Before you build your student profile, let’s quickly look at things from a school’s point of view. What are they looking for? How will a school assess your son or daughter, or compare them with other candidates?
Step Four in the process requires you to build your student profile, collate supporting documents, refine your target schools, and submit the strongest possible applications.
Before you build your student profile, let’s quickly look at things from a school’s point of view. What are they looking for? How will a school assess your son or daughter, or compare them with other candidates?
Boarding schools look at three main aspects when considering a student. These aspects dovetail nicely with the motivations you outlined earlier in STEP 2.
The first aspect is a student’s academic profile. Usually schools will examine an applicant’s previous two years of school reports, and analyse their academic performance and trajectory during this time. Being readily quantifiable, it is quite easy for a school to make an initial judgement on whether the student will fit the general academic level of their school.
As you understand, the more academically selective schools will usually be looking for the most academically capable students. For non-selective schools, the process of academic screening is to better understand the applicant’s needs and potential.
The second aspect schools pay attention to is a pupil’s extra curricular profile. Schools want to know about a student’s interests to gauge what they will contribute to the school community. These could be sporty, creative, or academic interests. Boarding schools usually aim to take in a wide and diverse range of interests, so unique interests are also encouraged.
The third aspect that boarding schools pay particular attention to is a student’s personality. Boarding schools in particular want to make sure applicants have the level of maturity, adaptability and awareness to settle in and make a positive contribution to a boarding house dynamic. Most of all, most boarding schools really want to enrol students who will “give it a go” and throw themselves outside of their comfort zone. Those students are the most fun to have around!
Schools will make an initial assessment of a student’s personality based on the qualitative comments in their school reports. Further down the line they will also be looking at things like a personal statement, interviews and, in some cases, group activities or taster days/nights.
It’s also worth remembering that each school will have its own preferences and priorities, and will apply different weightings to the three aspects above.
Now we know what schools do, we can do it ourselves! Let’s start with the academic side. We’ll then move onto extra-curricular interests and finally, personality, to build a “whole person” profile which we’ll be able to use when identifying and approaching suitable schools.
This is the initial screen is where you need to pay the greatest amount of attention in order to submit a strong boarding school application to suitable schools.
Here’s how to do it:
First, quickly brainstorm your young person’s areas of academic strengths and interest, and areas where they may need improvement. Are they top of the class across the board? Do they get above average grades in Maths and Science, but below average in humanities? Are their grades due to ability, enthusiasm, or some other reason?
Next, cross check your above opinions with the contents of their school reports. Gather the past 2 years of reports and go through these together: How have their grades been averaging? What have been their main academic achievements? Have there been any recurring issues or challenges which teachers have identified? Has there been steady improvement in every aspect, or are there any inconsistencies or downturns?
If you were a school Registrar objectively reading these reports for the first time, what picture would you build of the applicant as a student? What about their academic potential and trajectory? Remember, they’ll be looking at both grade scores and teachers’ comments.
You are reading this guide as you know that not all schools are equal. This is also something that schools are aware of, so an applicant’s current school is an important consideration.
Consider the following:
A private prep school in the UK will teach above and beyond the national curriculum, whereas a state school will not. In fact, this report by the Centre of Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University concluded that, by the time they reach age 16, an average private school pupil is 2 years ahead of their state school counterparts. This is primarily due to their access and exposure to better resources and a more personalised and expansive education.
Do not let this put you off if your child is moving from the state school system, as schools will take this into account. But do appreciate that the most academically elite boarding schools require students to enter at an already advanced academic level. So a student with a report full of A grades from a struggling state school may still score much lower on entrance tests than students who have already benefitted from the best possible education.
For this reason, we often recommend that students moving from state schools take a standardised aptitude test (see below.)
If you are coming to a UK boarding school from overseas, contextualising your young person’s school reports can require an extra layer of untangling.
If you are fortunate, your young person might currently be studying the British (and to a certain extent, the International Baccalaureate) curriculums in an international school. Such schools are found around the world and the quality of education can usually be relied upon.
In contrast, a school which teaches the local curriculum can prove more of an unknown quantity. First of all, there will be differences in the curriculums in terms of what is taught, and when. This can lead to noticeable gaps in what students are expected to know at any particular point.
Such students benefit from taking a standardised aptitude test.
