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.

Reigate run a bus that goes through Redhill and it used to make a stop at the station , not a shuttle as such though. Has become more flexible with logistics since new head arrived. Girls schools certainly a problem in the area especially with changes at Dunnottar recently which will almost certainly see their site become pseudo co-ed in the future.

Master Steptoe does seem to be a bit erratic!

Any pattern to weak spots? I tend to find that ds has question types that he likes. Is it just Alleyns that has NVR, in which case are you sticking to the GL ones? Don't know St Benedict's I'm afraid but no NVR for W or T.

Seeline - yes, I can understand your concern. Have you had a personal meeting with the HM ? I did that in order to raise questions like that ( though probably not one of my concerns ) and he was very open and honest and said that was one area that they had not done well at in the past ( stretching more able students ). He is actively working on this and, as he has made many other changes, I suspect he will achieve this as well.
If you look at the breakdown of A level results there are still some very impressive individual results.
I particularly like all the enrichment activities - the United Nations schools debating for example.
It's not easy though is it , finding that perfect school for one's DCs.....

Thanks LIZS. I did quiz Reigate admissions and they looked into it but they couldn't seem to come up with a solution (and I did ask specifically about transport from Redhill station).

One RGS bus actually passes us but when we asked about a local pick up on interview day we were told not possible. One of the reasons we turned them down tbh. A term or two later it was stopping for a late joiner .

Dulwich and Alleyn's both have NVR papers, and they both set a lot of store by them, as well. According to DS's tutor, a red flag starts waving if there's a 20% (ish) gap between maths and NVR at Dulwich, so I'm assuming it's similar at Alleyn's. OTOH, I'm sure that if he has a blisteringly good day on the maths and a shocker on the NVR, they'll try to probe a little to see if he got the timing totally wrong, or didn't read the question properly, or whatever.
And yes, he did an excellent paper that had lots of rotation questions, and the shocker included a question type that had a wrinkle in the question that he didn't really take on board (IYSWIM). Plus he's not so good at series relationships or isometric relationships. Usually does well on codes. Using Athey papers.

So we are, as ever, in the lap of the Gods. Best slaughter a goat.

I think in terms of facilities, scope of activities and atmosphere, RR has a lot going for it. But its curriculum and selection standards are such that it is practically comprehensive in its approach, and that is tricky to do at that size, so there is a high risk that children aren't stretched enough across the board. Not just the very brightest, but those who might be capable say of triple science at a push.

There is a chance that demand for private school places will continue to increase and this will drive up standards by default, but I think that they would have to take a risk and change their approach.

LIZS, bizarre given the number of Purley children at coed preps that they could have for little effort. I liked the school but not enough to move house for, given Alleyns and Caterham are in easier reach ( though Alleyns is still a bit of a pig of a journey, but currently we're on one of their coach lines).

I think my DS has been moonlighting over at yours mrsS , he has days of sheer genius followed by days of totally mediocrity . I reckon his yanking my chain..... The trouble is you don't know what level you need to be working to ( other than 100% of course ) 10 days and counting .... arghhhh

Done maths and VR, now doing Trinity sample English paper, and he seems to have run spectacularly out of time on the comprehension. The writing task at least has captured his imagination by the look of it. Oh well, 15 more days gets me through to the end of exams...

Teddingtonmum1, not sure which papers you're using but in terms of using GL papers for VR/NVR a score of 70% should be safe to get to interview stage.

Hi which papers would you recommend for Whitgift practice? Their comprehension appears to be multiple choice do you think? They don't seem to give out any papers for VR. I am using Bond and GL mainly. What about maths papers? My son has sat the Grammars and has exhausted a lot of papers already. Any suggestions on downloading specific school ones? Thanks

For W's English I think Bond/GL standard form are both good. For T I prefer the ISEB practise papers. The style of content of maths has changed over time, especially now that schools are covering L6 maths. I would look at Reigate Grammar as a good all rounder, throwing in questions from North London consortium, Manchester grammar and The Perse, Cambridge for variety? W's VR has traditionally been standard form rather than multiple choice.

Lady muck

Using bond / GL /first past the post on the I pad when his little fingers get tired lol ... today is maths tomorrow is VR practice got to find a passage to read as well for reeds any ideas ? Is it just a paragraph or a whole page ?.

Sorry, am clueless about Reeds I'm afraid, but others might know more. Though have just looked at its website and I see they look for minimum 105/140 for their GL papers, which should mean 55%+ should get you past that hurdle.

Oh gosh, Dh has decided that now is a good time for a one hour talk on "the birds and the bees" and has taken ds to his study. Elder son is still traumatised from his talk. I guess the only good thing is that ds is likely to come out begging to do another test.

We are currently in a state primary so DS hadn't even done VR/ non VR until October !! It was thanks to a MN who advised about the foundation places so we have been doing the last minute cram ( is there any other way ?) luckily DS seemed to pick up VR quite easily but was always weak on English so essay writing planned for the end of the week , I should be sitting on the sofa stuffing myself with matchmakers not doing blinking percentages :(

Ladymuck all chortling here

I'm sitting in my study and unfortunately can hear a fair amount of what dh is saying. Am tempted to put together a bingo game: "foreskin, testicles, erogenous zones, full house!"

Perhaps ds's next task should be a diary of today!

Bet he'd manage a few more interesting verbs than "said" and "ran". Though on second thoughts...

Thanks Ladymuck, do you think boys need to do very well in all the papers for Whitgift? My son hates creative writing and would rather do 6 maths papers back to back than write.......

Lots of boys hate creative writing, and it is one of the longest writing papers in our neck of the woods so a good VR score will go a long way to balance it out as will a decent showing on the English SPaG/comp paper. The aim at this stage is to get through to interview, and there will be some boys who have never sat down and done the sample papers (apparently).

For those keeping track, the "talk" is still going on...

Poozie - I'm with you on that:

My DS says he refuses to write a story in that test (when he found out it was one hour at Whitgift ). I said fine, just do well in the rest (esp your maths), and hopefully that will be enough to even it all out. Sit there and do nothing.

Hopefully when he is in the room he will be inspired to write...... just to relieve the boredom/compete.

[snort]

I remember DS2 having The Talk from his father in Y3 as there was no point giving it to his brother and not him. He came home and announced that he now knew "the disgusting reason boy bits and girl bits are different" :)