Scholarships, Prizes, Academic and Music Awards

(effective September 2010)

These notes are a guide to scholarships, prizes and academic awards at Highgate School. Parents requiring guidance are encouraged to contact the Head Master or the Principal of the Junior School.

Scholarships, awards and prizes

At Highgate, academic awards are made to reward sustained outstanding work, to encourage the maintenance of high standards and to foster a developing love of learning.

Pupils holding scholarship, academic awards or receiving prizes are expected to maintain high academic standards, to help set a scholarly tone in lessons and to take a leading part in extra-curricular activities of an academic nature. In particular, they are required to attend and to prepare for meetings of the scholars (these meetings are called Academic Forums) at least twice a term, where academic topics beyond the limits of departmental syllabuses will be studied and discussed.

We are therefore looking to award scholarships to pupils who show evidence of academic excellence over a broad range of subject disciplines, who avidly amass knowledge, and who think for themselves and question critically what they read, hear and study.

Academic scholarships from September 2010 will be worth £1500. The School aims through its academic scholarships to attract and reward able pupils while ensuring that some of those who are in financial need are enabled to come to the school. Parents are warmly encouraged to approach the school for more guidance at any point.

All award-holders’ parents are invited annually to return a proportion of the academic award; these contributions are given to the school’s bursary funds.

Scholarships, prizes, academic and music awards for external candidates

These are made to pupils entering the Senior School at 11+, 13+ and 16+ (Years 7, 9 and 12) on the basis of their performance in our various entrance tests: other than music auditions, there are no separate scholarship examinations.

From September 2010, scholarships will be offered as a fixed sum of £1500 as set out above. Prizes – either Venn (for Mathematics) or Hopkins (for English) – worth £1000 per annum for five years are also offered at 11+.

Internal scholarships and awards

For pupils already in the school, a number of key stage scholarships are awarded at the end of Year 6 (ie. to pupils entering the Senior School) and at the end of each subsequent year to reward exceptional and outstanding term-time and examination performance. Our aim in so doing is three-fold: to accommodate late developers, to give pupils a genuine incentive to sustain academic ambition throughout their school career and to promote further the standing of academic scholarship in the school.

Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Scholarships (worth £1500 per annum), are tenable for the rest of the Key Stage (Key Stage 3 = Years 7, 8 and 9; Key Stage 4 = Years 10 and 11).

Scholarships and awards made internally come into effect in the following September.

Foundation Scholarships

The 1876 Scheme approved by the Charity Commissioners made provision for a number of Foundation Scholarships not to exceed ten per cent of the total pupils. A Foundation Scholarship is a senior academic scholarship. At any point, a Foundation may be offered, either externally or internally, for exceptional and/or sustained outstanding performance. A pupil might show exceptional talent in a particular group of subjects (for example, in Mathematics and the sciences, or in English and other arts subjects). Alternatively, she/he might show sustained excellence over a year in most or all subject areas, consistently gaining the highest grade in both achievement and effort in interim grade assessments as well as excellent results in any internal examinations.

A Foundation Scholarship brings with it assurance that the scholarship will be held, subject to continued excellent work and behaviour, for the rest of a pupil’s time at the school.

A pupil’s all-round commitment and behaviour need to be exemplary for a scholarship to be awarded; in the case of pupils entering from another school, the pupil’s school report needs to indicate that the pupil would be a willing and able contributor to the extra-curricular and academic life at Highgate.

Sixth Form Academic Awards

For Year 12 pupils already in the School who do not already hold Foundation scholarships, sixth form awards, worth a maximum of £500 per term and tenable for two years, will be awarded for gaining outstanding results at GCSE (usually a minimum of 9 A*) from GCSEs taught at the school in subjects taught by and at Highgate, at a level determined by the Head Master annually on scrutiny of the year group’s results in August. Year 11 applicants from other schools will be offered Academic Awards where their grade predictions and performance at interview lead the School to anticipate an equivalent performance at GCSE.

Re-awarding of Key Stage Scholarships

It is always hoped that a Key Stage scholar would be re-awarded a scholarship on entering the next Key Stage (eg. a Key Stage 3 scholar entering Year 10 or a Key Stage 4 scholar entering Year 12); however, scholarships and academic awards are made on the basis of open competition at that point and will take into account term-time as well as examination performance. The Director of Studies will give parents notice of at least two terms if a pupil’s performance, for whatever reason, appears unlikely to qualify her or him for a re-award and a month’s notice of the decision not to re-award a scholarship. Parents would have an opportunity to appeal to the Head Master against this decision and these arrangements would be set out at the time of the decision being communicated to parents.

Music Scholarships and Exhibitions

Music Scholarships and Exhibitions will be awarded on the basis of auditions and interviews for pupils in Year 6 (either from other schools or from the Junior School) for entry into Year 7, pupils in Year 8 (either from other schools or from the Senior School) for entry into Year 9, or pupils in Year 11 (from other schools only) for entry into Year 12. A Music Scholarship can be worth up to a quarter of the tuition fee, tenable for the duration of the pupil’s time in the school, subject to the Director of Music’s assessment that progress and conduct remain satisfactory. The level of fee reduction is aimed at rewarding and attracting excellent musicians, but also at reflecting the cost to parents of their children’s musical activity.

Music Exhibitions and Music Scholarships entitle the award-holder to free tuition on two instruments, as long as the tuition is provided in school by Highgate music teachers.

A Music Scholarship (or Exhibition) can be held in conjunction with an academic award or a bursary.

Current scholarships and awards

These arrangements, updated in September 2010, do not affect any awards already made. The policy on scholarships and awards is subject to annual review by governors.

Bursaries

The school, through its Bursary Fund and through a separate charity, the Friends of Highgate School (charity number: 1056624), gives bursarial assistance to pupils whose family circumstances warrant it and where funds permit. Please refer to the separate policy on financial assistance (‘bursaries’).

A bursary, which is means-tested, can be held in conjunction with a scholarship.

The Director of the Charity, Robert Wilne, is always happy to give advice to parents seeking admission to Highgate about bursarial assistance.