Hockerill Anglo European Collage - entry via aptitude test

Clearly you are either staff or getting some favours for these offensive comments.

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@DocHollywood

Obviously not everybody gets the offer to stay onto 6th form.

But the ones that are identified early , feel the pressure. Ok, we are one of those that have been spotted from admission that will. Still probably over 80% could based on the very high achieving intake. Clearly there are exceptions with children "parashooting" as places are freed, etc - including in boarding. I will not name names but at least one parent on this thread has a lot to thank the school (and herself for all the extra curricular help).

One should not give credit where it is not due, I also saw schools put on special measures despite the children doing well (thanks to the effort of the families).

Top place in the country??? On what measures, did you see how the intake is similar to the officially selective Herts schools? If you look at IB results which is a very small pool to compare, they are absolutely not top. with 50% joining, most from overseas, it is difficult to know what to expect.

Hockerill is good for languages, that is a top department, but again credit to parents.

One example of the control is the pressure for the students to stay on 6th form.

I do not have concerns about discipline, I also have high standards. Clearly the school disciplines everybody even if one cannot see sufficient action to discipline all teachers.

There is a strong focus on uniform at Hockerill, one would like to see the focus on academic standards and mainly the lack of transparency and accountability. Why was a whistle blowing policy put in place so quickly?

I am being factual and I can assure you I would be the last to make it open should there be senior people listening and acting internally.

Boy applications for residential boarders fell short of the quota and more girls had to be admitted - probably last year - this was obvious as more girls were "bumped" out of Winchester which caused a few upsets (Winchester is the junior girls boarding school that clearly has been very well led and by being reasonable is having all this praise from some of the parents on this board, is that because it stands out?). 10 to 1 ratios is not what is now happening with residential boarders but you need to get a breakdown to see what it is. Fact.

Mmemorrible, you seem to avoid commenting on some points. It is a known fact that there is a barrister governor awaiting any parent that decides they had enough. Why would that need to be the case?

You need to ask teachers that work elsewhere and have their children at Hockerill how they work in their schools and they tell you what is going wrong.

I'm sorry to hear 2GirlsDad is not happy with Hockerill. My experience is different. I have one daughter at the school and a son starting in September. Both full boarders. We live overseas. I find the communication between parents and teachers to be excellent. They respond quickly to my emails and any problems are ironed out promptly.

My daughter is very happy at the school and has always been happy there. I am hopeful my son will be just as happy when he starts in September.

Regarding the movement after year 11, like all schools, if you don't make the grades at GSCE you won't get a place in the 6th form. They need to keep their top place in the country so the entry requirements will be high for year 12.

Yes, I have a child at the school who has been happy. Neither of us are teachers.
What we found at Hockerill is that there are far too many things that go unchecked and often no matter how discreetly these are highlighted to the school, this is not handled as you would expect nor following current policy.
For example, many teachers ignore most parent queries. Communication from the school to parents is also lacking in many cases.
Teachers that teach elsewhere and have their kids at Hockerill are the ones to ask.
There are also some very career minded staff/teachers that worked hard to put strong whistleblowing policies in place so no teacher would dare to mention anything. Need I say more?

2girls have I understood correctly you do also have a child at the school? Or got the place but decided not to take it up?

I can't think of a school that doesn't attract a range of comments. I would say the feedback I have had apart from this thread all comes from or via teachers with children at the school! Oddly enough. It was one of those reasons I have been digging around high and low for more feedback. The teachers I know of who teach there are DELIGHTED with it. I don't consider this a negative at all but I did want to hear from other types of parents.

I also know someone who got a boarding place there but I have no idea how they established 'need' either as the parents don't travel a lot nor does the child have an otherwise unstable background. I don't doubt the child was suitable for boarding but it's the need part that left me puzzled. Again, hence wanting more information. I still don't understand how they establish 'need' for daily boarding but I guess if I'm working in London this might help - but presumably lots of parents in B Stortford do that too.

I've signed up for the tests in Sept - think I may even have been the first one! So we just have to see.

The boarding staff stated that they do not expect all girls to be happy until at least a couple of years. You can make what you want of it but that was a fact. Obviously most girls are happy but I assumed mumsnet readers would find it useful to know what in some instances boarding senior management said when faced with situations where the girl is clearly not happy. We have had several in DD's year group.
Hockerill is fantastically amazing value for free places but variable for fee paying.
Hockerill is a school that requires a lot of marketing for boarders. Should we be happily watch the marketing go on while internal issues are not addressed?
50% leave at year 11 despite the pressure to stay. You must recognise this?
Should a school like HAEC need to have a barrister governor defending it in the complaints procedure board?

@badups

movement before 56th form is that about 50% leave. Not all to do with IB views. Fees (for non staff pupils) are a steep change from year 11´s and also not every family believes the grass is greener at 6th form.

We also got a place boarding.
Day boarding is relatively competitive although I do not think anything close to free day pupil applications (if you discount cost of the regular address games).
Weekly boarding is now almost not competitive - namely for boys.
Boarding places also come free regularly in later years - often unrelated to any family movement.
I am fairly certain that at boarding interview just want to make sure your child and yourselves will not cause trouble or even query why anything is run the way it is.
There are many parents that are school staff, including in this board, so they may be able to confirm.
They also do not expect your child to be happy for the first years. The school mainly wants to have full control of everything so they mostly filter on that.

I bet this isn't correct but I have also heard this week the structure of the test changes every year- music anyway.

Hi MmeMorrible, yes DD is also in year 7 (can't believe that she'll soon be year 8)!

We do live in Hertfordshire but are a 40 minute drive away from the school so definitely can't be classed as close.

The language test was apparently nothing like verbal reasoning (which she'd done a lot of at primary school). Some was in English and some using a made up language (which might have been an obscure "real" language). The music test included listening to a piece of music.

I don't know a huge amount about the day boarding but I think that they are expected to stay at the school for prep unless there's a very good reason to leave earlier. The after-school club programme is fantastic, DD has done at least 2 clubs each term and would have done more if we'd let her.
I think that they can switch at 6th form but would have to reapply - there seems to be a bit of movement at the end of year 11 as not all want to sit the IB which is the only option in the 6th form.

Okay, thanks for that.

Badpups - thank you so much for contributing!! I have one important question though - How close did you physically live to the school to get one of the day places via the aptitude test? I am wondering if it is worth bothering with the aptitude tests as we are not in Hertfordshire and I'm guessing chances are there will be someone closer who scores at least as high as DD might.