Have your children got into Grammar school without tutoring?

My son got in without private tutoring, but we did do a couple of practice papers for each of the tests at home. He was 10th on the waiting list on allocation day, so if other people had not refused their place, he would not have got in. I feel that if we had have done more work at home, it may have made all the difference and got him the extra 2 marks that would have guaranteed him a place and saved us stress while on the waiting list.

I strongly disagree that clever children will always get in without tutoring, it very very much depends on the school, their admissions criteria, and the level of competition for each place. It may be true in grammar school areas, but it is definately not true for grammar schools that are surrounded by comprehensives.

My ds's grammar school states on it's website that they expect to have more applicants that are suitable for a place, than they have places to offer. Grammar schools that are not in grammar school areas often have the top students from 70 primary or prep schools, they are all clever children but the grammar school simply doesn't have enough space for all of them, so they take the children that score the highest on the day of the test.

Clever children will always get in without. Middling might get in without. Poorer children can get in if they are tutored. Of course - as the schools are at pains to point out - they might then struggle when they get there (and of course may have deprived someone else of a place who might have thrived there - a middling child, not tutored, who developed late).

So - everyone - lets all stop the tutoring! Everyone benefits.

Yes, several. As have lots of other parents at our school (a so-called 'super-selective).