A year is a long time in the life of a young person. Two years is an age. Four years is an eternity. As such, the life-changing impact of joining Rydal Penrhos for GCSE and A-Level study truly cannot be understated.
While it can be difficult for pupils in Year 9 and Year 11 to consider the possibility of moving schools, having in many instances spent several years at the same school, with the same group of friends, the benefits of making a move to our school are undeniable, and will resonate in pupils’ lives for decades.
Over the course of recent years, Rydal Penrhos has elevated its standard of excellence across all areas; academic outcomes, pastoral support, personal flourishing, sporting opportunity. More importantly, the school has repeatedly shown its ability to raise the prospects of pupils across a range of abilities.
This demonstrable truth is illustrated in the school’s Value Added scores at GCSE and A-Level. ‘Value Added’ is a statistic based around pupils’ all important public examinations results, combined with the Cognitive Ability Test, or CAT, that they sit upon joining Year 7 or above. Effectively, to add value is to deliver results that exceed a child’s forecast results at the average school.
While this might seem a necessary and sufficient condition of a quality independent school education, the reality is that achieving consistent positive Value Added scores year-after-year is a difficult task that requires a talented and committed teaching staff attuned to the needs of a range of pupils with differing abilities.
Rydal Penrhos was proud to return a Value Added score of 0.41 for its A-Level candidates in the summer of 2022. This means that, for every four out of ten A-Level entries, pupils scored a grade higher than they would have on average elsewhere.
A grade can be the difference between first and second-choice university options, which can in turn be the difference between securing an excellent graduate job or falling just short. Over time, the chain of consequence can result in marked differences in terms of levels of happiness, self-actualisation and income later in life.
With this in mind, there is no better investment in a child or young person’s future than securing the right educational environment for their all-important examination years. While there is of course the important matter of securing an easy and seamless transition into the school, prospective parents can rest assured Rydal Penrhos is a welcoming environment that allows all types of pupil to perform and thrive from day one.
If you would like to find out more about a Rydal Penrhos education for your child, please do not hesitate to contact our admissions team. Private one-to-one tours are available throughout the year, even during holidays. There is no better way to find out more about what makes us more than just any other school than looking around for yourself and seeing all that we do,
In a similar vein, taster days are available for prospective pupils to experience a day in the life at Rydal Penrhos, including the opportunity to meet their teachers and start building friendships with their future peers. Taster days can be an especially useful resource for pupils who might be nervous about moving on from their current school for their GCSEs and A-Levels.
Fully Funded Places, Scholarship Premiums and Bursaries are still available for Year 12 entry in September, so please enquire today by phoning 01492 530 155 (and dialling 3 for the admissions office) or by emailing admissions@rydalpenrhos.com. Alternatively, please click here to complete an enquiry form.
