Headteacher Philip Hoyland discusses stress management for parents and children alike at

Pinewood School

There has been much talk in the educational world lately about the role of ?wellbeing? in the classroom, as it seems to go hand in hand with the rise of reported cases of teenage angst and stress. With this in mind, we at Pinewood have been looking at the usefulness of Prep and, the frequency and amount of testing.
A key element of this is Common Entrance (C.E.),

the purported gold standard for 13+ transfer to senior school. However it has, to a large extent, become irrelevant to the majority of Senior Schools who now pre-test in either Year Six or Seven and, on the strength of that, offer a guaranteed or conditional place, (based on continued dialogue with a trusted head about the child?s progress). Senior Schools are already being innovative and inventive at both GCSE and A-Level. There are the IB and Pre-U as alternatives. Keith Budge, head at Bedales, has described GCSEs as, ?Dull, narrow and counter-intuitive to our purpose.?
Pupils enjoy outdoor lectures and active learning
Bedales have launched the BAC (Bedales Assessed Course) in their stead. Sevenoaks School who embraced the IB in 2008 wrote of GSCEs as, ?Limiting, meaningless and in some cases poorly assessed. They are artificial, cause stress and preparation for them takes up curriculum time.? Hence they have introduced Sevenoaks School Certificates. But if Senior Schools can make changes then why n...