• by MIT Ivy League and Oxbridge Educated Insiders
  • Trusted by over tens of thousands online subscribers

King Edward VI School Southampton

School rating 4 / 5 by

Wilton Road Southampton Hampshire SO15 5UQ United Kingdom
Day
7th to 9th
Gender
Coed

Academic

King Edward VI School Southampton review by .

The King Edward VI School (Southampton) is academically outstanding in all areas but is particularly well equiped in the sciences, sports and music. The school also devotes a significant amount of time to mathematics and modern languages, a minimum of 5 hour a week of class time for the former and 4 hours a week for the latter. The school also recruits only specialist teachers (i.e. those with a related degree to at least degree level) to teach at GCSE level and above. The school does very well in focusing on each student's strengths and ensuring that his/her particular potential in a given area is fully realised. With 1 hour - 1.5 hours a day homework at pre-GCSE level and up to 3 hours a day at A level, the school manages to encourage a high level of work from its students while still doing very well to take students' welfare and their life outside of academia into account. The extent to which work and deadline are enforced does, however vary greatly between teachers. The strong work ethic prepares students well for university and future life. Classes are small and invariably well organised, ensuring that large amounts can be covered very quickly and in great detail. This and comprehensive planning and monitoring ensure that syllabuses are covered comprehensively and early, leaving plenty of time for revision at the end of term prior to external examinations. Yearly examinations and streaming ensure that pupils learn with others of a similar ability after the second year in all disciplines in which numbers make more than one class feasible. Teachers are invariably entertaining and inspiring and encourage an enthusiasm in the subject by showing a willingness to answer questions and fill in background information that goes beyond the syllabus, while also being careful not to be distracted from the task of ensuring students are prepared for external examinations. With a significant number of examiners employed as staff, the school also does well at ensuring that pupils know exactly what they will be facing come their final examinations. Perhaps the only criticisms of the school I could offer is that it has a tangible competitive and boisterous atmosphere, and those who do not keep up occasionally end up giving up as a result of this. Pupils are expected to keep up, even if this means working twice as hard as the rest of the class to do so, which for some can be too much. Also, particularly at A level, independent learning is not depended on as much as other sixth-form colleges, which means that some may struggle following leaving a class environment and entering university. Invariably, however, this is as a result of the fact that class sizes are so small and teaching so well-organised and comprehensive that students are rarely required to learn things for themselves. While work outside of class is heavy, it is often for the purpose of assessment and development of writing style than for learning outside of the classroom.

College Counseling

University admissions were emphasised throughout sixth-form and addressed well over a year before applications needed....

Sample insights on college counseling

  • They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...
  • For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

The school mainly takes at 11+, though they also have been known to take at....

Sample insights on admissions

  • For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

The provision of breakfast as extra is a fantastically useful service that the school provides, especially from students with a long commute from within the schools remarkably large catchment area (bus services are provided for as far a-field as New Milton. Unfortunately school lunches are somewhat poor in quality, though by no means lacking in choice and costing only £2 each. Bringing packed lunches is, however, quite common should the quality of school cuisine be a problem. The dining hall is large and sociable and altogether a pleasant atmosphere in which to eat and the building and school grounds are....

Popular Comparisons