Going for better school...

However ... I'd listen to Noble, to be honest. If she says he should be in a private school that caters for the exceptional, that's where he should be.

A cousin-in-law was pretty good at Maths and went to Westminster. I know they do an outreach for bright state school children. I don't know if you're near London, though.

Wilson's in South London/Croydon is another selective that has a good share of mathematically able boys.

If you want to keep your location hidden I'd suggest waiting a few weeks or so and then posting a thread under a different name about either the schools or your area to ask for opinions.

Iirc from past threads I don't think ops ds is lopsided in the general sense. More his maths is so far ahead, rather than being just 'ok' at other subjects.

I know sats have changed but in old money entrance exams didn't require anything more complex than level 5/6. Yes he'll have to do them fast to score highly enough for a bursary or ss, but he'll find them so simple it shouldn't be an issue. The only issue he might have is making silly mistakes because it's so easy he isn't concentrating fully. But even then if he is determined to go once he's visited he should be able to overcome that.

A generation ago, at least, there were a few schools that were notable for taking those with exceptionally spiky profiles&

Do you think OPs DC has a spiky profile?

Which schools took DCs with spiky profiles?

Which of those DCs in the Olympiad have spiky profiles?

It's no surprise that the Cambridge sixth forms - both private and state (Hills Road, Leys, Perse) - seem to have many participants over the years, with St Paul's, Westminster and Latymer also seeming to appear regularly.

There are others that appear more sporadically. If any of them are local to you, you would at least know that those schools have had one of the top young mathematicians of their age group in the recent past, and so would have organisational knowledge of dealing with very able young mathematicians.

It's tricky. A generation ago, at least, there were a few schools that were notable for taking those with exceptionally spiky profiles - as I said, members of Maths Olympiad teams who were no more than 'OK' at other subjects but went on through those schools to elite universities either to academia or places like GCHQ.

However, from what I read on here, the admissions process is now so large, such an industry of coaching and exam taking and 'selecting by numbers', that I am not sure how those few genuinely brilliant individuals would now fare, even in those schools which used to be their havens.

Might be worth looking at the schools from which recent Maths Olympiad participants have come and work backwards? www.imo-register.org.uk/#E2017

I always thought those schools were for excelling all-rounders,

You are correct but that will be the case for any academically selective school.

Each paper in the Kent test has usually a passmark of around 106, maximum 140. You need to get the minimum on all three papers, and a minimum overall of 320.

To give an idea, out of area score required to get into Dartford I think is around 390 overall, for Judd around 400. Skinners is changing its admissions for 2019 so expect it will be similar to Judd.

Sounds likely he’d get 140 in Maths so he’d need a combined score of 250-260 in the other two.

I must have missed that bit. I am wondering whether he'll be up to the whole curriculum at a super-selective? I always thought those schools were for excelling all-rounders, but i'm happy to be corrected.

How good is your DS at English OPs post states better than average in English

How good is your DS at English, @irvineoneohone?

There are three other boys superselectives in Kent, all of which select based on highest score in the Kent test.

The Kent test has three papers, each of which need to be passed: Maths, English and Reasoning.

Dartford reserves half its 180 places for in area, and the other two (Judd and Skinners) reserve about 80% of places for pupils that live in West Kent. So out of area places require a very high score.

Um St Olaves not known for its pastoral care......

Irvine,

There are some of this type of school in various places around the country. If you were willing to post or pm your rough location - e.g. West London, or Norfolk, or Devon, we can probably work with you to identify suitable ones.

St Olave's in Orpington, Kent is a boys' superselective grammar with no catchment. In top 5 in country I believe.

irvineoneohone. I have experience of state and indie schools. I have found that the indie was much more able to accommodate my child's exceptional ability in maths (they had previously been at a state). Show your child around some of the indies near you, bribe them if you must. Seeing the better facilities for all subjects, especially sciences, swung it for my child. The teachers have more time for the very able students. In our indie you would probably get up to 50% scholarship.

The only one I'm familiar with is Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet.

There are others mentioned here:

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45857

irvineoneohone a superselective Grammar is one that either has no catchment and is heavily oversubscribed (allocates places based on score top down) or a grammar that has a catchement but is so heavily oversubscribed that a very, very high score is required in order to gain a place.

A superselective grammar with an element of flexibility might work.

The added bonus is that OPs DC will not need to live in a catchement area to sit the exam so worth giving it a go.

The thing is, you either need a school which is elitist enough to have a non-zero number of peers for your child [a generation ago, you might have thought of Winchester College scholars, or possibly St Paul's but I don't know whether that is true now - I'm just thinking of exceptional top of Cambridge part III Maths / Maths Olympiad types who are my age peers], or a school that is prepared to be flexible enough to say 'we can't do this alone' [e.g. allow pupils to be massively age-accelerated in Maths only / arrange university lecture streaming for that single child, both of which i have known to happen relatively recently].

Both types of school are VERY rare. Just saying 'a private school' isn't enough. A superselective grammar with an element of flexibility might work.