QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

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takeiteasy
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:25 pm

QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by takeiteasy »

I believe some of the other parents are on the same boat as myself. Confused and trying to take an informed decision between Reading Boys and QE Barnet. Can we have a constructive discussion re pros and cons between these two rivals and the reasons why you chose one over the other.....many thanks!!

Takeiteasy.
2Girlsmum
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Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:41 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by 2Girlsmum »

Where do you live? Reading is quite a distance from QE Boys. A journey of over 45/50 mins to school is too much, and many QE boys drop out during Y7 because they can't cope with the travelling and homework.
Nims
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:44 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by Nims »

takeiteasy wrote:I believe some of the other parents are on the same boat as myself. Confused and trying to take an informed decision between Reading Boys and QE Barnet. Can we have a constructive discussion re pros and cons between these two rivals and the reasons why you chose one over the other.....many thanks!!

Takeiteasy.

If we go by league tables, Reading Boys is way behind QE. Also, QE infrastructure is far better than Reading Boys. Sports is not a priority in QE and so is the case with Reading Boys. Reading Boys also has the drawback of getting talented boys from the catchment only however in case of QE, its an open field for boys across UK hence more competitive. QE, although has the reputation of culling low performing students in later years however I believe that might be the case with many other schools as well. Even the no. of students going to Oxbridge is much higher for QE vis-a-vis Reading boys (as per their websites).

Therefore, in my opinion, unless you live in Berks and not open to relocate, QE is any day a better choice.
Daogroupie
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Location: Herts

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by Daogroupie »

Sports is not a priority at QE!!!!!! Where did you get that impression? I will leave existing parents to tell you all about the Sport at QE. On the academic issue then if you do not care where you live and are happy to live a reasonable distance from QE and league tables is all you care about then go for QE. But do be aware that your son may get A*s at GCSE in subject he loves but not be allowed to study these subjects at A level at QE because they decide he is not suitable. Are there siblings to take into consideration? DG
indiemom
Posts: 359
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:18 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by indiemom »

Daogroupie wrote:Sports is not a priority at QE!!!!!! Where did you get that impression? I will leave existing parents to tell you all about the Sport at QE. On the academic issue then if you do not care where you live and are happy to live a reasonable distance from QE and league tables is all you care about then go for QE. But do be aware that your son may get A*s at GCSE in subject he loves but not be allowed to study these subjects at A level at QE because they decide he is not suitable. Are there siblings to take into consideration? DG

Yes I saw that though there were 96 students in Biology, Physics and Chemistry for GSCE level in 2012 (out of them around 77, 84 and 86 students got A*) but only 34, 56 and 46 students took those subjects in A level (as per A level results of 2014). Some might have dropped those subjects because they wanted to do something else.
Helpful2hope
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Joined: Mon May 07, 2012 1:42 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by Helpful2hope »

You are correct, that some of the boys elect not to do all sciences. QE try to encourage breadth of study, unless pursuing a course that requires all 3. Consequently a number of the boys do 1 or 2 science, combined with say Maths and English, MFL or Humanity.
berks_mum
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Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by berks_mum »

Posted my response in berks thread earlier. Pasting the relevant bits again in this thread.
If we go by league tables, Reading Boys is way behind QE
What year was this? I thought RBS was on the 7th position nationally (GCSE results) whereas QE was on 3rd position. Did I see something wrong?

Here is the link for 2014 -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... sults.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Percentage of A*/A for QE boys is 89.98 and Reading is 87.53.

Hope this helps.
Nims
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:44 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by Nims »

berks_mum wrote:Posted my response in berks thread earlier. Pasting the relevant bits again in this thread.
If we go by league tables, Reading Boys is way behind QE
What year was this? I thought RBS was on the 7th position nationally (GCSE results) whereas QE was on 3rd position. Did I see something wrong?

Here is the link for 2014 -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... sults.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Percentage of A*/A for QE boys is 89.98 and Reading is 87.53.

Hope this helps.
Please refer below A level tables. A level results present the better picture as these are better indicators for selection in Oxbridge and other univ. as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... hools.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... hools.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clearly QE is scoring much higher vis-a-vis RBS on League tables.
Nims
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:44 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by Nims »

Daogroupie wrote:Sports is not a priority at QE!!!!!! Where did you get that impression? I will leave existing parents to tell you all about the Sport at QE. On the academic issue then if you do not care where you live and are happy to live a reasonable distance from QE and league tables is all you care about then go for QE. But do be aware that your son may get A*s at GCSE in subject he loves but not be allowed to study these subjects at A level at QE because they decide he is not suitable. Are there siblings to take into consideration? DG
My views on Sports in QE are based on feedbacks received from my friends/colleagues whose kids are studying there. While sports is a big thing in many good selective grammar schools, they say that QE focuses more on academics.
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: QE Barnet or Reading Boys??

Post by berks_mum »

Thank you for the links. I didn't think A level results were more important than GCSE thank you for letting me know.

My observations:
QE: Gone down from 98.34 in 2013 to 95.97 in 2014 (entries 471)
RBS: Gone down from 91.83 in 2013 to 88.12 in 2014 (entries 564)
QE is position 1 and Reading position 10, same for both years.

Questions:
1) Does RBS have a sixth form cull?
2) Is this(positions) a highly significant difference? Honestly no idea at all.
Last edited by berks_mum on Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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