Tell me about getting in to a selective STATE grammar school please.

i went to sixth form 15 miles away, my choice, i wouldn't recommend it though. Out of the house at 7am not back til 5.30 - doesnt leave much time for homework or any after school activities.
Think long and hard about the physical toll of such a commute if you're not going to drive them. If you are going to drive them then do think about the impact on you.

At the GS school mine go/went to they say they only use the primary school's report in the case of a tied place.

Everywhere is different. Ours doesn't have a catchment area as such so lots of my DS2's (the one who is still there!)friends travel quite a long way, some about 30miles I would think. It is a bit ridiculous. There are buses but some parents must drive them everyday. Also you have to pay for the bus.

It can be a pain with after school activities, eg he has to be back by 6 this eve for house music so am glad we only live a few miles away. You should bear that in mind. That is exactly the sort of thing I would not have thought about with DC1 in my excitement about the school, and also how you will do all the running about with other children in tow.

(However, I know I would have decided any distance was ok, but trying to give 'proper' advice here)

We bought papers from WHSmiths and did them at home.

I had no idea really with DD - who really never "got" non-verbal reasoning tests, and so she went happily to the local comp.

DS wanted to try so we were more prepared and did more papers (although different tests for his school involved Maths & Eng comp + essay etc) and he DID get in.

I could not afford a tutor - or to pay for a prep school, but if you practice the timed papers at home you should be OK with a child who is bright enough to cope at the GS.

Hello

We are helping our ds who is in yr 5 to hopefully gain a place a grammar next yr.

I have found the 11+ website a great help and there are discussions for all different parts of the country.

DS also has a private tutor who he has been going to for about 4 or 5 mths. There has been a massive improvement in him during this time. We are not excessively coaching him though. Someone else said that achild needs to get 95% in a timed exam. perhaps not quite that much, but certainly a high mark(high 8o's at least)

Waterstones have loads of material, practice papers, mock tests etc.

Our ds is bright, but school have never mentioned that he is anything special as such and he doesnt always apply himself.

To be honest, i think it would be difficult to get into grammar without a little bit of coaching as the test often covers very different stuff to the national curriculum.

Id make the 11+ site your first port of call just to seee what is required for the school you want.

i went to grammar school in the 90s and lived 8 miles away and caught the bus, was out of the house 7.30 till 4.30 on a good day. i needed lifts to every sports event and lifts to visit all my friends as they lived so far away. if you send your dc 20-30 miles to school please be prepared to ferry them round for the next 7 years.

No, that's good news LL. DS's school's catchment area is about 4 miles, less if there are a lot of applicants.

See that's your problem. If you're that far out of catchment it's pretty unlikely you'd get a place. Try ringing your LEA now to find out what their practice is.

BTW the primary school report doesn't matter in the slightest. All they want to see is whether they get a high enough score in the 11 plus. DS's school didn't send his report in till months after he'd been accepted.

Our ds got into grammar without any coaching, but he did practice papers at home for several months before hand.

In Bucks, you need to score 121 out of 141 to get in.

Even if your dc passes, there's no guarantee of them getting a place if they're out of catchment.

The school ds got into is something like 28th in the country, everyone gets all A* blah blah blah.

I personally feel it was definitely worthwhile, he goes to a fantastic school. The main part goes back to 1620, it's all cloisters and rose gardens and the headmasters labrador wandering round but has state of the art facilities that would have cost a bomb if it were private.

I'd say go for it but be prepared for your dc having to do v v hard work to get a high enough mark i the 11 plus.

Go to the 11plus forum website, the people are often a bit obsessive but I found it q. helpful.

No, "practice papers" is right, I think, because it's a noun. But "to practise" is the verb.

This is very pedantic but I think you meant, we need to buy 'the practice papers' which I think is correct, and I said you need to practice, when it should be practise???

At least that's what I thought as soon as I read my message (before UQD's comment so sticks tongue out at UQD)

I went to a selective state girls grammar 25 years ago. I did a LOT of practice papers at home before taking the exams; you could buy the books of past papers in WHSmith, I think. It was and still is a fantastic school and was well worth all those hours of multiple reasoning...

At least I didn't type grammer......

I know, I saw that as soon as I posted!

my advice would be move your child to a private prep now or get them tutored
We have two selective state schools in our borough they are consistently in the top 10 in the country
most of the pupils who attend do not live in the borough and have come from private schools
personally I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole they are extremely competitive when you go and the girl's school has 6x the number of referrals for eating disorders and self harming than the other girl's schools in the borough
this year 2500 boys sat the exam for 120 places and the entrance mark was 98%

I'd recommend learning to spell practise.

PS The admissions criteria will vary from county to county. Although I think it is now illegal for the LA to not give you the local comp if you don't pass the test to the grammar school, as it used to be.