Academic

August is all about A Level and GCSE results, and with so much good news coming in from the British boarding schools we recommend, we’re pleased to pass on some highlights from just a couple of the schools that shared theirs with us.

While the summer holidays can be an anxious time for those awaiting their A Level results in August, International Baccalaureate Diploma students already know their fate, having received their results on Saturday 6^th July. A good number of the British boarding schools we recommend offer the IB and a couple have shared those results with us.

The reasons families choose British boarding schools for their children’s educations are many and varied. Here we focus on the excellent support that potential medical students can receive, using Stonyhurst College’s MedSoc 2020 as an example.

Throughout this academic year, Stonyhurst’s Year 12/Lower 6^th students have attended a number of sessions organised by the College’s Careers Advisor, in order to prepare them for making strong, competitive medical school applications.

A popular entry point for international students is the UK’s Year 11. This is the academic year during which students turn 16 years old, so it is often the first year many feel mature enough to take on the exciting challenge of living away from home and it fits well with educational systems in a number of other countries.

August can seem a funny month in education. Some of the British boarding schools we work with are closed altogether, with just a skeleton staff in place to handle enquiries and, in some cases, host events, while others are abuzz with summer schools welcoming children from all over the world. At this point in the month, however, it starts to feel like business as usual, as the schools and, more to the point, their students brace themselves for exam results: A Level results are published on Thursday 16^th and (i)GCSE results come out on Thursday 23^rd.

The latest newsletter from Bede’s, a British boarding school in the south east of England, includes a feature about its diploma programme, which we thought would make an interesting addition to our blog.

The external qualifications offered in Bede’s Sixth Form are A Level, Pre-U and BTEC. Alongside studying for those exams, all pupils undertake a holistic enrichment programme, the Bede’s Diploma, which has four elements: Extend, Enrich, Enlighten and Enhance.

Each year Warminster School, an English boarding school in Wiltshire, holds a Curriculum Enrichment Day (CED), which takes learning out of the classroom, crosses subject boundaries and combines the talents of students from years 7 to 13, as they work together within their House groups to solve a problem or create a product.

The big news over the summer was that GCSE results in England included the new grades for English Language, English Literature and Maths.

GCSEs in England are in the process of being reformed and, as we like to keep you updated on developments in British education, this is our short guide to the changes and their chronology.

When considering a child’s education in the UK, obviously the course of study they will follow is of paramount importance, particularly at that key phase just ahead of leaving secondary education at the age of 18. We have covered the courses available to 16-18-year-olds in a previous article but this academic year sees a change to the way A Levels are taught and examined, so we thought a follow-up may be useful.