help?? - independent secondary school (yr9)

Hi does anybody have any idea of how competitive the section Francaise admissons at Whitgift is?

At this late stage, I think you should get in touch with a school placement service, as a decent one will not only be able to advise on best fit but will also know all about late applications and may be able to pull strings on your behalf (am assuming your prep HM is not doing this for you already?).

Also, you may need to differentiate between schools who offer based on the school entrance exam only, and those that do their own test and then give you an offer that is subject to common entrance exam success in the summer. Many of the schools being recommedned on here do the latter. Am assuming your DS is not being prepared for CE?

Maybe you should post a new thread to ask for recommendations for a good placement service provider?

Have you managed to contact any of the schools?

They'd have broken up by the time you started this thread, but office staff would probably have been in.

If so, have any said they can consider such a late candidate?

Entrance exams have either been sat in year 6 or are coming up in January. You have left it very late to apply for year 9, assuming your son is in year 8 now.

Lots of options in Sussex & no pre-tests with most if not all.

Ardingly
Hurstpierpoint
Lancing
Bedes
Eastbourne

Not schools as well known as Eton etc, but all have a large number of Boarders & are not far from Gatwick airport. Brighton College may also still have spaces for September 2015. It is super trendy right now so not sure if you'd get a place? Also has less boarders than the others & these mostly go home weekends.
All the above need a pass mark at CE except Bedes which is non selective, but Bedes can suit a motivated academic sporty boy or girl.( Suited DS).

Maybe look at other schools in your chosen area which are not as well known? If your child is going to board then it is vital he has others in house at weekends or he will feel quite isolated.

HG from what we've heard about Millfield it would be easy for somebody to loose academic focus, both because it is not a priority for many DCs there and also because the support framework for the less motivated DC is a bit patchy. There are certainly some good teachers there.

I believe you can register for a scholarship very late (could be wrong) for both Eton and Win Coll as they will hold their academic scholarship exams in May 2015, both have separate houses for scholars so if he won one he would not be taking someone else's place/bed. I think Harrows scholarship is held Feb/March 2015 that's all I know about it might be worth looking at.
He is going to have to be exceptionally academic for the first two is he at a school that are/will prepare him for a scholarship.
I work with someone who sent her sporty and reasonably academic DD to Milfield they were openly stunned by her fantastic A level results. She has three others there and the bright one (non sporty) is doing exceedingly well. It's frequently written off as not for the academic but the sporty, but this certainly isn't their experience.

Both my dc at independent schools have scholarships but while they're nice to have they are only a few thousand off the fees so don't make a drastic difference to the affordability or otherwise, and as pp have said some are more kudos than cash

Have you spoken to any schools at all yet? Most entrance exams for 2015 will be in January and I suspect you'll have missed the registration dates for the majority. You may be able to register as a late applicant but you'll need to get your skates on. Plus the 13+ exams usually cover more subjects than the standard 11+ English/maths/reasoning so you'd need to get your ds prepared in record time

Re scholarship - you know these are for kudos and have no real financial benefit? As an example my DD's scholarship is worth less than £100 per term and this is very typical

Posted too soon. Just to continue that the level of coaching within the schools is critical at boarding schools since for a sporty boy who likes winning there will be little time to have regular coaching outside except of course for the very best at regional or national level.

LIZS makes a good point about sports' preference as if for example your DS is a footballer rather than rugby that would eliminate certain schools that major in rugby. Should he be into athletics or tennis rather than cricket or rowing then again some schools will not have particularly good coaching for these. Even at this late application point you don 't want a mismatch for what he enjoys and excels most at.

Alternatively find a good independent school, day or flexi/weekly boarding, near where you will live and then look at one of the more prestigious schools for a scholarship to 6th form, giving you more time to register and research. If sport is important does he play rugby already for example as that tends to be the higher priority team sport followed by hockey rather than football.

confused some questions. Would you be restrained to full boarding and is your DS is academically strong enough to attempt a scholarship at an academic school or more likely to be in with a chance at a less selective one?
If he is very bright then that opens up possibilities of later applications as a scholarship candidate to schools like Tonbridge (academic and sporty but more weekly boarding), Sevenoaks, Charterhouse etc.
Schools like Bradfield (weekly boarding), Malvern, Cheltenham College are sporty, less selective but will be able to stretch their bright pupils.

Whitgift is absolutely fine academically but the boarding house is pretty small as it's mainly a day school

The sporting facilities are phenomenal and the standard is very high but the top half of the cohort also do exceptionally well academically - there's a choice of IB or A-levels at sixth form

I would look at Tonbridge and Lancing. But my knowledge is not particularly up to date.

I missed Millfield off because you said you wanted academic and sport - in that order. The only Millfield students I know would put the sport before the academics - but I would be the first to acknowledge that they are not necessarily a representative sample. Have a look at their GCSE and A level results and see what you think. Top sets are probably fine.

That's a pretty wide ranging question! You might get a more useful range of answers if you could narrow things down a bit by geographical area, single sex or co-ed/ religion/ full or weekly boarding.
You have definitely missed the boat for a number of schools - but vacancies do occur at the last minute so it is worth talking to them even if their web site says deadlines have passed.
If you are looking for academic, sport and boarding south of the midlands, I would look at (in no particular order)
Oundle, Uppingham, Oakham, St Edwards Oxford, Kings Canterbury, Wellington (Co-ed, mainly full boarding I think)
Bradfield, Charterhouse, Sevenoaks,(co-ed, mainly weekly boarding until 6th form)
Tonbridge, Sherborne (single sex -Tonbridge mainly weekly boarding, Sherborne not sure).

Sadly deserving and getting one awarded are not the same. Bear in mind the other candidates will have been preparing for these papers over a course of years . Unless the school ring fences some specifically for latecomers your chances now are slim. Some schools award scholarships on the basis of performance in the main entrance exams on the day , some on specific scholarship papers sat by invitation , others on Common Academic Scholarship papers. Financially they can be worth very little and even the kudos is not always worthwhile or brings its own pressures. They are also often subject to review and can be withdrawn if performance or behaviour is not meeting the criteria.