Top GCSE and A Level Results, Lower costs, No more bullying, Happy Children – Home Schooling explained by Minerva’s Virtual Academy.
“Money no object, I would choose Minerva to educate my children without question because, uniquely, we are strategically preparing children to thrive in the modern world whilst providing far more 1-to-1 mentoring and personal development than most will ever receive at a ‘traditional’ school.”
Lawrence Tubb. Headmaster. Minerva’s Virtual Academy. UK. UAE. Global. Speaking to SchoolsCompared in February 2022.
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Homeschooling with Minerva in the UAE
As demand for homeschooling grows across the UAE and globally, SchoolsCompared speaks with Hugo Davison, Head of Digital at Minerva’s Virtual Academy to get the A to Z of how, and why, a British education to GCSE and A Level may just be better served in a very different, but “better”, way for many children in the UAE.
As one student told us:
“I am so much happier now, I don’t feel as anxious about school now. I can focus on my GCSEs and do not have to worry about all the other things that go on at school. The classes are small too – and the tutors are friendly.”
Alice, Year 11 student, Minerva’s Virtual Academy.
From putting an end to the bullying so endemic in many traditional schools to parents having more time with their children, and from ending the grind of the school commute, to getting the best academic education to GCSE and A level available from some of the best teachers in the UK, we get the bottom line of the options facing parents in the UAE seeking a homeschool pure British education option for their children.
Home schooling – The A to Z
Can you give me examples of what you think are the top benefits of homeschooling for families and pupils studying a British education to GCSE and A Level with Minerva?
- “Pupils can get a world class British education anywhere in the world
- Anxious pupils become more confident when outside of the pressures of the traditional school environment
- At our school pupils receive personal mentoring – dedicated to each child, which is more than they might expect even at private school
- We are the school that never closes because we are unaffected by lockdowns / normal school closures
- Parents stay involved, healthy families
- Some pupils excel away from the distractions of the school environment
- Families can eat breakfast, lunch and supper together if they are all at home together which creates a closer family bond.
- Parents can see and hear what their children are doing at school and therefore feel more engaged in their children’s learning – allowing them to add in questions with some knowledge of what they have covered in class.
- They finish earlier in the day so they can engage in activities outside school at times that might be less busy or cheaper.
- Families avoid the 20 minute plus commute to school each morning and evening avoiding stress and freeing up valuable hours every week for learning and life at home.
- Significantly reduced costs of securing a Tier 1 British education through GCSE to A Level.”
True or false? Traditional bricks and mortar education no longer works. Business and industry are looking for skills that can be better realised through home learning than children being taught in boxes memorising facts.
“Many pupils come to us because traditional bricks and mortar schools are not working for them. They can’t concentrate or reach their potential in class (anxiety issues / bullying /distractions or bad behaviour from other pupils in class), or traditional school is not flexible enough to fit around their lifestyles (young sports stars, actors, musicians), or they are too smart for their current school and need pushing, or they live abroad (outside the UK) and want to receive a world-class British education, with GCSES and A Levels, like they would by attending a private school in the UK.
We still teach the same core syllabus as bricks and mortar schools, but we do it differently. By shifting the focus to self-study (supported by personal mentors and subject teachers), pupils learn to manage deadlines from an early age, they learn to self-motivate and how to collaborate with their peers in an online environment – all skills that the modern workplace demands.
We are approached by organisations who want to create partnerships with us because they see us as ‘forward-thinking’ school. We use these partnerships to build out our co-curricular learning programme ‘World Changers’ which challenges our pupils to come up with solutions to some of the biggest issues facing the world today. Because it’s a ‘whole school’ programme, pupils work with pupils in the lower and higher years, they get experience learning with different ages, and they also work with their peers who may come from very different cultural backgrounds to their own – again, ideal training for the workplace.
Students also achieve highly and win awards through the partnerships at the heart of our World Changer Programme.
Last year, we partnered with the ISSET (International Space School Educational Trust) and delivered a programme where our pupils had to design and develop an experiment that would be conducted by astronauts on the international space station, a competition run by The Stem-X Launch Prize. Two of our students won the prize!
They proposed an experiment to investigate how antimicrobial slimes might be used as a renewable and reusable cleaning method aboard the International Space Station to replace cleaning wipes.
The Stem X research team will develop the experiment at the University of Oxford, and the rocket with their experiment is tentatively slated to launch in Q2 2023.
Oleg, one of two Minerva students contributing to the future of the space programme in the USA
Our students, Oleg and Noah, will travel to Florida in 2023 to watch their experiment launch to the ISS on a SpaceX rocket – as well as staying in a 5 star hotel and visiting 2 of the Orlando theme parks!!
