Harrow is preparing to welcome its first ever cohort of online-only pupils as it launches a web-based sixth form offering in the age of Covid-19.
Harrow School Online will allow sixth form students from around the world to study remotely for A-levels without ever stepping foot inside a physical classroom.
Pupils, dubbed ‘online Harrovians’, will have the option of taking up to three AS and A-levels – Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Economics – with each subject requiring the student to attend two ‘live’ lessons via videolink a week, in addition to personal study.
Fees are still significant at £15,000-a-year but are considerably less than the £42,000 parents pay to send their child to the school’s main north London campus.
Subjects will be taught by six teachers, all based in the UK, who have been recruited and trained using the same process and guidelines as Harrow School, although they are not part of the primary faculty.
Admissions for the 2020-2021 school year remain open and close next week so the final size of the cohort is not known. However it is expected that no more than 100 pupils will be accepted.
Principal Heather Rhodes has said the historic school is adapting to a ‘rapidly changing world’ and that their new platform will ‘reflect young people’s lifestyles and aspirations’.
Harrow is preparing to welcome its first ever cohort of online-only pupils as it launches a web-based sixth form offering in the age of Covid-19. Pictured, the school’s London campus
The prestigious Harrow school is launching a virtual sixth form which will teach online A-levels to students all around the globe. Pictured, Harrow’s online portal
Former deputy head teacher Ruth Kudzi, who has worked in a number of London schools, praised the flexible approach and noted it will give children across the country – and around the world – access to education of the highest standard.
This will be particularly appealing in the current situation, with families across the countries faced with the prospect of intermittent local lockdowns that have the potential to disrupt traditional schooling.
Online schools can’t currently be registered with the Department for Education, although the school ‘believes a voluntary registration will open in autumn’.
According to the platform’s founding contract, Harrow School Online is operated according to the laws and regulations for an independent, physical school in England.
For pupils resident in the UK, the school will notify the appropriate local authority that they are being educated at home with the support of Harrow School Online.
Entry requirements are based on those of Harrow School, with the expectation that pupils will generally be capable of achieving 7-8 grades at GCSE grade 7-9 or in a national system be graded within the top 10 per cent. It means students who received their grades back today could rush to apply for their place at Harrow School Online.
Applicants will be required to take subject-specific entrance tests, if they have not yet received a GCSE or International GCSE grade, or equivalent, in the subjects they are looking to study at A Level.
Harrow Online School has been in the works since last year, but will launch this September.
The school offers Pearson Edexcel International A Level qualifications. These can be studied full-time or in addition to other subjects being taken at the pupil’s physical school.
Each online course consists of seven 45-minute lessons per week, five of which are self-scheduled self-study lessons and two are live online teaching sessions and students will be taught in groups of around ten.
Students are in charge of their daily timetables, ensuring that they complete all required assignments themselves, but attend regular online meetings with their tutor and fortnightly meetings with a ‘success coach’, who will provide the student with support and feedback, and help to guide them through their university application.
A spokesperson for the school told FEMAIL the online approach to learning: ‘frees up time for our teacher to give individual support to help students become more successful independent learners’.
They hold daily ‘office hours’, where students can make appointments for support, or where a teacher can invite small groups of students for a micro-lesson to review an area of difficulty.
Lessons are adapted to suit the individual class when it comes to time zones, so while one student may be in the live class in the morning, others will join in the evening.
Students will also receive video masterclass segments featuring speakers from Harrow School and elsewhere.
They will also offer a range of ‘super-curricular’ electives, such as game design, ethics and genetic engineering.
As well as academic subjects, extracurricular online activities such as chess club, robotics, art club and a working on a literary magazine are all available.
Students will also get the change to visit the real Harrow School to attend a residential summer course – for an extra fee.
If you don’t have £5,000 a term to spend on online lessons, some lucky pupils are able to receive a bursary of 100 per cent of their tuition fee, while those with an academic scholarship will receive funding of 50 per cent.
A school spokesperson said: ‘We are still accepting late applications for this September but in general we would encourage pupils to apply early to ensure we are able to accommodate them by staffing accordingly.’
Pupils who are not native speakers of English will have to demonstrate their proficiency through submitting evidence of attainment on one of the schools approved English language tests.
While the school does not have a maximum number of applicants they have limits on class size for live lessons, ensuring our average class size stays below 11 students.
However as a result of the pandemic, the school are allowing applications from candidates who may not have met one of the entry criteria because of the disruption to this academic year.