The Trinity-Whitgift-South London school 10+/11+ thread of 2014

[Ladymuck]

A few days early I know, but most of the entrance exams will be out of the way in a fortnight or so, and I'm sure there are a number of us who are in need of or or as we watch our (still very little) boys forget everything that they may have learned over the last couple of years. And there are many veterans of the process who will hopefully be around to reassure us that we will all come through this unscathed.

Teddingtonmum1 sounds like a bargain and a very good idea. Sleep well and good luck!

We waited 3 and a bit weeks for our interview call 6 years ago (gosh that's a long time!) - the timing had absolutely no bearing on offers etc (ds got a scholarship) although my nerves were shredded by the end ...

Just starting to feel angsty about dd's interview calls now (joy)

In some ways sitting for Alleyns has helped take the edge off as we know their interviews don't start until 25th January, so not expecting to hear anything soon. An early call from Trinity would therefore be a bit of a shock.

I just don't get that.
Why not write to everyone within a week: other schools do!
They could say we will let you know later re dates

At present I'm thinking that I've made a big mistake and day school is simply not for us (I simply wish to hand over responsibility for checking that ds1 has his shoes/music/timetable/pencil case to some other person).

Good luck to all dc sitting exams, really hope they all do justice to themselves and keep calm and perform to the best of their ability. We parents need to do our best to keep our stress levels manageable lest they negatively affect our young ones. MrsS your reminder about having a longer term view is very helpful. LM don't doubt yourself, once you have cracked how to successfully train your ds to do all those tasks independently, you can teach us how to do it!

Good luck to everyone sitting tomorrow , all tucked up at the travel lodge DS is not impressed its basic but clean drive past whitgift on the way and DS seemed impressed but who blinking knows with dc ??!! Was wondering is anyone going to the coffee before pick up at 3.30?

At the school !!, noticed it said about meeting staff at 3.30 pm would it be prudent to turn up and press the flesh so to speak ?

Good Luck ppl. Have followed with open eyed awe at how clued up you are. Am feeling v shaky already for dd at The Consortium on Friday where we know noone and have no idea of the real standard needed. I assume for each school the numbers are equally shocking or indeed worse, depending on which school is the first choice. Good idea re the coffee. If feeling brave might suggest same on girl schools' thread.

Good luck to all. DS sitting St Benedict's (reserve date) tomorrow. Here's hoping for us all.

DS did sports scholarship assessment at Alleyn's today. Very stiff legs tonight. No word from Dulwich here yet.

Let's hope trains are running ok tomorrow......and I hope those of you driving don't have any issues.

Good luck to all your boys tomorrow, hope they all get to have fun too!

All the very best to you all and your DSs

Like tweenageangst, DS is off school today, and I remember our anxieties last year so vividly!!!

DS back from St Benedict's. Thought it was alright in a rather meh sort of a way. Think he expected it to be very easy and found that, in practice, it was fairly similar to Dulwich, which I can imagine was a bit of a let-down. Hopefully he'll trot off to Trinity with his va va voom renewed tomorrow.

Heading back to whitgift now , feeling sick to my stomach ...hope he managed to keep it together :(

Yes, it is hard to ignore the relative easiness of hardness of the papers - I suspect it has relatively little correlation with how easy it is I get into the school.

Oxbridge offers out this week - will be interesting to see how they're all doing... (Though a ghastly reminder that what we're going through is merely the beginning!)

Rumour has hit our playground that the Wilsons head is leaving?

As the job is being advertised in the TES I suspect that there is some truth to the rumour.

Yup, I take the view that all the papers are much of a muchness but the effective pass mark for that year's cohort is a moving target. Though I did think the English paper for Alleyn's quite challenging from a vocabulary perspective - not DS's strongest point.

DS now retrieved from Whitgift and with DH on way home at the moment. Sounds like he is relatively happy (but not as happy as at DC). couldn't finish the english SPaG paper he said - a few questions (sound like VR) that he couldn't do. But cool with the maths. Am stunned that he managed to write a long story (or so he says) - first time ever.

Another one bites the dust .... next stop City.

Wasn't it your ds who said he was just going to sit there? I guess that it is amazing what a bit of peer pressure will do!

Maybe it's common to have a bit of a comedown with the second paper, Just. DS was more upbeat when he came out of DC, as well. Paper would certainly not have been harder at St B's this morning, tho I can well believe it was a similar standard.

My son sat the tests 3 years ago and he said that while the maths was more 'doable', the vr paper at W was harder than Wilson's.

Yes, that's right, LadyM - that was him/us. This morning too (I took him in) I was full of just write 30 minutes, very, very, neatly and you will be fine..... or join two stories with a worm-hole in the space time continuum. Peer pressure. Competivitness. Better than being bored. Who knows? Can't wait to get a full debrief when I see him later.

MrsS - yes. Also though it might just be because he/they are just getting more tired as they go on. Long day for us (left home at 7.30).

Does anyone have a sense of what the general numbers are like this year? I know when DD was starting primary school there seemed to be lots of children competing for places, and I'm sure I've heard that this is the first of the real boom years. Maybe it won't translate into private school applications though (hopeful face)?

The hints seem to be "record numbers", but I'm not sure that it is an enormous increase on the last couple of years to be honest. There are also hints that the bursary applications have increased much faster than the feepaying applications (heard comment that there were almost 10:1 applicants to bursary places across Whitgift foundation v 5:1 fee paying but not sure of split across 3 schools)