Elizabeth College to welcome 17 Year 7 girls in September
ELIZABETH COLLEGE will see 17 girls entering Year 7 for the first time in its history this year, as it becomes fully co-educational.
A total of 92 students are set to join the school in September, and in another first for the college it will see some of these being funded by a special bursary scheme set up after the States stopped providing scholarships.
The Elizabeth College Foundation Bursary Scheme came about as a result of the college’s Chance of a Lifetime Appeal.
This had two aims – to purchase Canada Court next door, now to be known as Perrot Court, and provide the bursary.
Vice-principal Rick James is bursary co-ordinator, and he said the scheme received a total of 14 applications, but one student dropped out.
Unlike the old States scheme, which was entirely based on academic achievement in the 11-plus and could see 23 students earn a place, the bursary was means-tested which made the decision-making process a more subtle one, he said.
Students all had to take the standard college entrance assessment after which they were invited in for a combination of an interview and to undertake some lateral and creative thinking tasks with staff.
Mr James said the staff observed how the students thought and whether they were prepared to think outside the box a bit, or keep struggling with a problem that might not have an obvious solution, or one that had several solutions.
Another interview with two staff members assessed their interests and to see if they were students who would bring something to the college and that they would benefit from everything the college had to offer, not just academically.
The outcomes were passed on to a four-person panel for the final decision about which students would be given up to 100% funding for their time at the school.
The panel awarded bursaries to eight of the applicants, a boy and girl who will enter the sixth form and two girls and four boys who will join Year 7 in September.
The amounts awarded ranged from 50% to 100% bursaries, based on means-testing.
Mr James said the school was pleased both with the result of the bursary process and the fact that 17 girls will be joining.
‘We were aiming for 12,’ he said.
About the bursary
The bursary was made possible following a donation in the name of the late Roger Perrot, right, an Old Elizabethan.
Had it not been for this, funding for the scheme would have taken longer to raise.
Applications for college places, and the bursary, for 2022, are open now.
