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Perse School for Girls

School rating 4 / 5 by

Union Road Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB2 1HF United Kingdom
Day
K to 12th
Gender
Girls only

Academic

Perse School for Girls review by .

I attended Perse School for girls from age 11 to 16 (GCSE), but also attended the junior school (Perse Junior) for 1 year The Perse School for girls has an excellent reputation for exam results and Oxbridge entrances, however surprisingly the class sizes are quite large, usually 28-30 students, but with daily tutor sessions at registrations the welfare of the whole class is well maintained. From age 11, the work load increases rapidly throughout the years, starting with usually 2 pieces per night, and up to 4 at GCSE, which can make balancing school work with other after school activities quite difficult. Each year, there are exams in every taught subject to assess your progress and knowledge of the work covered during the year. This really helps you to prepare well for the style of the GCSE examinations. Many of the subject tutors are very passionate about their subject, and have a very wide base knowledge. For the first 3 years, a wide range of syllabus based and extension subjects are covered, where as during the two GCSE years, things become very much exam focused. From age 13 you become set by academical ability in maths and French, and split into lesson groups randomly for many of the other subjects, so you get to know people in other classes better The Perse girls school offers an amazing range of languages including Italian, Russian, German, French and Spanish, as well as ancient Latin and Greek and After school Japenese lessons. You learn French from age 11, and a second modern language of your choice from age 13. Latin is compulsory till age 14 It must be noted that this school is very competitive, and especially since it is an all girls environment, one can find the classes very competitive, which on one hand encourages you to work harder, but in the other can always make you feel not quite good enough

College Counseling

The college tutorial system really aimed to make students feel at home, but relatively little....

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

Most of the students come straight from the Perse Junior School, and there is no....

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 area in which the school is set is not very appealing, in the center of a very cramped housing estate. However, the school is well enclosed and almost impossible for intruders to enter without prior knowledge. Neighborhood crime is negligible. However, within the school itself there is relatively little open space, and one can often feel trapped The school is very close to the railway station, and students from all over the east of Anglia attend due to its outstanding academic reputation. People from all ethnic backgrounds attend, and in particular there is quite a large Chinese minority. The school dining....

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