St Benedict’s Senior Deputy Head & Director of Safeguarding Luke Ramsden and Assistant Head Pastoral Mícheál Foley discuss why it has overhauled its 11+ entry process
At St Benedict’s, we have taken a long, hard look at the 11+ entry process and made big changes to improve the experience for students, parents and the school. We wanted to strip away the parts that added stress without adding value and focus on what really matters – selecting those students who will thrive in our community.
One of the biggest shifts has been scrapping the verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers. For years, these were included alongside English and Maths, supposedly to test logical thinking and problem-solving. In reality, they had become just as coachable as the other papers, with well-prepared candidates scoring just as highly across the board.
Year after year, the results showed that performance in English and Maths was almost identical to performance in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. So, rather than making students sit two extra exams for the sake of it, we now focus solely on English and Maths – subjects that actually matter for academic success and give a clearer picture of academic ability.
The second major change is how we assess beyond written exams. Traditionally, we held one-on-one interviews, but these had turned into an exercise in how well a child had been coached. So, we replaced the interview with a group activity.
Upon arrival at the school, pupils were divided into small groups and given a survival challenge. With a teacher observing, they were asked to decide what nine items out of a list of twenty they would take with them to a desert island to ensure survival. Once they had agreed, each small group was combined with another, making a larger group of five or six pupils. Then, answers were compared and a final, mutually agreed nine items were ‘locked in’. At this point the teacher asked the pupils why they had chosen the items and what the benefit of each might be on the desert island.
“This new system is much more natural, much more relaxed, much more enjoyable – also a more useful indicator as to how an individual might fit in”
Pupils were taken out of an artificial situation in which they regurgitated rehearsed answers and were instead encouraged to have organic conversations about a situation they had no prior knowledge of and with a group of people they didn’t know. It was interesting (and lovely, in equal measure) to see how they responded. The children almost immediately became engrossed by the task. Teamwork, communication skills, reasoning, the ability to see others’ viewpoints and argue in a respectful way were all shown and observed.
This new system is much more natural, much more relaxed, much more enjoyable – also a much more useful indicator as to how an individual might fit in. All this ties into the St Benedict’s School ethos – that wellbeing and happiness are at the heart of success. We are not looking for students who can jump through hoops, but those who will contribute to the life of the school, who will enjoy their time here, and who will leave as well-rounded, confident young people. That starts with getting the admissions process right.
St Benedict’s School stbenedicts.org.uk
Further reading; Walhampton on preparing pupils for life in senior school
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