Duke Of Edinburgh Bronze Expedition
After postponing this trip at the end of last term due to the AQI, the D of E bronze candidates have started their qualifying expedition in much better conditions. The expedition is fully self supported with teams carrying their own tents and all the food for the two day trip. After a 13 km trek today in Shivapura Park climbing to over 2000m, they will camp in Kakani Scout Camp before trekking down to their exit point at Tinpiple tomorrow afternoon.
Year 7 Geography Rivers Fieldwork
Pupils had an excellent time at the River Lele in Tikabhairav over the last few days. They got to use ranging poles, metre rulers, clinometers and stopwatches to measure the width, depth, gradient and velocity of the river at three different sites. They enjoyed getting very involved by climbing into the river and having a lot of fun while collecting their data! Students then went to Chobar Gorge where they learned about the formation of a gorge and saw geography in action! When they return to lessons, they will be writing up a project to see how the different sites compare to each other as their end of year assessment!
Class of 2025 University Update
Creative Arts and Science & Technology most popular university courses for TBS Class of 2025
As Year 13 moves into their final term at school, Ms Sheldon and the KS5 team would like to give an update on where they all might be next year. The most popular destinations are again the UK, North America and Australia but this is a truly international class who will be spread much more widely than our traditional locations, reflecting the rise in profile, and ranking of many universities here in Asia.
One of the great advantages of a TBS education is that full college counselling support is available to TBS Class of 2025 until they are placed in universities. With one third of the year group planning to make formal applications after graduation, Ms Sheldon is going to have a busy autumn making sure that all our students continue their education in the right universities and courses.
There are 36 candidate students in the class of 2025:
Here are is a summary of the preferred or accepted university offers of the class of 2026:
Australia and New Zealand 33%: (applications after A level results, but Australia has a very clear admission system, if you get the required grade you are very likely to be offered a place): 12 students (including: Melbourne; Sydney; UNSW; Monash, Queensland)
UK: 22% (including: University College, London; Bristol 54; Glasgow 78; Newcastle 129; King’s London, University of the Arts, London (2 students) 138*, Manchester Metropolitan, Metropolitan, Chester
North America: 17% (including: University of British Columbia, New York University, University of Michigan, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design)
European Union: 11% including ESMOD (Paris), LCI Barcelona, Netherlands & Germany
Asia: 8% students: Malaysia, Thailand, Japan
Middle East: 3% (Middlesex University, Dubai)
Nepal: 3%
Other: 3% (commercial pilot training)
In terms of courses, the most popular courses this year are in the field of creative arts reflecting TBS’s excellent education in this area, although the science faculty may wish me to highlight that 34% of students have chosen a course in one of the three main science areas!
Creative arts: 29%
Life science and medicine: 17%
Social sciences & business: 17%
Engineering & Technology: 11%
Natural Sciences: 6%
Law 3%
Architecture: 3%
Maths 3%
Media 3%
We will update Yeti news readers on final destinations after A level results are published in August and when Australian university offers are confirmed next January.
End of Year Assessments for Y7-Y10
In week 4 and 5 of this term, all students in Year 7 to Year 10 will complete a more formal end of year assessment in most of their subjects. While these assessments will include content from across the year, students have been well prepared for assessments, so we do not expect to see a large increase in the amount of time they spend studying at home in the run up to these tests.
At TBS, we design assessment so that the levels of challenge increase each year, as you can see represented in this graphic. We know that some students will feel more pressure to perform in these circumstances and we aim to support them to deal with this pressure so that it is manageable.
Why do we run more formal end of year assessments?
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These assessments expose students to true ‘examination’ experiences in manageable chunks, which helps prepare them incrementally for future external examinations;
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They helps us to evaluate student learning from across the year;
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They support the development of effective study routines and habits, something teachers have also been reinforcing in lessons too;
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They nurture academic resilience and ‘grit’, by pushing students just far enough out of their comfort zones;
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They aid teachers’ in planning for students’ next steps, as with any form of assessment.
The timetables have already been shared with students and have been designed to spread out assessments as far as possible while also exposing students to the challenges of taking a few tests at once. The results of these assessments will inform the final grade on the last report of the year; however, as always, our reporting is holistic, taking into account all lesson work and verbal responses too. This guide, which was emailed to relevant parents yesterday, contains some specific guidance on what each assessment will look like and what students can do to prepare. We would especially appreciate parent support in reassuring their children that they have already done most of the necessary work throughout the year and should not unduly worry about these tests.
Exam Update
The exam season is well underway now with both GCSE and A level exams taking place this week. Many students feel that they are better off revising at home during the exam period, and this was my position when I was taking A level exam many years ago! However after coaching hundreds of students through their exams over the course of my teaching career, I am absolutely sure that the vast majority of students do better if they attend school regularly during exam period and am 100% confident that the best advice to maximise exam results in August is to maintain a high attendance at school throughout the exam period. I would like to take this opportunity to outline some of the reasons why TBS believes that students will do better if they revise at school.
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Students benefit from getting up at the normal time and maintain their usual routine.
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Students are able to speak to their teachers on a daily basis and ask any pressing questions they may have.
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Students are able to speak to their peer group on a daily basis, to work together on revision, to discuss learning and to interact socially with their friends.
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Students balance their revision, and avoid lurching from “next exam to next exam” revision. They spread their learning across all their subjects – revision that is shown to be more effective.
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The school timetable ensures that students are able to change their learning environment every hour and take regular breaks during the school day
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Students are able to access school sports facilities during PE lessons and after school clubs. Physical activity is well documented as having a highly positive effect on learning and academic performance
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Many students will be revising after school in the evening at this stage. This is much more effective if their home work space is fresh after a day at school and not somewhere they have already spent many hours that day revising.
