent schools and 1 state school which ranked from 10 to 200 for him to see which band of school would admit him.

CPU1995

原帖由 安安 於 13-08-21 發表
真係好實用。  謝謝你。

On On,

You may consider approaching the following agencies to deal with your DD’s application for UK’s boarding schools which provide free service to you.

http://www.academic-asia.com/succ.php
http://dolphinukeducation.com/web/Pages/FRAME_SET.htm
http://www.coopershk.com/

Alternatively, you may write direct to school and sit for entrance exam in the British Council Hong Kong (Britsh Council charges you $2,375 per school) for schools like Cheltenham Ladies College and St. Mary’s Calne which do not have agency in Hong Kong.

I personally highly recommend the following girls’ schools whereas my friends’ girls have brilliant academic performance and independent character after studying these schools.

Cheltenham Ladies College
St. Mary’s Calne
Badminton

Besides these three schools, it appears that St. Catherine and Headington are also very good schools.

In UK, there are three half-terms and three long exeats. You may consider your DD coming back Hong Kong for the October half-term if your DD goes abroad in the first year. Some of my friends’ kids even come back six times per year and do not stay in the host family at all.

For the selection of guardian, I just randomly selected a guardian company from the educational exhibition in HK. In UK, the more well-known ones are Crown Guardians and White House Guardianship.  

Hope this can help.

安安

回復 CPU1995 的帖子

你的資料好實用, 要慢慢俾D時間去研究。
呢幾日我腸炎, 所以未第一時間道謝, 不好意思。

CPU1995

原帖由 安安 於 13-08-26 發表
回復 CPU1995 的帖子

你的資料好實用, 要慢慢俾D時間去研究。

On On,

If you apply to UK schools this year, most schools like CLC would require your DD to jump one form to study Grade 9 in 2014.

I'm not sure Badminton, CLC etc have junior forms of Grade 8. If your DD is admitted by your target school this year, you can pay deposit and request the school to reserve a place for Grade 9 in 2015.

Personally, I don't favour my son jump form so that he loses one year of happy school memory. Last year, I gave up an offer for my younger son to jump one form to Grade 9 in 2013.

I think entry for year 9 place for high ranking schools is not competitive as places for Years 10 and 12.

victoriatio

Dear CPU1995,

Do you hv any advice on the entrance exam for CLC? Is it very difficult?

Thanks

CPU1995

One of my friends said that one of his DD's classmates is admitted by CLC and jumps one form to Grade 9. He said that the entrance test is comprised of English, Maths, Science and verbal reasoning papers.  

Another friend said that the CLC entrance exam was not difficult to her daughter at all. Her DearestDaughter got over 10A*/As in IGCSE in CLC.

Some UK schools might furnish the applicants sample exam papers upon request in order for them to prepare the entrance exams.  You may consider writing to CLC to see whether CLC would furnish you sample entrance exam papers and the exam subjects this year.

victoriatio

Many thanks for your advice . Did your friends' daughters study in a local school or an international school before she entered CLC?

We are planning to apply this school for our dd, but thought she may not be good enough to get a spot there..  Anyway, my believe is, if we don't hv a try, we never have a chance ..

CPU1995

They studied in a very famous traditional local girls school in Kowloon.

CPU1995

Some Uk schools like Warwick School etc. provide sample entrance exam papers in their respective websites:

http://www.warwickschool.org/pag ... nations+&pid=23

spiderlily

回復 CPU1995 的帖子

CPU1995,

Thanks very much for all your sharing.  These are very helpful.

I am planning to send my son to UK boarding school for Year 7 in 2014.  We went to AA and was given a list of schools for consideration.  We finally shortlisted Bromsgrove and Dauntsey for further consideration and process.  Will apply Dulwich by ourselves too.  Would you mind sharing your thoughts on these schools as well as your valuable views and comments.  Is there any other school that we may have overlooked.

Understand there are many schools that only accept boarders at the age of 13+ / Year 9, would it be a better option to wait for another 2 years.  What I think to send him now is for sake of his easy pick up.  We would look for a school that he would study till GCSE, in where he would be develop some friendships there.


Thanks in advance.

CPU1995

As I don't have friends studying Dauntsey and Dulwich, I have no comments on these schools. But ranking wise, Dulwich's ranking of about 100 is better than Dauntsey of about 200.

Regarding Bromsgrove, I have two friends' kids graduating here about three years ago when Bromsgove's ranking was about 160. They said that they enjoyed studying Bromsgrove here due to good pastrol care and didn't feel any pressure for academic performance from the school.

Personally, I would not consider Bromsgrove and pay for nearly 30,000 pounds a year for a school with ranking of over 500 in 2012.

For junior forms, all my friends highly recommend Junior Kings School of King's School Canterbury.  King's reputation in UK is nearly same as DBS, DGS in HK.  During the past two years, at least 4 Hong Kong students from Kings were admitted by Oxbridge.

I would let my son starting Grade 9 instead of Grade 7 in UK as he can learn two more years of Chinese and stays with me in HK.


     

spiderlily

回復 CPU1995 的帖子


CPU1995,

Thanks very much of your comments.

Noted the A level results of Bromsgrove remains similar to past years but just don't know why its FT ranking dropped so substantially to beyond 500.

You mentioned "didn't feel any pressure on academic performance", does this mean the school is not pushing on academic achievement or...

Noted Junior King's is a good school.  Are all the students promoted to King's college.  Just don't want to be in mid-way after two years.

Thanks again.

CPU1995

You may ask AA why the ranking of Bromsgrove drops from 191 in 2011 to 506 in 2012.

For Junior King's, my two friends said that unless your kid is the bottom tier of students, you need not worry that your kid cannot be promoted to King's. My friend's kid even declined the offer of Sevenoak and promoted to King's even the ranking of Sevenoak was higher than King's in 2009 (Sevenoaks now ranked 348)

For Bromsgrove, both girls had fair results in A Level and they had to knock the door of local agency in HK for the 2nd class Universities in UK upon the release of A level results. They just felt the academic standard of Bromsgrove was not high.  

Ruby1219

Hi CPU1995,

Thank you for sharing your valuable expertise on UK schools! Really helpful.

Hope you won't mind me asking a few questions :

1. How would you prioritize the following schools :
Tonbridge, Charterhouse, Brighton and King's School of Canterberry

2. Is IB still not mainstream and "inferior" in UK? I am surprised to see that Sevenoaks ranked so low in FT ranking, as my friend chose Sevenoaks for her son over Charterhouse and Tonbridge. Obviously, it's becos of her son's preference of IB over A Level/Cambridge Pre-U, and she told me Sevenoaks is a very good and academically strong school. My other friend whose son is studying in another IB school ranked 6xx and she said that school actually ranked very top in IB schools ranking. I am just very surprised by the 落差 of IB schools in UK!

Thanks for your help in advance.