Immigration hopefuls considering a grammar school for their children may find the competition to get the conveted places unexpectedly high.
In the UK, there is a limited number of elite state-funded secondary schools that can rival private schools. They are grammar schools, namely state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, widely known as the 11+. These grammar schools enjoy the benefits of recruiting high-performing students with the highest scores in the 11+ and entrance examinations.
As the UK government is widening doors for British National Overseas (BNO) passports holders, some Hong Kong parents are aspiring to bring their children to study in the UK in the next two years. A highly preferred option among these parents is to enrol their kids into the State Grammar School, the equivalent of Band 1 secondary schools in Hong Kong. They are mostly elite public schools boasting outstanding teaching standards and pupil performance.
Excelling at the 11+
In offering free tuition, these grammar schools are highly academically-selective. Mainly elite schools set up for students with talents and excellent grades, grammar schools admit students according to the 11+ entrance examination results, an examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education.
The 11+ examination governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic selection. The name itself derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years. Primary school graduates must obtain excellent results (the top 20%) in the 11+ examination before they can apply for grammar school.
To apply for public secondary schools in the UK, one must also go through a unified allocation process. Hong Kong primary school students need to fill in the Common Application Form (CAF) before the end of October. The allocation result will be announced in early March of the following year, and confirmed at the end of March.
High requirements
In addition to the high academic threshold, even if one lives in the Catchment Zone of a grammar school campus, they still need to take the exam before applying for a grammar school. And they can only enter the school on the prerequisite of passing the entrance exam.
Grammar schools generally enrol students who score the highest in the entrance exam. But, let’s say a candidate’s entrance examination results meet the admission requirements of a desired secondary school, he or she still needs to fill in the CAF for a unified allocation to obtain the school place.
To date, around 8 to 15 pupils are competing for a place in a UK grammar school. Now that British locals can apply to any secondary school of their choice, the demand for places at those schools that are perceived as the best is growing.
When expatriate parents move to the UK, they need to first possess an address before they can apply for a public school. Currently, there are only 163 public grammar schools in the UK, and they are mostly clustered around Greater London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Essex, Lincoln and Birmingham.