To recap, as a general rule of thumb, if your young person is currently in a reputable British private school or international school which teaches the British curriculum, their school reports can provide reliable context. These can be used effectively to gauge which boarding schools could be a good academic match. Taking a standardised test can of course help refine your judgements, but we would not consider it an absolute necessity.
However, if your young person is currently studying a different curriculum or coming from the British state system, we would strongly recommend getting them to sit a standardised aptitude test before you start identifying target schools.
Standardised tests come in many forms. You have the CAT4, Pre-ISEB, ISEB, UKiset, IELTS, so it can be a minefield figuring our which one(s!) you might need. SLE uses an online adaptive test which covers English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-verbal reasoning – as these are the 4 key components schools assess at ages 7+, 11+, 13+ or 14+. (Assessments get a bit more specific when applying for A-levels at 16+, so we recommend this test on a case-by-case basis at this age.)
Students take this online test at home over the space of a few hours, and have the results within 48 hours.The results place the student’s results on a bell curve for students of the same age within the British private school system.
The test results also offer further detail on how students perform in each area. For example, the Maths results will provide data on the student’s performance in number, shape and space, fractions and percentages and so on.
We find this standardised test to be the most relevant for our purposes: It is the best test to help us match the student’s aptitude with schools of a suitable academic level. Some families also like to use the detailed results to identify “gaps” where their young person can self-study or get extra tuition before school entrance tests.
As a final point in building your young person’s academic profile, make sure you are honest about any neuro-diversity. If you have suspicions but no professional opinion on the matter, now is the time to seek out an Educational Psychologist. Please be assured that any neuro-diversity will not be a problem unless it is hidden or ignored. Again, this subject is covered in far more depth elsewhere.
The vast majority of boarding schools with students under the age of 16+ offer a huge range of extra curricular clubs and activities. Let’s be honest, if you were responsible for hundreds of teenagers you would want to keep them exercised and occupied too! Some schools offer way over 100 activities to get involved in both during the week and at weekends. These can be sporty, academic, creative and/or a mixture of all of these.
Boarding schools want to enrol students with passions and interests that they will share with other students.
Needless to say, many a school will get excited if your daughter represents the country at hockey, if your son has won international chess competitions, or if they are both maestros on the French Horn. And many schools will be equally interested if your offspring are keen to go wild-camping, or prefer to potter about with a soldering iron.
Remember that the majority of boarding schools aim to enrol a balanced cohort with a diverse range of interests and abilities. Things would get boring very quickly if they enrolled a cohort purely made up of Grade 8 pianists who also love Maths.
So in order to make a strong boarding school application, be honest about your young person’s interests and abilities and don’t be afraid to be different. Be interesting!
Whilst mapping out your young person’s academic and extra-curricular profile, you will probably notice that their personality starts to shine through. Schools will notice the same.
Remember that schools will be looking at teachers’ comments on the school reports to gauge how the applicant copes under pressure or stress, how they overcome challenges, how they behave in class and interact with teachers and peers. So it’s vital that you and your young person go through the same reports, and bridge the contents with your own views.
Extra curricular interests will also offer insight into your young person’s personality. Their interests will imply whether they like working in a team, enjoy moments of intense creativity or focus, push themselves out of their comfort zone, volunteer to help others etc.
Most schools request the following documents as part of the application (registration) process.
Past 2 years of school reports (make sure electronic files are clearly labelled)
Depending on the age and stage you are applying for, you may also be requested to submit supporting artwork, performance videos, or awards of achievement. But before you go digging out a load of Grade 1 piano and 10m swimming certificates, we have a better idea:
A great personal statement can be the difference between going on the “no” pile and the “maybe” pile. It can turn a standard application into a super one.
This is your young person’s chance to present their own academic and extra-curricular profile. It’s their chance to give school admissions staff what they really want: an insight into their personality, and what they are bringing to the table.
Let SLE help you with your boarding school applications and we will provide your young person with support and guidance on writing the best personal statement for boarding schools.
By now you should have:
Reflected on your student’s academic, extra curricular and personal attributes.
Built an honest, objective (not parentally-biased!) and school-friendly profile to be proud of.
Written a unique and eye-catching personal statement
Collated and clearly labelled supporting documents as electronic files
Just a little more work to go and you’ll be there!