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.

BasildonBond, I know you speak wisely.

Alleyns - haven't digested the information provided enough to work out the paper format here. Is it really a combined VR/NVR paper? I was wondering whether they would split the NVR into 6 or 9 minute sections as Kent does, but possibly not then, which will go against ds, as he did better when the sections were individually timed rather than open ended.

You're right, Badidonbond, and we've only made dd do 1 maths paper, 1 comprehension and 1 VR paper this holiday so far, but she gets dreadfully rusty and seems to go backwards massively after any break from routine so it's impossible to know how best to proceed. She's doing the papers under very bad grace too which doesn't help. Pointing out that she won't get into the schools she wants to go to has no discernible effect. More gin needed I think!

I may simply suggest DSs are keen to help out on exam day :)

I wonder if, at this stage, it's worth focussing on exam timing and how to pace an exam. I know mine had no experience of timed exam conditions before doing the 11+ exams.

Thanks for that link, Lady. I hadn't seen these before. We only had one past paper from DC which had no marking scheme. No idea how that happened (perhaps only recently put up??!!) Ah well. Too late to do all these now, but will do a few sample questions and compare workings with DS ...

Ladymuck indeed I am.... and the number is... 1411289. Surname is P. So are we still expecting around 350 candidates? Is that the gist of the conversation?
I do love my boy. DS just tried to give his English tutor a £10 tip for being such a lovely tutor for the last six weeks. She refused it, but I think was genuinely touched by the gesture.

Ladymuck I think I'm a bit late to the party here with my response, but our tutor, who seems to be very familiar with what we might call the Dulwich way, is very emphatic that if you get the right answer but don't show your workings out, you will lose marks because that's the mark scheme. HTH.

What are people's thoughts on points rewarded/deducted on Whitgift maths paper? Their sample paper doesn't offer any marking system or what questions are worth.

Last year nearly 500 entered T11+, 200 were interviewed. Birth rate higher for this year's cohort (hence more entrants for Sutton Grammars than last year) so if only 320 T candidates that would be a significant drop.

Cheeze sounds unlikely, given general rise in demand for places at indies. I think the candidate numbers are misleading us.

Mrs S - what's the date on your T letter? Ours is 26 November (so I can't have left it as late as I thought). It would be odd if no-one has a number higher than 300? Though we are a small sample, but a fairly random sample!

The only other reason that I think it might be low is that Whitgift had to postpone their October music course due to (relative) lack of interest.

I expect many put in applications in the last week and even later. Didn't realise that W had to postpone their music course. Does the rescheduled course form part of the music scholarship assessment?

Given it is not until 9th Feb they would be cutting it fine! I don't think so, though when it was in October they always promised feedback to the scholar applicants.

I agree Mrs S I expect they've doing something strange with application numbers. Have texted a friend who applied early to see what she got given. They seemed to send out all the application numbers as the forms came in as she'd done all of their paperwork ages before us.

3 December. If it helps any, DS gets extra time for the English (pronounced hypermobility in his fingers). So possibly they processed those applications separately because the timetable is slightly different.

Slight high jack. Mrssteptoe - can I ask about your son's hypermobility? I am currently on waiting list to see nhs ot about same thing for dd, year 5. How did you know? Does he have any equipment etc? Thanks.

Should add I am putting her in for superselectives.

Sure, hercules1 - I'll pm you, if that's OK.

Yes, thanks.

There are nearly 500 sitting 11+ at Trinty this year.

This year I s the highest ever number of applicants at 10 11 & 13+

I had a feeling I'd read it somewhere - it was in MrBs end of term letter.

Gah - I feared that may be the case. Ah well... it may be possible that London parents who hitherto have not gone as far out of London as Croydon (yes, I know) are starting to look at T+W because of the increasing difficulty of getting a place at Dulwich/Alleyn's/Latymer etc... ?

IIRC their Open Day was busier than normal too. I think they've had great exam success in recent years which has upped their profile maybe.

Am still trying to find a candidate number above 289 though....

Yes, SoupDragon, those results were impressive indeed.

I think that there is still a year or two to go before you see the real change in results though , when Trinity started becoming the preferred school for a lot of boys who might previously have opted for W. Is it the current year 4 which has the "Ooops, we've over-offered" class?

We are only sitting for W but do you think a lot are sitting for both hence cutting the actual numbers down ?.
On another point am also applying for a bursary and having constant letters from the foundation on a weekly basis , I have said please call / email with any queries but the letters keep coming !!! Are they being extra thorough or is this normal ? Am s/e so this seems to incurred a raft of extra questions ...