LAE help

Hey, I'm currently in year 11 and I really want to apply to LAE ( London academy excellence). Does anyone know how hard it is to actually be accepted and what their most desirable candidates possess (apart from good grades)?

Thanks.

If you have good grades it’s so easy to get in. I haven’t heard anyone get outright rejected from lae. Everyone who applied got interviews from my school last year.
During the interview, make sure you talk about why you want to do certain subjects. They also value extracurriculars, have you done sports, music, anything else? And how do they relate to your subjects? Also, they’ll ask you to bring in something you’re proud of. Make sure you’ll be able to talk about why you’re proud of it. Did it give you any skills, etc? Lae looks for people who are all rounders, not just academically capable
i got accepted to lae but didn’t take it as I preferred another college over it but feel free to ask more about the interview process. Also, a few of my friends go lae so I could ask them to answer any questions you might have.
(Also, is this for Stratford or Tottenham? All of this is based on the Tottenham branch but probably mostly likely applies for Stratford as well)
I hope this helps!

Hey thank you so much for your advice! I've got some things here about extra curriculars but I don't know if they count. Can you tell me if you know ? They are: school prefect, service ambassador, police cadet, DofE, tutor for neighborhood , maths challenge award in year 10 and year 7, piano for 5 years, science embassador, faraday challenge, an oxford horizon trip, Chinese and Taiwanese exchange program. Do they ask for proof for any of these? Also, do they look at your November mock grades and how far away you live? Sorry for all the questions. If you can answer these it'll be much appreciated!! ( I was talking about Stratford by the way)
Thanks !

All of those are perfect. They won’t ask for proof but they might ask you talk about why you did it, what you gained from it, that kinda stuff.
And they look at the grades you give them in the application so if your school decides to give the November mock grades then it’s those. If I remember correctly, the application is literally just your grades and the subjects you wanna pick. Also they may give weight on how far away you live, but one of my friends live three bus journeys away and still got accepted so if you got the grades, nothing’s stopping you

Thanks ! I feel bad for asking all these questions but I don't have anyone else to ask to be honest What mock grades should I be getting to stand a chance to get in? I heard this is a very good sixform college. Secondly, is there anything else I need to know about the interview? I haven't had one in 4 years lol. Thirdly, you don't have to pay to attend do you?
Thanks!

Hi,

Currently in my last year at LAE Stratford [Y13].

Here’s what I remember from my application process:
- didn’t ask me about grades. You wouldn’t have been interviewed if you don’t have the desired predicted grades [though they give 2nd chances sometimes to those who don’t].
- in interview, they asked about my subjects [why I picked them & etc]; extracurriculars, especially sports; and the school.

Tips:
- be likeable. Interview is short and should be enjoyable. Don’t be stiff and see it rather as a conversation [w/ some formality]. Smile and be kind. They wanna know if this is a person they wish to teach for two years.
- prepare your answers before hand. I remember one question being why’d I pick LAE. That sounds like an easy question, but rather be safe than sry and prepare for it instead of stumbling when asked it.

That’s all tbh. Don’t overthink it. It’s ntd tbh. If you’re LAE worthy you’ll get in. Just heed my advice and you should be good. The person above had good tips too.

Don’t worry about asking too many questions, I’m happy to help.
Just check the grade requirements and if your mock grades are similar to those you should be fine. Lots of people have gotten interviews with majority grade 6s and 5s at mocks so I wouldn’t worry too much.
For the interview, dress smartly firstly bc that gives them a good impression of you. And beforehand, prepare some common questions: why lae? What would you bring to the college? What extracurriculars have you done? Why these subjects?
(What subjects are you hoping to do?)

Thank you so much for your advice! Do you like the school and also do they care a lot about sports?

The school is very academically rigorous. You get a lot of homework and have these mini assessments [HTAs] every half term, which can feel a lot. That being said, quality of teaching is great and you’re surrounded w like-minded ppl so it’s harder to slack. You will need a good work ethic, motivation & commitment there because it’s so easy to leave everything til the last minute when you really shouldn’t be...

The school is cool in that it has lots of networks that help to facilitate student life, e.g. mental health network, bame network, gender equality network and etc. Students run these networks themselves and the networks do a lot, such as organising events and extra things. For example, the gender equality network put free sanitary products [pads, tampons, panties & more] in the toilets for students to take whenever.

They do care a lot about sports surprisingly! They’re strict about people missing sports and they always stress the importance of sports. They also go out of their way to ensure there is a wide variety of sports.

Hope that helps

I don't really do sports outside of school though. I don't want this to affect my application 😬. The only sport I can think of is : drill during police cadets , my weekly gym workouts and swimming

It won’t be a problem. They care about sports but they’re not that sports-centric. And your activities are fine! Just mention those if it comes up.

The thing is, I did stop cadets to be fully committed to my GCSEs but hopefully that won't affect anything 😬. Thanks for the advice, I hope I don't seem annoying.

You’re welcome and you weren’t annoying! good luck w ur application

I was hoping to take English literature, Biology, Chemistry and Maths. I aspire to be a pharmaceutical scientist but I also may want to be a news reporter. For maths, I could possibly talk about the challenge I was awarded for both years. For science, I could talk about the trips I've had to Oxford and the fact that I was a science ambassador. Maybe I could also include the stuff I learnt from DofE and how it's helped me develop independence which I've incorporated through my education? What do you think?

All that sounds amazing. Good luck with applying!!