The Pathway to Academic Success

Contextualized in the 450 years of history and tradition of Harrow London, Harrow Beijing chooses English as one of the primary academic languages. Good English proficiency helps students transition smoothly to higher education, allows them more opportunities to choose universities, and at the same time, is key for students to achieve academic excellence.

Recently, Harrow Beijing student Sally F attained an 8.5 band score in her IELTS test. This is a result that only few people can achieve, difficult even for native speakers. It exceeds the language proficiency requirement of the vast majority of the world’s best universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.

Though it may seem improbable, in the last three years there were four Harrow Beijing students who achieved an IETLS 8.5. The first one, Caitlin Y, is now a student at the University of Cambridge, and Karina N is studying Medicine in Hong Kong, while Martin H is currently in Year 13 at Harrow Beijing. Sally is the fourth and is in great company. In addition, over 80% of Harrow Beijing’s test takers last year achieved an IELTS 7 or higher which is also an incredible achievement.

Sally F, Year 12, said,‘I joined Harrow Beijing when I was in Year 7. During the course of my study here, my English improved massively. Since English is an important focus at Harrow, I learnt to develop my academic writing skills and communication skills which covered all of the 4 parts of the IELTS exam, which has enabled me to achieve a satisfying result.’

‘My preparation for the test mainly focused on speaking and writing as I discovered that listening and reading were not a problem for me at all. The only difficulties that I found for the speaking part was time management and speaking speed as I needed to evenly distribute the time in Part 2 to each sub-clause question and I needed to remain calm during the exam so that I did not speak too fast. The most important thing that I’ve learnt from my revision was managing time appropriately for the writing task so that I would have sufficient time to do Task 2 which accounts for the greater proportion of the writing part in general.

‘Geography is my desired subject that I wish to study at University and I am very interested in its relevant fields of study. My English proficiency has certainly helped me with doing research, as I not only can better understand the content of papers and books, but also am capable of expressing my ideas precisely in writing essays and communicating with my teachers.’

Mr Ben Coldham, Language and Learning teacher said, ‘Harrow Beijing has a dual approach to supporting students’ language acquisition. All teachers receive EAL training and utilise the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) model whereby there is a dual focus on content and language acquisition in every single classroom. Students also take English and Additional English classes to develop all four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). In Year 12 and 13 all students (regardless of language level) take English for Academic Purposes classes (EAP) to further develop their academic language skills and, where needed, to help them prepare for standardised tests such as IELTS and TOEFL.’

‘There is clear research (e.g., Demie, 2018) showing that students who reach an IELTS 6 or higher by the start of Year 10 perform much better in all their GCSEs and A Levels and are happier at school. We have witnessed this at Harrow Beijing over many years and as such have established systems to support all students to work towards this goal.  

‘For Harrow students on English learning, my number one tip would be to develop a habit of reading for pleasure from an early age. This supports all aspects of language learning. Secondly, students should be as active as possible and use their English at every opportunity. Finally, writing is the hardest skill to develop for many students and it is imperative they seek out feedback and respond to this carefully.’