Highlights from Education Webinar – For Year Five

It is important to identify the best school for your child, LagosMums and Mark Brooks Education hosted a webinar to discuss the best education for our children in the future. This discussion was held by parenting coach, Yetty Williams and education consultant,  Mark Brooks; on the 27th of April 2021. We will be sharing highlights and the full replay of the discussion!

Mark Brooks is the director of Mark Brooks Education, he’s been consulting with Nigerian families for over 12 years; he does a great job, working with families and ensuring that your children actually get into the right school for them, based on their skill sets. This webinar was focused on students in year 5, because we found that year 5 is a critical year; to kick-off whatever your child is going to be doing as part of the application process to get into a top school for year 7. Also discussions on year 4 and 6, because it is not too early or to late to have this discussion.

What Parents need to Know

The first thing is that there is a right time to start. Year 5 is a great time to start the process for a year 7 entry. But your children need something extracurricular outside of school to have make them stand out; it shows persistence and show they are growing from grade to grade. Children nowadays are not just about school, they have to explore different things; like sports, music, public speaking writing, and so on.

The next thing is to identify the right school for your child. Wherever you are, whether in Lagos, and you are trying to move to the UK, there is a school for every child. Based on your child’s interests, your child’s academic rigour. It is important to identify the right school and the best way to do it is to explore, to visit the schools when they have exhibitions because the more you speak to the school, the more you engage with them, the more you’ll start to get a picture of what’s school fits right for your child.

It is important to identify the right school the right school for your child Click To Tweet

Another is scholarships. Parents should be aware that there are many opportunities that sometimes they are not aware of. Scholarships are not tied to where a child is from, scholarships are based on many other things; academic, gifts, talents, etc. So there’s several types of scholarships based on your child’s interests, based on the school that you’re looking at, and so many things in between. Scholarships vary, it can be anywhere from 10%-100%, but parents need to understand that it is possible.

And lastly is the benefits of an education consultant; this is very critical. This makes the search much more efficient, because some families have certain parameter; and will be able to narrow down to a certain location. Maybe you have children who are social butterflies, and you don’t want them to be coming to the city right every weekend; or you want the school far away so the child is in school and stays in that village until holiday. So there’s no right or wrong preference to the type of school environment that you are looking for

There's no right or wrong preference to the type of school environment that you want for your child Click To Tweet

Then the key is when you speak to a consultant, they can help you to refine what you may not even be aware of. Having a consultant also makes it easy to get on their timetable and have a conversation with them; because you’re seriously considering the school as an option. This makes it very clear when you’re introduced because you have considered that for your child or your children.

Entrance examinations are critical; when preparing your child for the entrance exams, make sure they have enough time to practice. The way children are taught in Nigeria, might not necessarily be exam ready, we find that quite a lot; so you need to make sure that your children are being prepared for the entrance examination. And when it comes to interview skills, our children know how to show up, know how to present their interests and they do it not from a place of fear, but allow them to explore and be able to communicate what they’re looking for.

What does and Educational Consultant do?

As parents, you can do your own research and you can make applications yourself; but the most important thing in educational consultant is relationships. They know the heads, the schools inside out, good relationships with Nigerian parents; and help to introduce the families to heads of the school. If you’re kind of a parent out of the blue contacting a school, you might get an appointment with the registrar in a few weeks time, consultants such as Mark Brook actually cut right through and have a meeting with the head because the head is the embodiment of the whole school.

Another factor is building relationships. You’re more likely to have success in your whole application. If we’ve introduced you to the head, your child is being introduced to the head as well. A process that is suppose to be complex and time consuming, if you start at the top and work down, you’re more likely to be successful.

Application process basics

If you’re looking at joining in year 9, you should be looking at year five preparation and registering three or four years in advance. So, for year 11 plus assessment, if you’re entering at year seven straight from Lagos; your academic assessment is usually in English, Maths, and Reasoning exam papers, both printed and online.

You may think that’s very straightforward, it’s actually more complicated than it seems; because they’re expecting a very high standard of English and maths and a tour of the British curriculum, because most students are rejected as due to their school in Nigeria not covering certain things in the curriculum beforehand. So the preparation is making sure you understand what’s meant to be in the curriculum and what what’s expected of you.

With a consultant, your child we get interview practices. The common theme that we’ve come across with students is lack of confidence; and not wanting to blow their own trumpet. Certainly in an interview that’s the only chance to play their own trumpet, and so they need to be confident, concise and clear.

Read Also [Invest In Your Child’s Future Today – With A UK Boarding Education!]

Watch the full replay of the eduaction webinar HERE

With PassCode: LagosMumsWEB@2021

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