The Trinity Whitgift Dulwich 11+/10+ thread 2014 pt2

[LadyMuck]

Anyone still out there?!

Applied not spied!

Full fee place at w offered / hoped for bursary, music scholarship and/or sports scholarship. Interview extremely positive and all round scholarship mentioned then as well. Very sad. What now?

Lovely letter from w to DS congratulating him. Unfortunately, he has no economical successful parents...

poozie I did apply for a bursary but obviously got nothing!

Truda it's like a blow honestly, 17k is really a lot without no schol or bursary at all.

Looks like a few of us in same situation. Great that our DSs have got into these highly competitive schools, not so great that the lack of bursaries/scholarships is going to make the fees a bit hard to swallow.

Obviously I knew beforehand that this might be a possibility but doesn't make the reality any easier to deal with! Big decision to make in our house in next couple of weeks.

Morning all!

Was it just me or was MN not accessible at all yesterday?

We have from almost everyone, but did I miss news from LadyMuck?

*heard

Have been lurking every night over the past 3 weeks. I am officially addicted to this thread!
Many many congratulations to all our dcs who have achieved great things
Despite my catastrophising, dd was offered places at JAGS, Alleyns and Streatham and Clapham . Lovely handwritten letter from the HT at S&C to dd. There was a lot of whooping in our house (even ds1 let out a loud "yes!!").
Thank you for the advice and reading the posts has been a huge support, at a time when frankly, you just can't keep going on about it to other people. They just don't get why you're fussed.
Commiserations to those who needed bursaries/scholarships to be abe to take up a place. You should definitely try asking the school if they can put you on a W/L for one because some people will turn down bursary/schol places. In any case it seems to me that if your DS can make the grade at these super-selective indies, then they should also be able to make the grade at the super-selective grammars. So even if you can't manage the fees, you'll still have the choice of a great school. And remember, when it comes to university, the unis want to take kids from state schools, so being at a grammar confers some advantage (I know as I am on a selection panel for a Russell group university course).
alice I couldn't get onto MN last night either (clearly it crashed under the weight of everyone trying to post their news...or maybe it's the weather - what is with the weather ).

I think it's the weather. Couldn't access MN either.

Pooglie Well done to your DD! Clever girl.
Interesting...you mention that unis want kids from state schools. Any particular reason why these are favoured over kids from indie sector?

I couldn't get on MN either! Any news from DibbleOfficer?

I had even less sleep last night than the night before the offer. Still not told my DS he has a place but no scholarship. He has a friend over for a sleepover and didn't seem right to break such news. He hasn't asked! Reality is we just can't afford those fees, was hoping/ praying for academic/sports schol. Feeling low.......

We have no broadband or landline and v little mobile coverage.

3 thick envelopes with a v significant award (the scholarship even has a name) to our first choice school so job done. Ds v pleased indeed and we're chuffed for him (though slightly nervous as to whether he'll live up to the billing!)

Congratulations on the various results. I've been cutoff so have less of a feel for some of the wider prep results. W seem to have given a number of honorary co curricular scholarships where the co curricular aspect was good but the academics were more average.

In terms of bursary offers, if your letter is silent then you must must must follow it up with the school and/or the Foundation Office.

Apologies for relative brevity - I'll be back when I can, but currently can't even top up mobile without access to internet. Sigh.

Thanks for the update, LM - I've been looking out for news from the Muck des res! And excellent work by MuckMi.

Pooglie, delighted for you. Such a relief to find out that we are, in fact, completely unable to judge our own child's competence. I can only hope that DS didn't internalise the extent to which I didn't quite trust him to bring home the offers.

Congratulations everyone!!

Mrs Steptoe so pleased for you and your DS especially and may I say "I told you so"!

DD has got academic scholarships at KGS, JAGS and Alleyn's - back in the fall we were praying just for a place somewhere and with a few surprises during exams this is not the outcome we could even dream of!

I can't even begin to thank everyone here for giving tips, sharing information, hand-holding and support. Thank you all so much!

Great news for you, irisha, and we're still open for "I told you so"s!
Your DD has done amazingly, fantastically well. You must be glowing with pride.

Alice. It's to do with advantage/disadvantage. The best university places tend to go to those from the mst academic schools and if you look at league tables (which granted only measure academics, not neccessarily how good the school is), the top half is dominated by Indie schools, with 80% of the top 100 being indie.
The last government expressly criticised universities for propagating social inequality and each of the elite unis was tasked with increasing their proportion of state school students (the widening participation agenda). The current government are less bothered but don't want to be seen to not care about the 93% of kids who go to state school (as their parents vote too). So they've continued the inclusion agenda. Hence a bright kid from a state school evenly matched against a bright kid from an indie will be more likely to get the place....BTW in London 20% of kids go to independent school.

Most not mst

Ladymuck wow!Super clever boy. Take a bow!

Congratulations to all DC with good news. Well done.

To those who didn't quite get what they wanted, commiserations! But still a big achievement to DC getting this far.

Re Lack of Bursary offer, might I suggest you give the foundation a call, as it is not unknown that there have been errors in the past. Last year I remember there were at least 2 mums on the thread with this problem. These DMs were going to turn down places, but made that phone call and found out mistakes had been made. 1 is in W now, and another in T now, ( if I remember correctly). The process seems to drag on....

I say, explore all avenues before thinking about giving up. All the best

I rung the foundation yesterday San was told Ds was considered for a bursary but W has the last call. Was put through to W and they said out of the 300 bursary applications, they've only given it to 30 and though Ds did very well, he didn't do well enough to be offered one.
pooziepuzzle I suggest you ring them first thing Monday before you make any decision.

Can I just say that pooglie may be talking for her own uni but most unis have been holding out on government pressure to have state school quotas, standing by the principle that fair access strategies should targets the genuinely disadvantaged and that many state schools are good schools, and indeed some private schools are not good. So for instance Durham use a complicated formula that compares a candidate's results to the average for their school and as is clear from this link Cambridge make distinctions between good schools and bad schools, state and private. www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/10/how-cambridge-admissions-really-work my uni uses a similar points system to Cambridge and going to a good grammar would not get you points for deprivation!!! My uni would be completely blind to whether a candidates school was state or private when weighing up two applications from candidates who had no genuine disadvantage.

Lack of access to MN last night too! Didn't they know it was an important evening
Congratulations to all who had success, and commiserations to those who didn't get quite what they wanted/needed. Don't give up yet though!

And congratulations to those DSs with offers. I have an amazing experience of the pastoral care at Dulwich, I don't think another school in London would have gone to the lengths they went to for boys I was supporting in terrible circumstances.

And MrsSteptoe I told you so!!!!!