Grey Coat Hospital School Language Spaces

@Araminta1003 Why would you enter a voluntary MFL test if you had no idea dc might be good at MFL? Grammar school tests don’t include MFL so you are tested on core curriculum taught every day plus verbal reasoning. My dd did verbal reasoning for a grammar test but my question is, with an optional entry test (assuming it is optional) how would you know how to choose it? I would have assumed for DD it was a waste of time as she had not been to a prep. I would have been totally wrong but unless all dc do the aptitude test, how do parents know dc should be entered?

@TizerorFizz hi, I went to GCH on a language place but nearly 20 years ago now, and my entrance exam was in Martian, ie a made up language that they used to I guess see if we could spot patterns and reason our way through it even though it wasn't a real language and no one had seen it before.

Unsure if they'd still do something like that but I found it interesting at the time!

@TizerorFizz - my DD is gifted in languages, music and maths. For grammar entry, we never had to practise verbal reasoning. She just got a 100 per cent like that. She also has a photographic memory. I suspect you can easily test for it. Combo of hearing languages and it going straight in. Just like you can test natural musical ability. Wilsons now have music places, for example.

How might you find out if your DD has an aptitude if they have never done any MFL? Why would you go in for the test? Seems an odd selection criteria to me. Best to stream after y7.

But that is what an aptitude test is designed to do (and the school says that it is testing for aptitude, not ability, therefore that is what it must do - unless it is confident that it is so special, that compliance with the Admissions Code is not something that it should worry about overmuch).

@Londoneer I meant to ask you too. How can they spot a linguist who has never had a chance to show any talent?

@Binteee And others: How do DDs sit the language test when they haven’t done a MFL at primary school? What chance have they got?

My DD went to a state primary with no MFL provision. She started French at her independent school min y7 and the teacher said she was the only one who had no previous MFL exposure. By y8 she was top in her MFL exams. She had also started Italian. Obviously she would never have been able to take an entry test in a MFL. She studied both MFLs at degree level and converted to law. Linguists are usually bright but I don’t see how your school would have spotted her. Just curious.

Thanks so much for your messages. These are very helpful for me, as I'm planning to have my daughter sit the language exam next year. My concern is that we're about 4 miles north of the school. The commute is fairly long, but direct. I wonder if my daughter be unlikely to have any friends nearby or between language and church spots, she may not be so far off on her own?

Oh and because of an administrative mix up way back when, they DID accidentally let me know the banding make-up (too complicated to explain how that happened). So the 15 language girls are all Band 1 (top 25%) and the remainder of their class are Band 2 (middle 50% -that’s Bands 2 & 3 in some schools). All of the other classes have a liberal sprinkling of every band, so from all abilities. It doesn’t matter a fig as from Yr9 they get put into sets so what class they’re in is fairly immaterial. The school must take 25% from bands 1 and 3 and 50% from Band 2, plus the languages girls who are all Band 1, subtly skewing their intake.

Hey Mianoos (and others). My DD is at GCHS and got in via a language place. I am reminded reading this thread that some people don’t separate out opinions (often incorrect) from fact so please let me help. If they get offered a language place all 15 go into the same class with another 15 girls who arrived by the normal complicated arrangements. As the language aptitude test is really just a covert aptitude test, that class tends to have a higher percentage of able girls so yes, is often quite an academic environment with high achievers. All girls in the school do two languages in years 7-9 (all Spanish, half allocated to German, the other half to French). The ‘language’ class alternates: one year it’s in the German stream, one year they’re in the French stream. I put ‘language’ in brackets because once they are there, they are there, there is no difference and no pressure to keep up with languages any more than any other girl. Every girl has to take at least one one language GCSE. Some take two, some take three (with Latin). There are no first and second class citizens so I don’t think there are any more in my DD’s class taking two/three than any other class. As you’d expect from a higher proportion of high achievers in one class, her class over represents in the science, English and maths top sets and if that’s the way they find themselves inclined, the school supports that, with no language pressure. Conversely, girls in the ‘non’ language classes are equally pushed/inspired in languages and all subjects. Not everyone knows who did and didn’t get a language place anyway, once they move past Yr7, they can’t remember. It’s just a way in for more able girls who live at a distance and/or aren’t churchgoers. Go for it, she has nothing to lose.

When my daughter was in Year 6 a couple of years ago, I asked the school this question.

I got a very speedy and polite email reply from the school saying that a language place now only gave a place at the school. No difference to the child’s experience once there.

Not a separate form.

So I would check with them because I think there is a recent change.

It's not a separate class, and it's the same size overall as the others - around 28-29 girls. It's an interesting question about how they populate it and I'm not sure! You probably read about the banding test - everyone applying, including those with language places, has to take the banding test. They then take a split across the year of 25% from band 1, 50% from band 2 and 25% from the bottom band. This ensures a fully 'comprehensive' intake.

My daughter got a language place, but the rest of the form who aren't language girls (roughly 13 or 14 girls) seems to be a mix of ability (although a few v smart ones who didn't get a language place but who I know, from speaking to the parents, got scholarships to indies etc so clearly very bright). Since they never divulge the banding results, I'm not sure you'd ever know how they really split the classes. From year 8 they're all streamed anyway in the core subjects so at that point the ability spread becomes more obvious.

Having just had a look at the admissions policy out of sheer idle curiosity, how do they 'populate' the rest of the form that the language aptitude girls are put in? Or is it a completely separate group of 15 or fewer pupils?

I’m not OP but thanks for this! I’m planning to have my DD take the language exam next year and I didn’t know any of this information. I thought they literally just received a spot and that was it.

If you get offered a language place it means you're pretty much guaranteed a place - regardless of distance from the school or religious affiliation - as long as you then put the school first on your preference list. The language place pupils are all in one class together, so generally the discipline and standards in that class are high as well. I'm pretty sure the language students also must take two languages at GCSE and they also take German and Spanish from Year 7 (rather than French and Spanish which is the other option - presumably as it's two different language families).

Nothing other than a place at the school.