Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

The HKSMSA festival dates have just been announced. Students will have had their poems for a few weeks now. A common question from parents is 'how can we help?' Brandon has a few suggestions: 1: Come to one of our Speech Festival Prep classes (of course!) 2: Read the poem through with your child and get them to retell the story to you. Do they understand all the language? If not, look up the words together. 3: Mark up the poem with the relevant emotions. Play with the voices and add in facial expressions. 4: Practice whenever you can in front of family members. Most importantly.... The Speech Festival is a brilliant way to build confidence, encourage your child irrespective of their final result!

If I had a pound for every time parents had asked me to explain the difference between Common Entrance (11+/13+) and schools' own papers, I would have a nice little pot of savings! So here we go: 1: Common Entrance is an examination created by the ISEB (Independent Schools' Examination Board). The exam is available for a board range of subjects and different levels are available (maths has three for example). Individual schools decide: which papers candidates should sit and, the level required. You need to check requirements with the school (ask for subjects/levels). Registration is done through the ISEB website. Schools are provided with a suggested marking scheme but some adapt to suit their needs (e.g. rewards for correct spelling/forgiveness of incorrect spelling) Depending on the selectivity of the school, Common Entrance could be used to confirm an offer or just for setting purposes. Common Entrance can be sent to ONE school. The only way that it can be used fo