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.

Haven't heard of any T calls yet.

Glad the 10+ day sounds like it was fun.

Does anyone have a feel for the Trinity 11+ process? (As in do they write or phone for an interview, or could it be either; and how quickly do they let the thanks-but-no-thanks candidates know?)

Last year it was one of the slowest, but the no thanks letters should hit the doormat by next Saturday (but some were waiting -in vain- until Feb I think). Haven't heard of any T calls yesterday.

DD just did Alleyn's maths sample paper. I hate it!! What's the point of giving those tasks on tally and finding a mean with adding 12 numbers! Both DD and I got it wrong without a calculator. It's just fiddly and doesn't check actual knowledge. You get give 5 numbers to check if DC can do averages!

And on tally, of course, DD missed a couple of numbers - again, fiddly and time consuming and doesn't check anything, except processing speed and attention to detail (and degree of OCD) which at 10 years of age is not exactly a strength of many DC.

Ditto for timetable - lots of time consuming calcs (with at least some thinking involved).

Basically, this format doesn't leave a lot in terms of "redemption value" for DCs who are prone to careless errors but can crack tough stuff.

I am starting to freak out as it's one of our preferred schools!

Rant over... Back to those averages.

My DS just had a crack at it and did ok except that the fiddly calculations were so time consuming he only got to question 20 in the time allowed. Better than the English though....gulp....

We've done nothing today. In fact ds is at a production rehearsal all afternoon. I guess I'll keep the Alleyns sample papers as a surprise for tomorrow....

DS did 2 pages of the Alleyns sample maths, and a tiny bit of NVR from a GL book. TBH I think his brain is full! I won't ask him to do anything else now.

He has had a relaxing day, helped me with a bit of cooking and we went out for lunch. He has just finished reading a book he really enjoyed so I am hoping he gets asked about his favourite book in his interviews!

DH is already trying to duck out of interviews . He promised he would go to any/all of them but "didn't realise there would be 2 in 1 week". Poor show!

Oh dear! I guess it is about working out for which schools it is important, and which it isn't. We seem fortunate in that it would appear that Trinity and Alleyns don't care, but Dulwich does, as does Whitgify.

Nervous about interview. Do you think it can really sway them one way or the other?

So do you think W prefer both parents to attend?

Are schools understanding if they invite you for interview but you can't do what they offer and need to find an alternative date? There's a couple of dates we can't do, though I've tried to keep the calendar clear

No idea re Whitgift but only DS and I went to Dulwich interview-DH couldn't make it. Didn't seem to make a difference to the outcome.

Different schools seem to put different degrees of emphases on them, but yes, they are important. I don't think you necessarily win a place by interview, but you can lose a place iyswim. The marks in the papers matter most, the interview is about whether you'd fit.

I certainly don't think that both parents are essential, but it seems to be "the norm" especially at boys schools. The existing W&T parents are better placed to comment but I was told that approx half had one parent, half had both (and one father managed to turn up to W without his son last year!). Whilst many of my friends seem to give up hours of their lives in pouring cups of tea and talking to parents over the next few weeks, few of them are prepared to keep proper statistics as to correlation between boys, mothers handbags, item brought to interview and offers made. I have let them know of my disappointment...

I'm just going to have to hope that no one wants to see him on 1 February or 5 February. He can't do either...
Going to have to try to find a friend with a decent coat I can borrow as well, if they scrutinise parental appearance.

I did the W&T interviews for both DSs without XH. They still got offers from both.

I got the impression that the interview lets them see that the boy is as intelligent as he appears to be from his exam result :) Also, I think that all they really want from the parent is to gauge how interested you are in their school and whether you have any questions as well as partially being a sales pitch on their part.

I'm sure I had to change the timings of DSs interviews to fit in alongside school runs for the other SmalllDragons. It wasn't a problem at all. As long as you have a good few dates/times you can do then it won't matter.

Oh, heaps, SoupDragon. It would be quite long odds to manage to pick a time that we couldn't do. But this is what the pressure of this selection process does to you, you start to get neurotic about what they might think if you ask them for an alternative date.

Right, I need a short friend with nice taste in coats.

That's us done for the exams , celebrated with malteasers and dominos pizza and he has now entered minecraft world for the rest of the evening . DS had Reeds today , amazingly a boy in his class also sat that we didn't know about so he had a bit of moral support and even made a friend in his group and seemed a lot happier. at this stage reeds would be certainly easier for me logistics wise but something just keeps W a notch ahead. DS had his interview at the same time so waiting for a yah or nah in the next couple of weeks more finger crossing !!!

We're the maltesers on the pizza? Hope you enjoy the euphoria of finishing the exams! Very civilised to have the interview on the same day too.

Phone rang today and DS came running in to see if it was Emanuel offering an interview! I reminded him that they have already interviewed everyone before the exam. "Oh yeah" with a disappointed face. . I think he is starting to enjoy this process, weird.

How do you handle telling or not telling their peers? I have told DS not to tell any of his friends about interviews unless they ask. No boasting allowed.

Easier for us as DS is in a state primary that doesn't generally have kids moving into independent education. DS and his friend have both got one interview lined up, the friend at Whitgift (which we didn't sit) and DS at Dulwich (which the friend sat on the reserve date, so he won't get an interview till this coming week - and he will get one, unless he fell asleep).

They could both boast about it as much as they liked, but no-one would care in his class as they're all busy talking about London Oratory or the Vaughan/Greycoat or Sacred Heart for the girls

Hey LM

No kept them separate !! , am guessing that reeds doesn't have the numbers of W just he did see the headmaster and he reckoned that he was on there 20 mins prob 5 just felt like 20. Was an all day thing like W seemed to be well organised and there was burgers and chips for lunch.
now only a home visit and panel meeting for me if he hits the right scores even had the ikea sofa covers sent to the dry cleaners 'just in case'.

Our position is (relatively) hideous. Am already looking as if I am homeschooling this term... Girls only schools have sent out their offers already.

Teddington Um... home visit? Are you kidding? For which school?

Gosh I would hate a home visit but I guess it is part of the process...I assume that is only Reeds not Whitgift. I would have thought that Reeds would get better geographically.