Common Entrance exam is a burden children do not need

Socrates may have thought the unexamined life is not worth leading but what about the over-examined life that all pupils have to endure? There is too much assessment and the atomisation of the curriculum in recent years has not helped. There are too many subject silos and not enough joined-up thinking across the curriculum, so too many young people do not see the beauty of learning and the interconnectedness of so many areas of academic study.

The truth is that underpinning the best teaching in the best schools is an understanding that a first-class transforming education recognises the importance of reflective and informed debate. That is the essence of a liberal education that remains the best preparation for adult life.

There is, of course, superb teaching in prep and primary schools but at a key stage in pupil development the focus switches to passing an exam that is unnecessary, given they have already ‘passed’. What do I mean by this? More and more independent schools have a pre-test in Year 6 and then there is the additional challenge of an entrance exam at the end of Year 8. This exam heaps pressure on pupils, parents and teachers, fuelling unnecessary anxiety and stress. This has been a constant message from prep schools since I moved to Westminster in 2014 and that is why we, in collaboration with St Paul’s

School, decided that from September 2021 the 13+ entry to both schools will not be conditional upon passing the Common Entrance examination.

Pre-test and related assessments work, so why add to the stress? We are not criticising Common Entrance. It is a good exam: it has endured and it is a perfectly adequate preparation for Year 9 but it is limiting, particularly in the form of assessment, and is no longer fit for purpose for our two schools.

The reality is that the exam has become for us an exit test rather than a genuine entrance examination. So what we are doing is an act of liberation. We believe that our excellent feeder schools will use this freedom to develop their curriculums in ways that are even more rigorous and inspiring. Indeed many prep schools have already jettisoned parts of Common Entrance in order to do this. Not only will this change remove uncertainty and unnecessary stress but also it will benefit everyone and enable young minds to flourish without having to face an exam that they do not need to pass.