Trinity/Whitgift 2019 thread

No enterparentone 😞 I haven't had any call! Very nervous and hard not to think about it..

Hi all. Trinity definitely a little more open when giving feedback to parents at interview stage. If interviewed by Mr Yeo at Whitgift you can assume that your son has excelled in the exam. Both schools fantastic at putting the boys at ease. Needless to say the whole process is invariably more daunting for the parents!!!

Turboturtle When I said no feedback at Whitgift, I meant no feedback about the exam performance during the interview.

Yes they did the same to mine as well, however feedback was about how well the interview went and we were asked if we had any questions.. anything except his exam performance as the interviewer isn't allowed to discuss them. However the exam feedback was separately provided when asked over the phone.

Hi Motheroftw0, my DS was interviewed at W. He did quite well in the exams (enough to be offered a place) but was certainly not academic scholarship material.
W interviewed him alone for the first part, and then we were called in after whilst he waited outside, which was when the feedback was provided.

Thanks Chocolatewombat

Hi enterParentone,
Just read your message about feedback. Trinity gives detail feedback (scores) to the parents when the kids are called for an academic scholarship interview. However if it is a Saturday interview no feedback as the parents are gathered in a hall while children have their interviews. So no chance to have a 1 to 1 feedback. In Whitgift no feedback is given during the interview. If the child qualifies for academic scholarship then questions related to the subjects are asked too in the interview.

However both the schools you can ring them and ask for a feedback after receiving the offer decision letter. They discuss the child's scores and as to what their rank is as well!
Hope this helps.

Most good independents give until something like 5 March for acceptances, especially in areas where they know lots of candidates will be waiting to hear from particular state schools such as the Grammars. The few who don't tend to be either desperate to tie people in by committing them to big deposits, or occasionally in areas of London which have massive massive application rates, but where for many, the school isn't the first choice because they apply to large numbers.....and the school can't tell who really will take the place and who won't, so they ask for sooner commitment or even use exploding offers to ensure they have enough definites before it gets too late. Very quickly after 5 March it can be difficult for even great schools to fill their places with top candidates from waiting lists, as people accept other places, emotionally and financially commit to them and become increasingly less likely to take waiting list places.

W and T know that a number of their applicants will go for the free Grammar or great Comp they're hoping for, but not sure if getting, if they can. They will over-offer based on the fact they know this happens every year.

As far as I remember, the offer letters usually arrive on the Friday before half term.

Thanks enterParentone. That's good, hopefully if DS gets offered the first preference in the first round itself would be great! Wishful thinking!!!

When would the deadline be to accept the offer if the candidate receives one? Just wondering if the parents are given a chance to make their decision until they know their child's offer on national offer day March 1st?

Ohh that's a relief, thanks for your response

I've just checked back through my emails, and we got a call & follow-up email about DS2's scholarship interview on the Thursday after the exams.

So there's still plenty of time.

We are still waiting too.

Dear all,
Anybody heard from Trinity yet? I recall them making calls the monday following the test saturday for scholarship interviews last year. My DS has sat for 11 plus this year, really hoping he gets an academic scholarship interview. So just trying to understand if anyone has heard from them already, btw I havent!

My DS sat 11+ on Friday as well. He did tell us about that particular hard Maths question and we think it is a scholarship question. Apparently, he remember the question, so we help him work out the answer at home. It was an Algebra question with 2 variables. Pretty hard for 10-11 years old.

Well, the result will be next week. So, good luck everyone.

I'd just remember that there will be late sitters for these papers, due to illness etc, so it's best not to say too much about content.

Yes, that's correct, the last few maths questions are always more difficult and are the "scholarship" questions, so don't worry so much about your DS finding them hard.

I think the boys had different coloured cards today because the exams were slightly staggered, in 3 groups, because of the numbers sitting (this is usual T practice, it's not indicative of an unusually large number of candidates).

I dropped off DS1 to help at 9am and it was fine - far less busy than a normal pick-up time. Tomorrow should be fine too, as the numbers doing 10+ and 13+ are generally lower than for the 11+.

Good luck to all sitting tomorrow! DS2 is helping out - it's really weird to think that just a year ago he was a nervous candidate, and tomorrow he'll be a confident j-bug helping out!

I assumed that 10+ was today as boys had different coloured cards.

DS came out smiling and finished everything in good time - he rushes everything so this is not necessarily a good thing.

I'll ask him about the maths questions.

He said he wrote about someone needing help but will give no more than this.

I was very impressed by organisation and friendliness this morning. We were there quite early but they get everyone processed so quickly that parking wasn't an issue.

Good luck for 10+ tomorrow!