Secondary School Transition

Crackley Hall School is committed to ensuring a smooth and confident transition for pupils as they prepare for the next stage of their education. With a caring and supportive environment, we equip our pupils with the skills, knowledge, and resilience needed to thrive in secondary school and beyond.  

Foundation Early Offer Scheme

As a tangible example of our Foundation for Life approach, parents of Foundation prep school pupils in Year 5 are now able to opt in to an Early Offer Scheme for Princethorpe College, the Foundation’s senior school.   

The Early Offer Scheme aims to prioritise applications from the Foundation prep schools and leverage the unique relationship the schools have within the Foundation. There is no guarantee that a place will be offered, however over the last few years the majority of our prep school pupils who have applied for a place have been offered one, there have only been a small number of occasions when the College has felt that it was unable to best meet the needs of the pupil.  

Currently pupils in Crackley Hall School and Crescent School already sit standardised assessments from Year 3 onwards in English, Mathematics and undertake a number of free writing tasks in class. For those who register for the Early Offer Scheme, these assessment scores will be shared with Princethorpe College for the Admissions Panel to review. This will show academic progress and trajectory over time.  

Additionally, in May Early Offer Scheme candidates will undertake an online assessment and a piece of free writing administered in their current school setting by Princethorpe staff.  

Once Early Offer Scheme assessments have been completed, the Princethorpe College Admissions Panel will consider all the relevant information and early offers will be made as appropriate in June, five months earlier than normal.  

Those children who do not receive an early offer have a second opportunity, as they are able to sit the College’s Entrance Exams as usual in November, giving them longer to develop their skills and make progress.  

Candidates wishing to be considered for an Academic Scholarship or one of the College’s other scholarships would still sit the Entrance Exams in November or participate in the Scholarship assessments in the autumn term, but they could do so safe in the knowledge that they already have a place. 

Secondary School Preparation

From Junior 3 (Year 3), our pupils gain experience of having different lessons with different teachers, for specialist subjects, such as Languages, Art and Science. They get used to moving themselves and their equipment around the building, improving their organisation skills and independence and are exposed to different teaching styles and approaches, as they will be in senior school. 

In Junior 5 and 6 (Year 5 and 6) we hold a Destinations Meeting for parents to outline the different options open to them and the timeline involved for secondary school applications. The majority of our Junior 6 (Year 6) pupils do go on to Princethorpe College, the Foundation's Senior School, but parents also show interest in other local independent schools, as well as the state and grammar schools.  

Our aim is to work with parents to give your child the best chance of getting into their first-choice secondary school. Over the past year, almost every one of our pupils achieved this aim. This is a very important indicator for parents who want the best secondary school for their child. 

To assist with preparation for the selective schools, from Junior 4 to Junior 6 (Year 4 to Year 6) verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning are taught within lessons. In Junior 5 (Year 5) those wishing to get some more support in exam preparation can do so in an extra-curricular lunchtime club and exam technique and practice papers begin in earnest in the Trinity Term of Junior 5 (Year 5).  

Many of our pupils find themselves with multiple offers to choose from and a high number are awarded scholarships.