100% success rate in placing students at university over 15 years
CARDIFF Academy has a holistic and largely non-selective approach to student entry and progression which is quite different in outlook and ethos to other independent schools and colleges.
The purpose of Cardiff Academy is not to compete with other private schools and colleges for league table positions but to demonstrate what students of a wide range of ability are capable of doing at GCSE and A-level under the best possible circumstances, when taught in small groups by teachers capable of teaching across the entire ability range.
Parents and students have increasingly come to realise, since Cardiff Academy was first set up in 1999, it is an institution which puts the child first. What they have discovered is an educational ethos which respects the individual and values scholarship and understanding over cramming and rote-learning.
Academic high-flyers excel in this system because small class-sizes allow them to engage in academic debate with teachers who are true experts in their subject.
Those academically less able students fare equally well as a result of the enormous amount of individual support and encouragement they receive from teaching staff.
As a result, all students at Cardiff Academy are given the chance to show what they can do under the best possible circumstances and in the knowledge that, no matter what happens, Cardiff Academy will never abandon them or let them down. This is a powerful message and one which is being increasingly recognised as such by more and more fee-paying parents and students in Cardiff and beyond every year.
From the point of view of fee-paying parents, at A-level what ultimately matters is whether their children gains access to the university of their choice to study the degree course they are interested in.
On this basis, Cardiff Academy has a lot of very happy parents and children because its track-record of success in placing students at university over 15 years is 100%. Given the wide range of students it accepts each year, the fact that every one of Cardiff Academy students has gained access to university over such an extended period of time is proof enough of the quality of teaching.