Q&A with Old Grovian Ben Brown
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Entrance Examinations – the first step of a wonderful journey
It is Entrance Examination time at Woodhouse Grove and other independent schools across the region, and the Grove’s Admissions Team are preparing to welcome our 2025 Year 7 candidates into the school to sit their Maths and English exams. We know that many of our young candidates may never have sat a formal exam before and may be a little bit apprehensive, so we try to make the process as straightforward and accessible as possible. But, a key factor about the Year 7 Admissions Process at The Grove is that our entrance examinations do not have a pass mark; they form just one part of the overall selection process.
The fact that selection at this stage is not solely based on academic performance is indicative of our ethos as a school. Our aim at Woodhouse Grove is to add value. We strongly believe that the outcome of our offering – our teaching, our staff expertise and the myriad of opportunities available to our students – is that every single child that joins us in Year 7 should, by the time they leave in Year 13, have achieved better results, in every aspect of their school life – be it academic, sport, performing arts or those all-important soft, social skills – than if they had gone to school elsewhere.
In the fortnight following on from their entrance examinations, all our Year 7 candidates will be invited into school for a 15 minute informal interview with a member of the Senior Leadership Team. We also request a report from the candidate’s current primary school. All three elements are taken into equal consideration in a process designed to pinpoint those individuals who will make the most of all the opportunities available to them at our school, those who will contribute to the vibrant community we have here and embrace all that Woodhouse Grove offers – to truly become the best version of themselves that they can be.
Whist we are non exam-centric in our approach to admissions, we do, of course, acknowledge that exam results are important and can open doors. Our results speak for themselves:
At GCSE level, 35% of all pupils achieved at least 6 top grades (7 and above).
Of our A level university applicants, over 90% got into their chosen establishment.
Whilst these results certainly open doors, once that door is open, it is – to quote our Headmaster, “not what you know that is important but what you can do with what you know.”
Our best results are our young people themselves. Woodhouse Grove leavers are well-rounded, go-getting and entrepreneurial. They are empathetic and personable with those all-important social skills that are key in the modern world. They are not hot-housed clones and have not been pigeon-holed or railroaded into routes best for the school. Instead, they have been encouraged to grow as individuals and offered the best pathways to succeed on their own terms – whether this is Oxbridge, apprenticeships or straight into the workplace. Grovians can be found excelling across a huge variety of fields – from the City to the West End – and the school’s alumni form a close, altruistic network across the world.
So, how does a school that, particularly in the local independent sector, has an exceptionally broad entry – both into Year 7 as well as into the 6th Form – also achieve such high-end results? At Woodhouse Grove, the answer lies in personalisation. Key to our academic success is the fact that we are not a “them and us” school. We see learning and academic success as a collaborative effort between the teacher and student. From the minute they arrive in Year 7, entering their form of just 20 peers, until the day they leave, having completed their own personal Pathway in the school’s unique Sixth Form, students benefit from the confidence and growth that comes from being known as an individual. Every member of staff works incredibly hard to understand each student’s drives and motivations, how they learn and what they want to achieve – whether this is in a science lab or out on the rugby field.
So, as we prepare for our Year 7 Entrance Examinations, we know that this is just the first step of a long and wonderful journey for a whole new cohort of Grovians. We look forward to getting know them.
