Admissions

Admissions Procedure

All enquiries should be directed to the admissions officer either by emailing admissions@st-andrews.com or by calling the school. An informal visit to the school may also be arranged.

• Before a child may be considered for admission, the school must be provided with the following:
  A completed application form
• A non-refundable admissions fee of $500.00 (or $250.00 for the pre-school pre-reception and reception years.) This fee ensures the processing of the application for admission of a new student or of a student returning after an absence from St Andrew’s School of one year or longer.
• All school records for the preceding three years, where the child has been in school for three years, as well as the results of any formal assessments, such as standardized testing results and the findings of any psycho-educational assessments that may have been undertaken by the prospective student. The school operates on the basis of transparency and it is the responsibility of the parents/guardians to bring to the school’s attention at this stage all pertinent information relating to the child’s prior educational history.
• A birth certificate or passport verifying the child’s date of birth and nationality.
• All prospective students are screened for entrance into St Andrew’s School. A mutually convenient date is arranged. Individual or small group screening is conducted.

• The results of an interview with the child’s parents/guardians
• The results of an interview with the prospective student
• The results of the school’s entrance screening assessments, which are designed to indicate the student’s
  current academic standing in a number of core areas as well as her/his academic potential.

The school reserves the right, at its sole discretion, either to accept or to reject any application for admission. In those cases where an application is rejected, the school is under no obligation to show cause for the non-acceptance of the child concerned.

Children who are accepted for admission are entered into the school immediately if a place is available. An offer of admission must be taken up within 30 days by the payment of a $2,000.00 non-refundable capital levy and the payment of a registration fee of $500.00. The registration fee is not refundable but is set against the first term’s fees of the incoming student.

The doctor’s report and student health record together with the first term’s fees must be received before the child attends school. Admission is dependent on there being no undisclosed conditions that might seriously impair the child’s learning.

If a place is not immediately available, the incoming student’s name is placed on the waiting list for the year level. The school will then offer places to children on the waiting list as they become available. When a place in a year level becomes available, the school selects from the waiting list that child who, in the sole judgment of the school’s administration, is the most appropriate child for the place on offer, taking into account all relevant information and the school’s desire to maintain a range and balance of children at each year level.

Primary School Screening

Students entering pre-school and pre-reception are screened in a group setting of their peers, where they are observed performing age appropriate activities. Students entering reception are screened individually. Students entering years 1 and 2 are screened on the following:

• Phonic knowledge, sight vocabulary, standard reading test (if applicable), visual perception, visual memory
• Math skills (year 1: number recognition, 1-10; counting and recording to 10, addition and subtraction to
  10, oral counting to 10, shapes, colours. Year 2: appropriate addition, subtraction, grouping, etc).
• Drawing a self-portrait

Students entering years 3 to 6 are screened on the following:

• An age appropriate mathematics assessment
• standardised vocabulary and comprehension assessment
• A sample of writing

Secondary School Screening

Students entering years 7 to 12 are screened on the following:

• A standardised mathematics assessment
• A standardised vocabulary and comprehension assessment
• A sample of writing

It should be noted that the school cannot, at present, given the constitution of its curriculum, accept into year eleven children who have not done either the first year of the BGCSE (Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education) syllabus or a very similar programme, as its eleventh year programme is based on the BGCSE syllabus.

Similarly a student applying for year twelve must have completed our graduation requirements up to year eleven and be ready to enter the IB programme.