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.

I would suggest parking on Lordship Lane anywhere from the library down to Townley road and then walking up Townley to the school. Only a couple of minutes walk and will save you a lot of stress. Good luck to everyone taking Alleyns tomorrow.

Good luck for tomorrow.

Hi all
Reading the thread with a mixture of relief and anticipation as my ds took the 10+ last year for T.
We got the call for an interview on the following Saturday (a week to wait - sorry) and the interview the following Saturday. I put him in jeans and dug out a smart(ish) jumper without any minecraft/Mario/funny quip nonsense on it and brushed his mop. He had to take something of interest with him. Ds took a printout of some of the things he has done and a few questions he wanted to ask. I took him on my own and was considerably more nervous than he was. Lovely reception, he went off with sixth former (I think) I entered the scariest room I've ever walked in to with other parents. Had a lovely chat with various people (current parents/staff) and waited for him to reappear. On journey home (aside from our car breaking down 3 mins from the school) he informed me he was interviewed by a sixth former!!! Anyway, we just forgot about but then.....I found mumsnet. That's when I became obsessed.
Weirdly, I really enjoyed the results morning as I was constantly glued to the thread. So much so I actually fell asleep, missed the postman and didn't find out he'd been offered a place until much later on. It was a real roller-coaster.
He absolutely loves it there and after a rocky start he is thriving. Hope this helps a few and good luck to everyone going through this process.

Lots of ds's teachers look like 6th formers to me. I can only tell them apart by their id cards.

I agree! :)

One tired little chap trudged off to his Alleyn's exam today. He's completely pegged out with the whole process.

Matlow - thank you for the tip. Certainly I'm glad that I avoided Townley Lane. The drive was fine in the end, and possibly less stressful than the train. I am unfortunately one wing mirror short of a complete set. I can take some comfort in the fact that the culprit cannot have got off without some damage to their own car judging by the distance and therefore force involved.

Otherwise, Alleyns has definitely been the calmest and best organised so far. Ds was particularly pleased to note that his group's guides were both shorter than him.

I will possibly get shot down for even mentioning race, but it does look as if ds's classmate will be about the only Asian candidate sitting for the school?! There does seem to be a single sex/co-ed divide even in Dulwich?

We quickly took Alleyns off our list of schools when we visited and noticed barely any non-white DCs there. Couldn't understand how that could be in London these days. Perhaps a preference amongst the Asian communities for single sex? Perhaps a vicious circle of avoidance (won't go there because no other asians/blacks go there and so it continues.) I did ask a teacher at the school, he just seemed surprised at the suggestion that the school wasn't representative.

Decided the school wasn't for us on that basis

MrsS, I know the feeling! I think ds was awake by the time he walked in... Given his disastrous Saturday I mentioned to him that it wasn't too late to sit the W reserve date, but he was pretty firm that today will be his last exam!

I have a horrible feeling the ds peaked at the grammar exams...

MrsS and Ladymuck, I had the same feeling about peaking! I couldn't pull DD out of bed today!

This is her 5th exam (was supposed to sit 4, but got invited to scholarship exam at the first school she set so ended up with 5) and it's one too many! She was a walking ghost this morning.

A colleague's DD sat 7 exams last year (+1 Wycombe pre-test in November) and I don't know how it's humanly possible!

I must say that Alleyn's is a lot less ethnically diverse than JAGS just across the road, but I think it is a function of single sex vs co-ed.

So he can have either girls or multicultural boys but not both? Are all the coeds the same (haven't looked at St Dunstans etc).

It certainly not the same in the state sector where co-eds are unusual!

Don't know, really, we looked around Emanuel as well and didn't notice it there.

My DS sat St Dunstans exam yesterday and I was struck again by how diverse it is. It has a lovely atmoshere and feels very warm and inviting. Very good lunch too, apparently. I understand it is not as highly academic as DC or Alleyns but never the less gets decent results and is gaining a great reputation for the IB. We decided against DS sitting Alleyns today. I sent email late last night and had a very gracious response this morning. We felt it wasnt the right school for him, and even if it was, after only a few months to get up to speed, he wasnt sufficiently prepared to compete at the level required today. It's a great school though and I hope all those sitting for it today have a good result.
It's such a relief it's all over!

Slightly on a tangent but you all seem so well informed! Does anyone know about timings for co-curricular scholarship assessments at whitgift and trinity yet? I'm wondering whether no news is bad news...

I believe that they start next week. Trinity sports is Monday.

According to Ts diary
11+ sports assessments are on monday, 10+ Tuesday
Music starts monday
Drama is on Tuesday
Art is on Wednesday
DT is on thursday

Whitgift assessments- next week
music Mon and Tues
sports Mon 10+
Tues WEd Thurs 11+
fri 12+ 13+ last min 10/11+
Art Mon and Thurs
Dt Wed

But in terms of letters/calls from T, not a dicky bird I'm afraid. I think that "no"s will hit the doormat by Saturday.

I really hope the Trinity thanks but no thanks do arrive by Saturday. I don't want it to drag into next week.

Alleyn's doesn't appear to have gone too well for my poor little chap - he rather glumly said that he ran out of time somewhere around question 41 (out of 50) in the VR. I fear he will have spent a little too long being too conscientious as he went. He wasn't too glum about the other papers, though - and we never were too hopeful about Alleyn's now that it's so fashionable.

On the diversity issue, btw, we seemed to be walking through a shoal of parents and candidates as we arrived that certainly wasn't without diversity... but it's hard to say, because having read the earlier discussions, I was slightly looking out for evidence of diversity. Or none. But then again, the first time we went to Emanuel, we looked around at a sea of white faces and thought "this isn't for us". The second time, the mix was different. More accurately, there did actually appear to be a mix.

If it helps last year (for me at least) went something like this.

Whitgift - exam on the Thursday. Telephone call for Interview on the Sunday (very quick).
Trinity - exam on the Friday. Telephone call for interview the following Saturday (one week and one day later).

No letter follow-ups as confirmation. So write the information down. Last year though all interviews, letters, post, etc were incredibly delayed due to the snow. Interviews were getting re-arranged due to Travel arrangements breaking down. This year should be much better.

I remember thinking Alleyn's was very white at the Open Morning, but like MrsSteptoe I saw loads of non-white faces today. And my friend with a mixed race DS has never mentioned an issue with it, her only issue with Alleyn's is how hard it is to get into!

My DS found the reasoning very heavy going, the rest not too bad.

Now it's onto interview stage. I can't say I feel any relief now the exams are done, but DS seems relieved so that's good.

Good luck to all still to do exams, and to all waiting to hear about interviews.

One month until those letters hit the mats!

Ds thought the English was the hardest that he's seen, but we were expecting that (well I was, perhaps he wasn't). Feels overall as if it went better than his last one, but it is a totally different pool of candidates, so we'll see. Agree that it was less monocultural at pick-up but still felt that there was a lack of Asian candidates in comparison to other schools.

Thank you to previous years posters coming back with their experiences - all very reassuring. I know we won't hear from Alleyns for at least a week, and I'll try to forget about Trinity until Saturday!

Hi all, has anyone heard about the 10+ for W yet? I know a friend of mine has and now I am concerned...to say the least! Would be good to hear from others that have taken the exam last week!

Thanks. Just didn't know whether other people had had their times booked in. Heard again from W today and have music on Monday morning. Just waiting to hear about art now and anything at all from T. Can't wait for it all to be over!

Hipster1- where did your DS end up and is he/you happy?