New North London Independent Girls’ Schools’ Consortium 11+ exams – What Are The Changes?

October 15, 2018

• Advice for Parents
• / Common Entrance

From January 2019, a new system will be in place for entry to the 11+ North London girls’ schools’ consortium, this has been introduced to reduce the clutter and stress of students taking multiple exams of varying boards within 8-10 weeks. Students will now have only one 75-minute Cognitive Ability Test that is designed so that it cannot be revised for – hence removing the stress and pain of revising for Maths and English exams. The test is based on verbal, non-verbal reasoning, maths and information tasks. These exams look to identify potential in the students, rather than assessing the candidate’s pure ability. For those who are unsure, the London schools in the bespoke consortium include Francis Holland School (Regents Park), Francis Holland School (Sloane Square), Notting Hill & Ealing High School, Queen’s College, St. Helen’s School, South Hampstead High School, Channing School, More House, Northwood College, Queen’s Gate School, The Godolphin and Latymer School, St James Senior Girls’ School.

The fact that less importance is given towards the written exams means that the new system promises far more attention to be paid towards classwork undertaken the previous two years. This is in addition to the interview that will be carried out by each of the schools. There will be a report from the current Head that will be submitted prior to the end of the first term of Year 6. This will also include a grading on the child’s creative writing. This has been done so that the focus of life in the classroom will remain on classwork and class involvement rather than on doing past papers set for specific schools. The move toward this system hopefully means that there is far less pressure on students and won’t affect the mental wellbeing of young children so early on. Ideally, it will also make sure that the top independent schools are made far more accessible to students and that students’ entry into the school is not just based on the performance on a single exam.

Last but not least, there will be an innovative style of interview that takes place. This will consist of collaborative work with other pupils and an individual interview too. The interview will have greater significance since it is based on less written work and will be about more vital skills: problem solving, teamwork and rather importantly, critical thinking.

References:

https://www.educatus.org.uk/blog/2018/4/17/girls-11-entry-for-september-2019-1

http://www.londonpreprep.com/2017/10/north-london-girls-school-consortium/