London Oratory recent experiences

@gracijela - hello - my son is about to start in more house I understand this is one of the two middle banding sets? Did you have any more info on the banding and how hard it is to move to upper ability bands once there please?

Does anyone on this thread have any experience or knowledge of the Junior House?

Teens are massively influenced by the peers around them and want to be like them. Being placed in a different set can turn a small initial difference in attainment into a larger one over time. I think that is the same in all schools.

Not much in the first two years. Sets are redone in year 9 and then again in year 10. Even then I wouldn't say there was masses of movement. Partly because the original tests do probably have some predictive utility but also I imagine because of reinforcement in terms of peer group, expectations and pace. Theoretically all the sets cover the same material.

Would hope that mobility is allowed..not a very redemptive ethos if not😔

Does any one have links to tests similar to the streaming tests that oratory secondary makes children take ?

Part of VR is reading literary excerpts and test how the student understands what they read. It is not just patterns on word/language. Even Google will tell you that VR is designed to measure how well pupils understand the English language and how efficiently they can comprehend written passages within a time limit.

@LOSDad I was trying to say VR and NVR. And no, it doesn;t mean that they capture everything. VR tests merely capture logical processing and adhere to well known patterns which can be practised. They do not indicate child's ability for literary understanding, which is about contexts, interpretation, etc. The fact that those tests rely on certain problem-solving strategies, means that a child who is familiar with those (who has practised and/or was tutored) will perform better than a child with a greater love for learning and stronger intellectual potential who hasn't previously been exposed to those.

The school isn't really interested in parental feedback and there is very little communication with parents. I doubt they would even reply to a parent who decided to lobby them.

The Banding Test is not just Maths and NVR. There is also Verbal Reasoning which means it captures everything.

@DaftPunks
Let me answer before LOSDad gets back to you. According to the Deputy Head, secondary schools, unless they ask, only receive SATs results after the academic year has started, around October. So, in the case of my son, it was definitely based on the banding tests they took at the end of May.
@Araminta1003 I completely agree with you.

For those of you at this school, why do you not go lobby those in charge aka management to highlight that people are tutoring for the banding test and to make sure that sets are based on a combo of banding and SATs in the future? Plus maybe moving sets in the first term.
What about kids really good at languages and English? Sounds like a banding test based on Maths and NVR could really potentially miss their aptitude?

If I read this now as a prospective parent there is no way I would be sending my DC into an unknown band when plenty of other comps would easily recognise his ability in a more flexible way.

@LOSDad hello and hope you don't mind one more question! From your understanding and experience of the banding process, was it definitely a case of just the banding test being used, or did they also look at previous school reports and results? Thanks very much!

Although the first month was very challenging considering we live a bit far from LOS and the school has no mobile phone policy, now my son has gotten used to it and enjoying the school. He is lucky to be on the top set, of course, we did some revisions for the Banding test and it helped build his confidence.

Thanks very much @LOSDad . How is your son getting on nearly two terms in? Anything else to be mindful of at the outset?

Yup it's almost the same with 11+ VR and NVR as my son said but with a bit of Maths added as well. Hope your son will do well.

Hi @gracijela @LOSDad - we are in the same position as you were not so long ago, in that we just got the offer for LOS. This thread has been really helpful and just a question about the VR / NVR testing - was it similar to the 11+ testing / prep done for the private school admissions (assuming you also tried that route)? And definitely on these two components and not Maths or English? Any other pearls of wisdom you can share from your experiences at this stage of the LOS journey? Thanks a million!!!

@LOSDad sorry for the delayed response but it was exactly as ChampagneSally said - we received the banding results on the same day as the SATS results, via email. To avoid confusion, it is important to mention that LOS won't be receiving your son's SATS results until much after. So, contrary to what I had thought, banding is not based on the SATS & banding test combo, but purely on the banding test.

Sorry yes, we got an email.

Thanks for the reply. Were you told of the ability group via email, though?

Hi
I don’t think we had the results of the banding test. I recall we were told the ability group and house on the day SATs results were shared.

@ChampagneSally @gracijela Sorry to bother you both again, but how long to wait before you know the result? Was it during the Parents' Evening or you'll just receive an email? Thanks.

@gracijela @ChampagneSally Thanks for the reply. It would be a great help. Hope your DSs are doing OK in LOS. Hope my DS will meet them soon.