A parent at Minerva said to us “Children grow up so quickly – and then they are gone. For many parents like us the opportunity to spend more quality time with our children as they grow up is priceless. Minerva does this and makes education inspirational, effective and simple.” Thoughts?
The reason we started our school was because we wanted to create an affordable, stress-free, flexible homeschooling solution that was available to all.
We ARE a school, so we educate children 9-3.30 like bricks and mortar alternatives, BUT, most of our parents are closely involved with their children’s learning with us.
They’re in regular contact with the school and obviously their children.
This is attractive to them and encouraged by us – it produces better results all round and pupils stay motivated when they can have more meaningful, constructive conversations about their progress and development as school is not so much a mystery to parents.”
Is a British education the best in the world. If so, why?
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British values and history
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Britain is at the heart of the global workplace – a British education links with this perfectly.
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A British education enables students to study the subjects that were born here from literature (Shakespeare, Austen, Woolf…) to Science (Bell, Turing, Higgs…)
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Britain is the home of the industrial revolution and the architects of the 21st century global economy.
Particular benefits of a home schooled international education …. much closer cultural links with the UK? Other reasons?
- Yes, pupils have a cultural connection to the UK, joining classes with British children with British teachers
- Pupils also join a growing community of pupils and parents from around the world, benefiting from a global network that will be invaluable to them as they grow up
- Elite private schools offer parents the security of the ‘private school network’ – but this is becoming outdated and less reliable in the modern world. More important for now is a truly global network – forward thinking children and parents from all around the world who are coming together to learn in the same place
Why was Minerva set up – can you take me through this history, passion and motivations?
- Minerva was set up in 2014 as a private tutoring agency out to professionalise the industry and make tutoring less exclusive for more families
- We were labelled ‘the innocent drinks of the tutoring world’ by the Good Schools Guide
- We then expanded into homeschooling, premium 1-on-1 homeschooling that replaced school for the pupils we educated – but this is expensive – more expensive then British boarding school – as you are paying for a tutor to exclusively tutor your child 24/7 – this is not accessible to most – and many parents who called us didn’t realise how expensive homeschooling could be.
- In the pandemic, we pivoted entirely online, and many of our tutors became true experts at online teaching, much better than traditional school teachers who were having to do it for the first time
- The combination of our homeschooling expertise and online tutoring expertise was the perfect groundwork to launch an online school that would rival private schools truly for the first time, and also to create a school model and curriculum that was smarter and more holistic and attractive than rival online schools that have so far failed to become a household name
- Minerva was founded by Hugh Viney, ex-classic scholar from Stowe School and UCL graduate, who has become a well known entrepreneur in the British education scene
- Hugh was passionate about focusing on confidence and motivation as tutoring strategies, and began hiring tutors with these skill sets that could really unlock our pupils academic potential
- In Nov 2021, Minerva’s Virtual Academy won a Grand Prix award for ‘market entrant’ at the biggest education awards ceremony in the UK, the Education Investor Awards
One example of the benefits of distance learning is that children are not pigeon-holed into learning set subjects that may be of no interest to them. They can learn at their own pace and in ways that are best for them. Leaning is completely individualised. The result is that children enjoy learning more, do better because they study subjects they are interested in – and can fit their day around other areas of interest and their passions outside “school”. Agree?
This is exactly it.
No two children’s timetables are the same. And if they want to study subjects that are outside the 15 we currently offer GCSE pupils, they can take private tuition through Minerva Tutors, and study for their qualifications that way.
We currently have pupils studying for extra GCSEs like this in Mandarin, Religious Studies, etc.
Our A Level programme follows the same structure.”
“Today’s children are snowflakes.” They need toughening up and should be disciplined like we were. They need more exams, not less, and need the discipline of being told what to learn, when to learn it and how to learn it. Only traditional schools do this. Children that are home schooled leave home to be nervous wrecks who cannot function in the real world. Do you agree? Why?
Traditional school has never been able to help each and every individual. It’s a system that largely favours the loudest and the most confident. Some schools have turned children – now adults – into nervous wrecks their whole life from bullying. It’s only now, with alternatives like us, that people are starting to see that there might be a better fit for their individual child.
We aren’t for everyone. But for some children who, in the past, might have had their lives torn apart through bullying, or lost out on their chance to prove themselves at an early age we offer a far superior option.”
Do you cater for all children including those with Special Educational Needs/Gifted and Talented. Dyslexia? Dyspraxia etc?
Our learning resources can be accessed at the time and pace that suits each individual child. Our teacher’s also have the experience and expertise to be able to tailor our resources to suit each individual child. We also have access to SEND experts if families require this extra help. Many of the stresses and triggers that adversely affect children with SEN are taken away in the online learning environment leaving these children to learn in a much less stressful environment.
