Do we jump ship or push DC to take the 11+

[123littlepigs]

Sorry also posted elsewhere in the hope of getting a reply ...

Our DS is currently at a very competitive school in Surrey. While his scores say average/above average child, he doesn't test well and often panics in an exam environment.
He has been offered a place at a more causal academic school to start y6 and we don't know whether to accept and just jump ship leaving the pressure of the 11+ behind, or push him to have a go as he is capable of doing well.
He's afraid of failing, understandably, and this is the main reason I think he would rather pass up the opportunity to go to a Caterham Whitgift or Trinity, than try and possibly receive a rejection letter from one.

What to do in this situation?

How wrong would it be to accept a place at another school and enter an application for the above schools. From our son's perspective this would obviously take the pressure off and allow him to just give it a go without the worry....but would we lose our place at this school and not be able to continue to their seniors by doing this?

Advice please!!!

[kilmuir]

Is he year 5? bit confused as in our area they do 11 plus at start of year 6, all schools offered places in March.Why would you lose your school place

[garybarlowtshirt]

Does the other school go all the way to 18?

[bojorojo]

Through school can accept in y6 to continue into senior school. Your other post gave more details regarding your DS's character. Even if you move to the less academic school, you can change for 6th form. Surely his current school can advise on where he should go? What is their advice? If he is average to above average, is this selective academic standard? Where will his friends be going? Are they sitting the 11 plus exams? What else does he enjoy? What other interests does he have and what school is best for that? Fear of failing is a problem but lots of children have to go through that and it does not get easier as time goes on.

[123littlepigs]

bojorojo current school only is only interested in keeping all DC until 13. This is extremely frustrating as we feel we have no where to go to get an unbiased, constructive, independent opinion on what is best for the child. They actively discourage the removal of any child and we kinda feel a little trapped with our lack of knowledge around this system and schools which would be appropriate for our child. Hence my reach out here for experienced parents to respond.

DC's score are a little hickelly pickled ... I know that isn't a real word, but does kinda sum up what we feel we are dealing with. The 'do we jump now' is based on this. Accompanied with the ed psych report, albeit a year ago, which places him in the 99 percentile for maths, around the 70 percentile for English and borderline processing speed/memory percentile of around 20. This may better explain. Really bright DC with real issues producing his best work under timed conditions.

So to answer your other questions, very arty. Loves drama, art and music. Have been looking these last few days at Worth, but again, do need to reach out for any personal experience or suggestions on schools for next year, or take the place currently on offer now and remove the whole stressful situation we find ourselves in.

All comments greatly welcomed!

[ChalkHearts]

Those scores sound like he has SpLD. (Ie dyslexia)

A large difference between verbal and non verbal reasoning scores usually indicates SpLD.

With processing speed score around 20th percentile I wouldn't go for a very selective school. Because it's not just exams he'll struggle with. It's the pace of work in class.

[123littlepigs]

Do you know any schools to recommend? SpLD was not mentioned on his report. All scores fell within normal range, (albeit, thus score being particularly low), but it was noted as a personal weakness for DC in light of other scores. Really not sure what to do!

[ChalkHearts]

I don't know any schools.

All scores can fall within normal range and you still have SpLD. It's the difference between them which indicates a problem.

one score in the 90s and another in the 20s would normally indicate a problem.

Do you have his standardised score for verbal and Bon verbal reasoning? If so, how much difference is there between them.

Also, why did you get a report done? Were you or school thinking there was a problem?

[123littlepigs]

Hi ChalkHearts his CAT scores generally range between 110 and 120, reading and spellings around the 100. However, as he was/and still does struggle to complete exam test papers, a year ago we carried out a psych ed report which identified slow reading speed issues, scoring only 72 in this area, and processing/memory problems (albeit still within normal range). The report also identified him as scoring within the gifted range for maths, above 140. His reading speed was by far his lowest score and DC has been given extra time as a result. I just don't know if this extra time will be enough for 11+\CE timed exams.

So in my situation, with these varied scores, what would you do? Encourage/push DC to sit these exams, or jump ship now and place in a school that will have him without the pending pressures of the above exams? Granted not a school we would place as top of our list and not particularly easy to commute to, but doable if you know what I mean.

[123littlepigs]

Also, report stated, DC seems to have found ways to manage these weakness which is why all scores have generally fallen within the normal range. So DC is coping and managing to produce some lovely scores. That said, I can see he struggles.

Just thought I'd add that !