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

  All change!  What do you do when your school, like Summerfields, announces that the Head is moving on?  The answer is going to depend on your relationship and view of the head but here are a few things to consider.  Is your child going into Year Six?  If so, you need to make sure that whoever is writing 13+ or 11+ school references in the school knows your child. Schools like Dragon have a 'Future Schools' department. Smaller prep schools might rely on the Head with input from Second Masters/Tutors.. find out!  Has the Head got an extremely close relationship with students? What will be the impact of change on your child?  Some smaller schools have Heads who really know their students, others take a more CEO approach and your child will have a stronger relationship with the Second Masters/Deputies/Heads of House. Sadly the former style style is fading as schools merge and become bigger so a change will have less of an immediate impact on your child....

Many of our parents will take advantage of the CNY school holidays to visit UK boarding schools. Our schools are strict about children taking taking off but February in Britain can be a bleak time and schools really don’t appeal to children when they are seeing through a veil of rain. Here are a few tips to prepare your children so you avoid the experience of one Brandon parent who told me: “Tim came back from our school visits determined never to go to boarding school!” Preparations: 1: You will need coats. And umbrellas! 2: Wear flat and comfortable shoes. Visiting schools requires a lot of walking: Oundle is a sprawling campus as is Millfield and you don’t want to miss seeing some of the facilities. If you are going to an older school like Winchester College, King’s Canterbury, you will be dealing with cobbles. 3: Talk to your daughter or son about what they will be seeing. Check the forecast together so they are ready for anything that the British weather can throw at them....