Children who are gifted and talented are able to move through their learning at a faster pace and their mentor’s are able to identify and set extension work to stretch their knowledge and attainment.”
Are you fully inclusive? Are there tests that children need to pass to be accepted at your school?
We do require our pupils to sit a baseline test when they join the school which is then used to make some predictions for the future. It helps out teachers to know the academic level for each of our pupils and they can therefore tailor their teaching accordingly.
We also offer an English and Mathematics paper if English is not their first language and if we feel that they may be a little behind in their comprehension of some of the Mathematics curriculum.”
At Minerva, what ages of children do you cater for?
When can children join your school? Can you take me through the application process and how quickly you would expect children to be settled in and learning?
Once they have done this they complete the enrolment form and from there they pay the fees. Once that has been completed we conduct a meeting between the family and the Headmaster and then complete the onboarding onto our learning platform. We can get a new pupil settled in and learning normally within 2 weeks of their initial contact.”
What qualifications can pupils at Minerva study for? Can you provide a complete list of subjects? Do you have a PDF subject prospectus?
At IGCSE level there are SIX core subjects for Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils at Minerva’s Virtual Academy. They are Mathematics, English Literature, English Language, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.
Pupils can also take up to three additional GCSEs, choosing from Business Studies. Geography, History, Computer Science, Psychology, French and Spanish subject to the needs of each year’s intake.
We are not offering Art as a GCSE subject but we do offer it in Year 10 and Year 11 as a weekly subject which is timetabled. It comes at an extra cost of £595. Our focus with Art is on building a portfolio of work rather than preparing for the GCSE exam. We are currently planning to have specialists running 5 or 6 week mini-courses. The aim will be to prepare our pupils for further study either at A-level, or Foundation Art courses. It is different to our extra curricular Art Club and pupils can do both.
A Level students at Minerva’s Virtual Academy will typically study 3 subjects alongside a vibrant programme of enrichment and preparation for further study and adult life.
There is a wide range of subjects to choose from, including Biology, Business, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, English, French, Geography, Government & Politics, History, Maths, Further Maths, Media Studies, Physics, Psychology, Spanish and Travel & Tourism.
A Grade 6 GCSE level will be required for progression to A Level in that subject.
What qualifications do your teachers have? Can you provide me with names, bios and photographs with their subject specialisms?
Will you offer BTEC/T Levels or is Minerva focused on academic stream education to A Level?
There is much discussion of GCSEs eventually being replaced, in the medium term, by continuous assessment given that children are now required to be schooled until 18. Are you set up for this?
What do your teachers say?
We investigate human, physical, environmental and political Geography to unlock the key to our future. Join us today and see where it takes you.”
Katy, Geography teacher, Minerva’s Virtual Academy.
Jack, Chemistry teacher, Minerva’s Virtual Academy
Joe, Maths teacher, Minerva’s Virtual Academy
If children are home schooled, will they still need to study Arabic language and subjects?
At the moment it is not possible to study online with us and then move onto University in the UAE unless they accept students without the High School Leavers Certificate (or equivalent).
For access to universities outside the UAE our British qualifications are the gold standard.
We suggest that each student checks the requirements with the institution they are hoping to transfer to.”
Do you provide any solutions for students who are struggling at school to support their existing school learning with a parallel education/support with Minerva.
What are your fees? Are the fees fully inclusive or are there extra costs that parents will need to budget for?
How do you provide an all-round holistic education? Can children socialise? How many after school activities/clubs do you have and what are they?
Pupils also attend drop in sessions which are run by the Headmaster a few times per week.”
Can you give examples of where students come from who move to Minerva?
Our teachers and staff are drawn from a huge variety of schools too:
Our Headmaster, Lawrence, joined us with 9 years at Wycombe Abbey – the top school in the country. Our MD, Hugh Viney, was Head Boy at Stowe School. Our Marketing Director, Clare Sender, is a Strathallan School graduate – and our Admissions Officer, Laura Hallet ,is a Kent College Pembury grad.”
How should parents in the UAE contact you.
Learn more
75% of Minerva students are based in the UK, with a further 25% learning from 15+ countries around the world. The premium British school educates a wide variety of pupils, including:
- Pupils who have had their confidence knocked by traditional schools and need help with overcoming social anxiety and low self-esteem
- Pupils with SEND issues whose parents are struggling to receive the correct provisions from the government
- Young sports stars and performers who need a school that can fit around their training, competition, or performance schedules
- Pupils who are being held back academically at their current school and want to push ahead
- Pupils wanting to receive a world-class British education whilst they live abroad.
- … and pupils choosing Minerva for as many different reasons as there types of pupils and families.
Read our independent review of Minerva’s Virtual Academy here.
Join the A Level Open Day here.
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