Brighton College
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Brighton College
Hello all,
First time poster. We currently live in South London but are seriously contemplating a move to Brighton and are very interested in Brighton College for ds who is now year 5.
We're booked in for the open day but I had a few questions and was hoping someone could help. I get the impression that BC is very academic, as academic as Kings College School but a bit more quirky and arty, which would suit ds perfectly. My question is, is it as difficult to get into? Does anyone have an idea of how many children apply for the 50 places (I think that's how many I read) and in terms of entrance do you have an idea of how tough the exam is and the kind of percentages needed? As far as I know there are no past papers available for BC, but I'm keen to get ds some practice in advance. We don't have a tutor but will probably tutor in Maths towards the end of year 5 and practice some verbal reasoning papers.
Ds is currently at a state school and in his last school report he was doing really well in English - top of his year and won a national writing competition his teacher entered him for so I'm fairly relaxed about English, he's doing pretty well in Maths too, at the end of Year 4 he was 'exceeding expectations' and I was told he was an old NC level 4A. I'm not sure if that's good enough so just trying to get an idea of whether we're being realistic. He's dyspraxic so terrible at sport but considered scholarship material in Art, which is why his class teacher suggested applying to Alleyn's and Dulwich. Currently, we're looking at applying for Kingston Grammar, Dulwich College and Alleyn's here in London but Brighton sounds amazing and we're ready to move out, I'm just aware that the London schools we are looking at are not quite as academic as BC.
Thanks in advance!!
First time poster. We currently live in South London but are seriously contemplating a move to Brighton and are very interested in Brighton College for ds who is now year 5.
We're booked in for the open day but I had a few questions and was hoping someone could help. I get the impression that BC is very academic, as academic as Kings College School but a bit more quirky and arty, which would suit ds perfectly. My question is, is it as difficult to get into? Does anyone have an idea of how many children apply for the 50 places (I think that's how many I read) and in terms of entrance do you have an idea of how tough the exam is and the kind of percentages needed? As far as I know there are no past papers available for BC, but I'm keen to get ds some practice in advance. We don't have a tutor but will probably tutor in Maths towards the end of year 5 and practice some verbal reasoning papers.
Ds is currently at a state school and in his last school report he was doing really well in English - top of his year and won a national writing competition his teacher entered him for so I'm fairly relaxed about English, he's doing pretty well in Maths too, at the end of Year 4 he was 'exceeding expectations' and I was told he was an old NC level 4A. I'm not sure if that's good enough so just trying to get an idea of whether we're being realistic. He's dyspraxic so terrible at sport but considered scholarship material in Art, which is why his class teacher suggested applying to Alleyn's and Dulwich. Currently, we're looking at applying for Kingston Grammar, Dulwich College and Alleyn's here in London but Brighton sounds amazing and we're ready to move out, I'm just aware that the London schools we are looking at are not quite as academic as BC.
Thanks in advance!!
Re: Brighton College
Welcome to the forum. Sorry I can't offer any advice based on first hand experience but in the absence of any other replies here goes! From what I know your analysis of the schools is correct, BC probably a bit more selective/academic, but liberal in culture and of course co-ed. As to percentages etc I'm not sure but nearer the time (and not incessantly) I would recommend doing some practise papers (other indies have them on their websites) so that DS gets a feel for what is involved and in particular timing. Good luck.
mad?
Re: Brighton College
Mad? thanks for replying! Hoping someone with direct experience of BC will get back to me but good to know that my initial feelings about the school are correct. We're going to the open day soon so hopefully that will answer some more questions. As it stands, I'm not going to get too set on it as we know very little about it, ds's class teacher really likes Alleyn's for him and it sounds to me like BC is a more academic Alleyn's. Hopefully we'll get a better idea of how realistic it is when we visit and it may just be a case of giving it a go and seeing what happens as we have some great schools in London to apply to that we are more familiar with already. Thanks again! 
