Common Entrance & pretest fail

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Hi,
I'm not really sure I've titled this properly or if its in the right place so please bear with me.
My ds is at an independent school in year 7. The school do common entrance in Yr 8. He sat a pretest on the advice of his headmaster for Yr 9 entry to a independent senior school, but unfortunately failed it. The senior school have said that he could do their own tests in 2015 in maths, english, science and french and then also do common entrance where he would need a 55% pass.
His current school, a non selective one, have always graded him an A grade student at equivilent of level 6 NC at the end of year 6, capable of scholarship standard to most schools requiring 75% at CE scholarship (so those with a 55% ~ 60% pass mark at CE) yet his headmaster doesn't seem to want to query the pretest fail, the senior school have only said that ds came bottom of those tested.
I've followed the headmasters recommendations all the way, is it usual for them to be that far out in their predictions?
Do I now start looking for alternatives but keep the resit option as well? Do I ask our current headmaster to speak to the 'fail' school or should this happen anyway?
What sort of alternatives should I look for?

Yes, it is reasonable to ask the current head to query the pretest outcome if he thinks it is anomalous. But as it seems your DS did very badly on the day, he might be facing an uphill challenge, especially if the destination school is popular and has already made offers for its places.

Is it this destination school that has said they can however take a second look? If so, you are effectively on a wait list, and your DS could be 'promoted' to a conditional offer (via a second round of exams, or were they to continue at current school?)

I suppose the key question is what school you want your DS to go to.

Most schools that pretest will have done them by now, so you'd be looking for one that doesn't or which admits by competitive exam, not CE.

Does your sons school sense a lot of pupils to this school. Does the school know the entrance procedure well?
Certainly worth a chat with the head to see what other schools he recommends.
Check out some less selective schools that don't pretest. The right school will come along.

I think you need to have a plan - the aspirational school, the realistic school and the real certainty. I think you need to go and meet your Head, after he has received feedback and spoken to the secondary your DS failed the pre test for, and discuss realistically what the plan should be now.

I'm confused that the senior school said your DS could sit their own exams in 2015 (yr8) and would then also have to sit CE. Would there own exams be in the Spring, followed by CE in the Summer? What if he were to fail their own exams in the Spring?

You need a plan B and cannot rely on getting a place from this senior school.

Good luck

Your head should definitely get feed back following failing the pre test although I suppose coming bottom is feed back!
I suppose if I was in your shoes I would think coming bottom of a pre test wouldn't exactly make me even remotely optimistic for a scholarship. Schools wanting 60% at CE will be looking for pretty bright children for a scholarship we're probably talking about those who would easily get into the likes of Win Coll, Eton as non scholars. Do you feel he's this bright? He's going to have to be top of his class and at most preps by yr 7 preps they'll have a top class and often a middle and bottom one so he's going to have to be top of the top class. You need also to look at the others in his class if they're not going off anywhere very selective then he could be top of the class and still not be up to a scholarship (for a 60% at CE school) but if you have a class full of children with places at some of the super selectives and he's still top of the class then I suspect he would be a strong candidate for a scholarship and that also something is going very wrong somewhere down the road.

As onebanana said you need a real certainty, a completely non selective school, do you have one near you you like the look of? Your head should be able to advise you on this after all that is what his job is and that is one of the things you are paying for.

It is good that they have offered a resit though you need to find out what on top of CE is going to be in that exam. Everyone is right your head should have some feedback. Just saying he came bottom is no good. Had he ever seen the sort of questions on the pretest as it might have been him clicking in the wrong place if it was the computerised one. At least they have given you the option to try. In most schools now you have to opt for 11 plus test or 13 plus pretest and there is no chance of swapping. People here seem to know a lot about schools so if you can say which county/ counties you are in or near they might have some plan b ideas.

Thanks to everybody. I've had his end of term report from current school. Its all A's. They set for english, maths and science and hes in the top groups and 'gifted and talented' for all of these. Its beginning to look like the maths is the problem as he scored 36% in an assessment on fractions and algebra using level 2 CE papers. At the end of year 6 he was getting 80% and above. I have spoken to the maths teacher as ds said she refuses to go over a method more than once, she said he's not keeping up with the change in pace. The senior school pretest didn't give any past papers so its possible the style of questions were unfamiliar (written test where workings have to be shown)
We're in the south east.

What track record does your school have of getting scholarships? Some schools get only one or two academic ones every so often but still grade pupils A so parents think their children will get something. Also, some very bright children do not get them. I would definitely seek out easier alternatives.

