Academic

SENIOR SCHOOLS

Pupils gain entry to a wide range of senior schools through pre-testing (usually in Year 7), Common Entrance at 13+, scholarship or the school’s own entrance exams. We are expert and experienced at preparing the children for the individual schools they go onto. We work hard with parents choosing the right senior school for the children so aspirations align with the abilities and development of the pupils.

The testing landscape to gain entry to senior schools changes all the time. A more recent development has seen an increase of pre-testing in Year 7, usually in the Autumn term, with tests in English, Maths and a Reasoning paper along with an interview with the Head or senior member of staff. Children will secure their place based on their pre-test.

The increase in pre-testing is one of the reasons why Knighton is moving away from Common Entrance at 13+ as we develop our own KED Curriculum. We see the last two years at Knighton as an opportunity to develop the educational experience for the pupils unshackled by not having to take Common Entrance exams. The summer of 2019 will be the last time children at Knighton sit Common Entrance papers as we embark on a new curriculum based on Knowledge, Enlightenment and Discovery (KED).

Where do Knighton pupils go on to at 13+?

Knighton pupils go on to single sex and/or co-educational senior schools as well as day and/or boarding schools.

Over the past 7 years our pupils have gained entry to the following schools:

Teaching the Individual

With our small class sizes, we know our pupils as individuals, recognising their strengths and weaknesses and so being able to tailor our teaching to suit them. Equally, through our learning disposition programme, we encourage pupils to recognise how they as individuals go about the process of learning and how to apply this knowledge to get the best out of the classroom.  Knowing that a child finds ‘being wrong’ extremely difficult, means helping that individual use mistake making as a positive route into new learning.  For those who see curiosity in the classroom as the slow route to the right answer, we encourage them to ‘tinker’, to generate new ideas from thinking and ‘playing’.

The value of a child being in a ‘smallish’ class (of say no more than 12) cannot be underestimated in terms of the individual attention given to each child every lesson. Over a week, a month, a term and a year the cumulative one-to-one attention from teachers adds up to provide a significant advantage for children at Knighton.

Teachers at Knighton genuinely know every child they teach; their strengths, their weaknesses and their action plan to improve. We think this is invaluable.