Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire – Our Lady’s Abingdon is pleased to announce that we are cancelling our entrance examination for 2021 and 2022 pupil intake, to support COVID-19 affected families across the county.
COVID-19 has caused an extended period of lockdown and school closures across 2020 and 2021. During this period, many pupils have missed a significant amount of schooling. In these unprecedented circumstances OLA has taken the decision to adapt its admissions approach to ensure that no child is disadvantage in applying to the school, due to a loss of education time.
As such, for both 2021 and 2022 entries to OLA Senior School, there will be no written entrance examination. Assessment will instead be based on an online admissions interview, school report and school reference. Pupils currently in our Lower School are already exempt from the entrance examination and will progress seamlessly to our Senior School.
We welcome applications from pupils of all faiths and none, who have the potential to make the most of the many educational opportunities on offer at OLA. Our entry process is designed to identify applicants who will thrive from the broad, balanced education that the school provides.
‘OLA is renowned for its pastoral care and concern for the individual child. It is in this spirit that we have decided, for the second year running, to run an exams free admissions process. We hope this will help all families whose children have missed out on learning as a result of the pandemic, and enable us to assist these applicants as fairly as possible.’ – Mr Prav Karian, Chief Operating Officer