It depends on what maths papers he was sitting at the end of Year 6; DS1 always scored over 93% in his maths exams (level 3-5 papers) but he wasn't asked to sit the Level 6 paper as some of his classmates were scoring 95-100%. What was the top score in the class/year for maths at the end of Year 6 and the average? How did your son compare? If he was scoring 80% in a level 6 paper that would be fantastic but if it was a level 3-5 paper then he would have only just scraped a level 5 pass.
Who has stayed on at his prep for years 7 and 8? Sometimes the brighter ones move on if it's a non-selective prep. It's possible to get a grade A in Common Entrance at a non-selective senior school - much harder at a selective one.

He was a level 5a at the end of year 6. They used something they called 'progress in maths' as well which he scored 96%

It seems to have gone down since starting year 7.

He came in top 4 in his year.

Scholarships, they normally get around 8 each year.

A lot of girls leave at the end of year 6.

Where does your prep school get scholarships too? Where do most of the boy leavers go to? As I said in the top 4 and the other three are off to super selectives is good but in the top four and the other three are off to schools requiring 55/60% at CE is acedemically less impresssive at my DS's old prep that would be middle set by the way. How selective was the school he failed the Pre test for?

Also is that 8 academic scholarships or all scholarships including art, sport etc.

OP you say you've just had his school report and "it's all A's" but he scored 36% in a maths test this seems to me to be a contradiction. Also to be top of a non elective prep may be fairly meaningless frankly. Secondly it's easy to score high marks in exams if the teacher selects easy questions that you know children can answer. Prep schools want there parents to be happy and delude themselves feel their school which they are usually paying lots of money for is doing a good job so can tailor exams to ensure that children achieve high marks and/or mark very generously. I was stunned at how many parents had their DC"s privately tutored in yr 8 to make sure they would pass CE even those only requiring 50%, those going for scholarships were frantically tutoring, this was a very well regarded prep school feeding into all the big names. Can you I would think about an independent assessment by an ed. Psych of his ability or even ask a tutor to assess his ability/knowledge in the key subjects.
The point made above re not understanding how to answer the questions for pre tests is also good, has he practiced a few at school, is he familiar with the format, did he panic in the pre test? Have you asked him what he thought about the pre test did he think it was easy indicating a lack of understanding about what he was being asked and therefore a lack of preparation by your prep, or difficult, you say he came bottom was he tested on NVR and VR or maths and English, find he finish the test?
Lots of questions, your head should be asking for detailed feed back, if all the others scored 90+ and he came bottom scoring 89% then that just bad luck but if he came bottom and scored 45% then you have a problem. Your heads job is to find out and help you find the next school.

Does your DS actually want to go that particular school?
He wouldn't be the first child to deliberately fail a pre-test if he didn't want to attend the school.

Has he done a full set of mocks (November exams?) and if so how did he get on and at which tier?

There is quite a step up in the last two years of prep.

Your head owes you a good slab of time and some serious answers. If they are ranking him top segment , As etc and he came bottom on preselection then clearly either something very dramatic happened in the exam or their assessments are misleading. Your head should be very concerned about this too - if the school supported his application and gave a positive reference then they have also been caught out. The head should be as keen as you to explore this and to help you line up other options

Sorry happy - he got A's in everything on his latest report except maths (the 36%) which was a C (which they put as being a weaker CE candidate)

The pre test was NVR, VR, maths and english.

Edith - they do mocks in the November of year 8, hes currently year 7.

Waiting for head to get back to me!

I still think your son's maths result was average at best in Year 6 - 80% would give him a 5c not a 5a in this year's tests; in fact it was below the average for the year group at ds1's non-selective prep. If he sat the pre-test for a boy's selective senior school then he would be way down the list in the maths. Did he practise any VR/NVR? What were his scores on these elements? However, an average score in maths combined with A grades in other subjects (especially English) should be fine for entry into most schools requiring 55%-60% CE but unfortunately you have probably missed the pre-tests for most of them. You certainly need to look for more options; there are schools which set their own entry exams in the Autumn of Year 8 and a scholarship at one of these schools would probably be easier to obtain simply because less children apply at this stage (or at least the very clever children already have their schools sorted).

What school were you trying to get into? Whereabouts are you, perhaps we might be able to suggest some alternatives that would be more suitable? I am a Head of Maths in an independent school so know in my area which schools are the best for those children whose Maths isn't as strong as their other subjects.

As an aside "gifted and talented" is now generally not used but did only mean the top 10% in that particular cohort so doesn't necessarily mean that great if the cohort is not particularly academic. so top 4 at the school would class him as G&T there but not at other schools necessarily.