Future Schools Update
Mrs Broadis, Head of Future Schools Curriculum
Senior School Success!
It is always a delight when offers start to arrive for our pupils from Senior Schools. In the past week we have heard of a number of successes:
100% success for 4 applicants to RMS – one Drama and one Sport Scholarship
100% success for 4 applicants to Queenswood School – two places with Sports Scholarships
100% success for our applicant to Haileybury with Music Exhibition
100% success for our applicant to Downe House
100% success for 3 applicants to Berkhamsted Senior Boys
Round 2 Invitations
Our two applicants to Harrow have been invited to sit the Harrow Test in the new year.
Our applicant to Wetherby School has been invited for interview in the new year.
Four Year 6 pupils have been recalled to sit the Academic Scholarship at St Margaret’s in the new year.
Three Year 6 pupils have been invited to sit Round 2 papers at Belmont, Mill Hill.
Senior schools do not always inform us of offers made, so we ask that parents email Future Schools so we can congratulate your brilliant children!
When are other senior school offers made?
St Margaret’s – no later than first week of February
13th Feb HABS Girls and Boys
13th Feb STAHs
13th Feb Aldenham
13th Feb St Albans
13th Feb Merchant Taylor’s
13th Feb Belmont, Mill Hill
2nd March Hertfordshire Secondary Transfer Allocation Day
Important Dates in the New Year
We wish the best to all our pupils taking assessments in the New Year before school begins:
- St Albans School 5th/6th Jan
- Belmont Mill Hill 5th Jan
- St Margaret’s Drama/Academic Scholarship Assessment 6th Jan
- STAHs 11+ Assessment Day 6th Jan
Everything you need to know about Quest Admissions
What are senior schools looking for at interview?
Schools appreciate pupils who display confidence, character and curiosity. Not every child has to be an extrovert, but it is helpful for a quieter child to demonstrate secure self-knowledge. Frequent questions at interview are, ‘How would your friends describe you?’ ‘What are your strengths?’ ‘What is something you need to work on?’ ‘What are you reading?’ ‘Who is your favourite author?’ ‘What do you enjoy at school?’ ‘Why do you want to come here?’ ‘If we only had one place, why should we offer it to you?’
Those families with children preparing for interview may also like to discuss some quirky questions over the break. These are all questions that Edge Grove pupils have faced in interviews since September:
If someone spent time with you, how would you like to be described by them?
If you could solve one problem the world faces, what would it be and why?
Is it better to be right, or kind?
If you were headteacher for a day at your school, what would you change and why?
If you were deserted on an island what one thing would you like?
If you opened a locked door in this school, what might you expect to find behind it?
If you had all the paperclips in the world, what would you do with them?
Senior schools like to see imaginative and agile thinking – there are no right answers to questions like these; they provide an opportunity for children to showcase their ability to think, reason and share wider learning.
Additionally, you could also play ‘Just a minute’ where your child needs to talk about a subject for a minute. In this way a child learns the importance of talking for a reasonable period of time and drawing in wider information so answers have depth and detail.
Speak for a minute…
- on why you like (favourite subject/favourite sport)
- on the last book you read – plot, characters, why it was good.
- on an issue from the news that has caught your attention.
- on the three values in life that you think are the most important.
- and justify why maths is more useful than English (or vice versa).
It is important that children do not over rehearse or learn answers to interview questions; Senior schools do not appreciate a child who robotically regurgitates learned responses. Rather children should go into an interview with an understanding of what it is they would like to share, and then find opportunities to weave information about themselves into the answers to the questions they are asked.
Year 5 Future School Meetings
We encourage all Year 5 parents who have not yet booked a Future School meeting to book with Mr Stanley and Mrs Hodge for early in the new year, to share some preliminary thoughts about senior school education; please email Future Schools.
I would ask all 11+/13+ parents to keep us informed of interview, scholarship and final assessment dates by emailing both Future Schools and the School Office. This way we can ensure our systems are in place to support children to the best of our ability, so they can go out brimming with well-placed confidence and character!
Below is a list of those senior schools which Edge Grove families have chosen in the last four years, with links to Admissions pages.
Independent Schools
Abbot’s Hill
Aldenham
Belmont/Mill Hill
Berkhamsted
City of London School
HABS Boys
HABS Girls
Haileybury
Immanuel College
John Lyon
Merchant Taylors’ School
North London Collegiate School
Queenswood
Royal Masonic School
Sherrardswood
St Albans
St Albans High School for Girls
St Columba’s
St Helen’s
St Margaret’s
St Paul’s
UCS Hampstead
Wycombe Abbey
13+ Boarding Schools & Colleges
Bede’s
Charterhouse
Cheltenham Ladies’ College
Eton
Harrow
Marlborough
Wellington College
State Schools
Dame Alice Owen’s School
JFS
Henrietta Barnett School
Queen Elizabeth’s School
St Albans Girls’ School
Herts SW Consortium Schools (Registration for Secondary Transfer for September 2026 is now closed. No late registrations will be accepted.)