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Original poster

Graveney extension stream

27 replies

swlondon24 · 27/10/2023 12:29

DD seems to have scored well enough in the Wandsworth test that she would very likely qualify for the Graveney extension stream. I have read their website/brochure/policies but can't really find detailed info on how it works in practice, can any current parents enlighten me?

When they join in y7, would their class / tutor group be a mix of all children or are they in a class of other children in the extension stream? Are they mixed for sports/arts/music for example or is it a stream that would not mix with the other streams in lessons?

Do they follow the same or a different curriculum? When I look at the curriculum info online, it just talks about the general ks3 curriculum but I can't see if there is a different curriculum / additional enrichment options or what the difference is supposed to be in this stream?

If there are 70 children in the extension stream, would that mean there are two classes of 35 or are they in 3 classes mixed with a few other children?

Please note I have no problem with mixing, just want to understand how it works especially as the intake of 280 kids sounds daunting. I just wonder how they get to know each other and how overwhelming it might be.

OP posts:
puffyisgood · 27/10/2023 13:02

It's 70 test places but there are four extension tutor groups, they're big groups so that's around say 130 extension kids in total, of whom only 70 got in on the test. The other 60 are (from kids within catchment and siblings etc) the 'next best' in WT and/or kids with less strong WT scores but good SATs/other primary school creds.

The four extension tutor groups are all equal. Kids do everything with their own tutor groups but will come into contact with other forms in PE, PSHE, and so on.

Individual subject streaming starts at the beginning of yr 8 (maths only initially). The top maths set(s) will be made up of mostly but not exclusively kids from extension.

Both the WT and primary school creds are fairly blunt tools for assessing academic potential so quite a few kids get demoted from/promoted to extension, midway through and at the end of year 8 - perhaps around five demotions/promotions per extension tutor group wouldn't be unusual. Some of the promotions will be the kids of immigrants who started out with poor English but are catching up. The demotions are usually disproportionately drawn from kids who were borderline extension cases, so often catchment rather than test kids.

Everyone basically starts out studying the same subjects but even in year 7 there are easier/harder version of exam papers and so on, as at many schools the kids ultimately end up doing slightly different numbers of GCSEs and so on [combined vs separate sciences being one example], the starting tutor groups basically put kids on a pathway to study smaller or larger numbers of GCSEs.

Digimoor · 27/10/2023 12:50

The kids are with the same form group throughout school
In Y7 if you are in extension the rest of your form group will also be extension - they will be together for all their classes irrc
The whole school studies the same stuff initially
Later there are additional subjects available after school maybe at lunch