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.

Oh dear, sorry to stress anyone out! I was about to say that I'd given my postman a fiver at Xmas but then remembered that I'd meant to and then kept forgetting. Perhaps if he's timely on Feb 14th I will give him a tenner..

ladydepp don't apologise, nice to hear the good news stories!

GetMeOut crikey, I took it to mean the academic cohort that the child would be with (as in, a cohort in which the child could keep a level of confidence rather than feeling like they were bumping along the bottom) - however, I could be being naive here!

Don't disagree Mrs Steptoe, but how would you ascertain that at a new joiners do ??? All you can really do at those is talk to other parents hence my rather cynical comment.....
I hope I'm wrong !

MofS we've only gone for schol to try and tick another box, as doubt DS would do particularly well in exams.
Having attended the W 10+ sports assessment yesterday and speaking to couple of teachers, I don't think they'll be giving out many. He said that there is a pot of schol money and each dept has to put case forward for its proposed schols, then schol pot people decide who gets it. Last year apparently lots of music, not so many sports. Of course he may have just been speaking from script re allocation of schol cash.

Just back from Emanuel sports assessment, will be good to get DS to school for normal day tomorrow. Interview at W on Thursday. Interested like woodcote75 to hear of any 10+ interview experience at W so far. thanks in advance.

Oh don't worry ladydepp, not stressed. Just I wasn't necessarily keeping an eye out for post (whereas I am currently aware of missed phone calls and not automatically assuming that all of them are from an irritating call centre somewhere).

I think that the comment re waiting to see the cohort was on which set of pupils she thought her son would fit into socially rather than the academic qualifications as such but who knows. Do you know whether the Sutton grammars give you any further info once you have a place? I thought that they didn't, so you'll know you did well enough to get a place but not whether you scraped in or whether you aced the test

The boys' Sutton Grammars say that they never tell you the exam results. I think that is probably a good thing that all the boys go in on an equal footing.

You'll know if you get a waiting list place that you didn't do as well as a boy who got a first-round offer, but it's still pretty vague.

Hi all....very informative thread....guys are there still any 11+parents waiting to hear from Trinity?I feel if I have a case of misplaced post as I've heard nothing...

If it helps at all, Mummynet29, I didn't hear till late yesterday afternoon and I got the impression that they still had a way to go with the phone calls...

Alleyn's academic scholarship letter today - feeling v proud of dd :) (although I have reminded her that a scholarship is not a given ..)

Oh my goodness, rounds of applause for the Bondling! Well done to the mummy as well...

Thanks MrsS - we've had a truly shitty start to the year for various reasons and I'd had to leave dd pretty much to her own devices over the Christmas holidays so was feeling a bit guilty I'd not given her as much help/support as I should so it's nice to have some good need for a change

The interview itself sounds a bit daunting - 45 mins in total, first with head, then head of English followed by head of maths - eek

News not need ...

So assuming the stars align and we get 2 offers then what happens in regards to making a decision? As we are currently in state primary have no idea how goes also say we get a W offer but the busary is smaller than expected ie 60% rather than 80/90 % is there any movement possible can you even ask ??!! What exactly is busary etiquette , also when do you have to make the first terms payment / deposit etc .... Here's assuming we are going to even get to this situation I just don't want to get caught out .
Ps no letter today in fact no mail for the last 2/3 days I reckon the postie is holding it hostage

Ps well done Basildon !!!

Crikey. DS also has an interview at Alleyn's. He thought he'd ploughed that one by not finishing the VR. Looking all pale and red eyed because he's terrified of effing it up ("it" being an offer for pretty much any school, not a particular school, but I think particularly DC and perhaps Alleyn's) at the last hurdle. Poor little chickie.

Congrats !!...

Well done MasterSteptoe and the BasildonBondling, though yes, being told that it was an academic schol interview would probably finish any of mine off!

Teddington, if you have a read through the 2nd part of last year's thread you'll see some of the to-ing and fro-ing that goes on, for quite some time. Can't help you on timing for deposits etc as they are different for bursary holders - no-one will be expecting you to write a four figure cheque at the start of March, but for full fee payers the schools will look for a deposit which seems to be in the region of £750-£1,000 when you send back your acceptance letter. Usually there is more movement on scholarships than bursary, as essentially you either have a bursary, the amount of which is calculated based on your income according to the Foundation scales, or else you haven't. The bursary gets recalculated each year according to your income. Presumably you've seen the Foundation scales so have an idea of what you would get (or rather I think it may be calculated in terms of what you have to pay for W).

good news so far this evening, long may it continue!

Tnx Mrs Steptoe...not sure how many roughly will be invited for interview at T considering they only have 70 seats to offer...also they have been calling for last 10 days so I thought they might have gone thru their list already...another sleepless night for me...not sure I can take it any more...plz plz let me know whatever it is +ve or -ve :(

Master Muck has his Alleyns interview through too. Phew! And it sounds less stressful than the scholarship one . Though the slightly awkward bit is that we'll already be at the school at that time watching another son play against Alleyns at sport .

Whilst all of our schools have kept to the timetables that they've set, I do feel Alleyns has been the least stressful so far in terms of how they've done their communication - perhaps simply because there has been a lot of it?

In terms of Trinity 11+, if you haven't had a letter, then that is good news, and I think that it is simply a waiting game. They'll interview close to 250-300 boys for those 70 spaces, and send out 200+ offers. I'm not sure whether they did actually start phoning 10 days ago - I think the earliest call I knew of was Tuesday. That said, I would definitely be tempted to ring tomorrow or Thursday just to check that you haven't missed the letter... [But that is me - I'm not saying that you should do that! ]

Hello guys and girls, and congratulations to your offspring getting closer to interview stage.

We have T10+ music assessment tomorrow ... has anybody gone through this yet?? DS is very agitated, worse than at music exams. Are they very demanding in terms of performance and sight reading (weak subject)? perhaps you have already gone through this ?

Also, no news from KCS 10+ at all. Probably a 'thanks but no thanks'.

DS now in bed, so time to reach for a glass of red.
look forward to your news !

ipreferletters DS did 11+ music at T this morning. He said the sightreading was quite a difficult piece but all fine apart from that. Good luck tomorrow!

Lady M
So am guessing the offers are made at roughly the same time what if you get a maybe ie wait list but have a firm offer elsewhere I'm guessing you secure the firm but prepare to lose the deposit / fees etc on the firm if the aspirational comes through ? . how much movement is there come offer day ? and beyond my DS got his primary place literally 2 weeks before the start of term is it the same with the Indys also if they say no can you go back later as guessing they don't want empty beds / seats

1000!