Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Where do I find the 11+ thread?

186 replies

BaconAndAvocado · 02/09/2017 13:24

That's it!
DS2 sitting his Kent test on Thursday and need some advice.

OP posts:
Gileswithachainsaw · 14/09/2017 10:33

And good luck to your dc louey

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/09/2017 10:33

Thank you

Love2dance · 14/09/2017 10:32

Thanks guys. Hope all goes well for your DD Giles.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/09/2017 10:31

I booked tonight off work. I couldn't face it.

I'd never have put her through it if my school options were better.

Im.not optimistic i have to say.... But til I pick her up there is still hope it's gone ok...

Loueytb3 · 14/09/2017 10:26

My DS is sitting the 11+ this afternoon. I am trying to work and failing
He also found Tuesday's practice easy and I have been trying to drum into him that it will be different today...

FoxyinherRoxy · 14/09/2017 09:59

Huge sense of relief in a couple of hours Love2

Good luck Smile

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/09/2017 09:55

I've got a crappy movie on trying to distract myself.

Think I'm more nervous than dd.

Hope all goes well for your dc love

Love2dance · 14/09/2017 09:48

God, in the queue for exam now. Courage!

Gileswithachainsaw · 12/09/2017 21:49

Thing is alot of people say that but I do wonder if theybwould feel the same if they faced a school where less than 40 percent get a-c grades

What's more likely, a school failing 60 percent of children or 60 percent of children not having supportive parents...

Can i really be supportive enough to cope with that?

Sorry that probably sounded quite rude I didn't mean it to be just tired and a bit stressed and just pissed at myself cos there's nothing I can really do about it

FoxyinherRoxy · 12/09/2017 21:09

It's very easy to get caught up in it.

Ultimately, with supportive parents, children will get their GCSEs wherever they go. There's also 6th form to consider.

Many children will have a better educational experience at high school. GS can be a bit of an impersonal exam factory IME.

Love2dance · 12/09/2017 18:08

Good advice Secondary and Foxy. I defo overthink things.

Gileswithachainsaw · 12/09/2017 18:06

Our pass Mark is apparently 121

Love2dance · 12/09/2017 18:04

I can't work it out Confused

FoxyinherRoxy · 12/09/2017 18:00

If there's one thing I've learnt going through this four times is you don't engage with other parents.

And as for results day, keep your head down and avoid eye contact regardless of result.

SecondaryQuandary · 12/09/2017 17:59

Oh bless you - I know it's easy to say but try not to overthink it. When my two said parts of their 11+ was easy, it turned out they were right, it was. Which meant that the pass mark for that paper was higher, as everyone else found it easy too. If I remember rightly, one year the passmark for the English paper was 16/24 and the following year was 12/24.

Gileswithachainsaw · 12/09/2017 17:15

Not a good sign is it?

Love2dance · 12/09/2017 17:06

Ditto. Good if they go into Thursday's exam feeling confident though. Meanwhile I continue to shred the skin round my nails.

Gileswithachainsaw · 12/09/2017 16:24

Well we says it went well and some was easy.

Which means

A) it was alot easier than the real thing. There's no way anything about the 11 plus is easy.

B) she made lots of if silly mistakes (usual for her)

C) she's now going to be lulled into a false sense if security

Love2dance · 12/09/2017 15:34

Chin up Giles. We were there too. I'm trying to stay positive. It was so busy the big Tesco where I parked ran out of loo paper.

I don't want to press DS (who is not very talkative about these things) too much about how it went, especially when I saw lots of kids coming out from the first sitting (we were second sitting) saying it was "great". He said it was "ok" but who knows? I just told him well done for doing it but please don't fuck up on Thursday.

I also met a mum of a child who used to be in DS's class a few years ago who told me she'd been sending her DC to tutoring since year 3 and that the tutoring company was fab and "teaches them how to pass the exams" and also recommends they sit as many grammar exams as possible (we are talking in the SE and Greater London) in the hope that they get in one. I could have cried.

Although tutoring for years before the exam wasn't for us (and risks burnout and masks what may turn out to be an inability to cope with a GS later), I do get why some others do it, if they are at state school for example where kids don't get taught NVR (still don't like it); but the scattergun approach to exams? FFS! I couldn't hold my tongue on that one and told her I thought it was wrong. She told me that some parents she knew made their DC sit 10 exams!

My consolation and I hope others' is that such parents cannot make unlimited school applications via the local authority so the rest of us have a fighting chance.

Gileswithachainsaw · 12/09/2017 14:06

Yeah we has the familiarisation test today...

I also know we are the ones who are never lucky in these things, while everyone around me gets what they wanted.

Have missed out befire and will likely miss out again Sad

RueDeWakening · 12/09/2017 14:04

Sutton SET emails are coming out, we got ours earlier this morning but a friend doesn't have hers yet - apparently they're all coming from Sutton grammar rather than the individual schools.

Gileswithachainsaw · 11/09/2017 08:03

Yeah im.bucks..no email. Was told that registration was automatic unless you specifically requested they be withdrawn. I shall look at the link thank you

Love2dance · 11/09/2017 07:50

Are you doing Bucks? I got an email from the Registration folk with a link to download this:
www.buckscc.gov.uk/media/4508568/familiarisation-booklet-2018-entry.pdf

Gileswithachainsaw · 11/09/2017 06:42

No email. Maybe we aren't supposed to get one they just sit a practice tomorrow

Love2dance · 11/09/2017 00:26

Answers not sneers!

Swipe left for the next trending thread