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Original poster

The Trinity-Whitgift-Dulwich-Alleyns 10+/11+ thread 2015

999 replies

Firefox1066 · 13/12/2014 08:29

I thought I would take the plunge and start early the 2015 T/W/DC/A 10+/11+ thread that has become an annual staple MN!

This thread has been inspired by the likes of (among others) Ladymuck, Seeline, SoupDragon et al, who have been an amazing resources to people like me in previous years' threads.

Although T & W tend to dominate, I have also included DC and Alleyns as I know a lot of parents these days have DC's sitting for some/all of them.

I hope this thread will continue in the spirit of previous years' thread, with the support, hand-holding and knowledge that has been the hallmark of MN generally but this thread in particular.

Let the fun begin....

OP posts:

Liquorice12 · 14/02/2015 19:50

Well done Omni! Omni and Fossie are you 11+? - can't remember!

Fossie · 14/02/2015 20:45

Yes 11+

Liquorice12 · 14/02/2015 21:18

should be at T too.

Vik123 · 15/02/2015 07:49

Yes omni. He has grammars in the bag.

Emo76 · 15/02/2015 08:44

DD was fortunate to end up with offers from JAGS, Alleyns, PHS and Francis Holland. She's chosen Alleyns which we all loved on open day. Maybe she will bump in to some DD/DS from this thread! We are releasing all the other places by post tomorrow, hope that helps others along (though recognise mostly boys schools on this thread).

neanananaweek1972 · 15/02/2015 09:53

Still mulling over what to do here. Just wondered if it's worth asking admissions where DS comes in the cohorts? We didn't get academic scholarships but would possibly like to know if he was average, below, above etc to see how he might fare. Any ideas whether they (t & w) would give this info out over the phone?
Well done those who have made your decisions!!

tiredbetty · 15/02/2015 10:03

I'm not sure neananana but I'm going to call and ask too.

Vik123 · 15/02/2015 10:45

Neanan. My DS got acedemic scholarship from W. It's a little percentage. Better u ring them n ask. There is no harm for doing that. Good luck

Ladymuck · 15/02/2015 11:59

I think they'll be happy to discuss - it is after all a common enough query. And they may discuss the papers with you. But they'll also indicate that of course this is a snapshot on one day, and hopefully reassure you on how they get the most out of the boys. If it is your first time through, I think that there is no harm, and potentially a benefit, in revisiting the schools now that you do have an offer. I would suggest that both of these schools will view you differently if you do make the time to visit in the event that you do want to review the offers. W in particular looks at how many of their courses your ds has attended, and how many visits you have made as a sign of how interested you are in the school. The only time that I would try to deal by phone is if the offer was an unexpected rejection, in which case I would phone to see how far off the mark he was. (I'm not suggesting that you are trying to change the outcome neana, but others might want to)

From what I can see amongst those I know, the cut-off to get a Trinity place was higher than the other schools. I know that they are having to manage their numbers carefully, but there are a number of boys offered scholarships elsewhere but just full fees at Trinity. There are also prep school boys waitlisted for W but having places elsewhere, which hasn't happened for a couple of years (and wasn't expected in a low birth year). For those in the Croydon area RR, RGS and Caterham seem to be offering generous (20-50%) scholarships again this year. So far the highest I've heard at W/T has been 25% (at 11+).

mum3074 · 15/02/2015 17:31

Huge congrats to everyone who got the good news later on Friday! olguis -it must be indeed tempting to accept a full fee place at 10+ to avoid the stress and probably really wise if money is no issue. Although it was immensely stressfull this year for 11+ for us, I'm glad we were not offered a place last year at T. so decision was taken out of our hands, and this year was a bit hellish but, perhaps, worth it for saving a bit of money as we received a good offer from T. and RR. (full fee from W. but it was not our favourite anyway) and there is a possibility of place at Grammars ( passed exams do not garantee a place though). It is, of course, only for you to decide what option to go for and indeed it will be def stressful next year but you will have more options. Vik123 - just curious, how do you know that you have "grammars in the bag" as we do not hear till 2 March? Ladymuck -thanks for this info, it reminded me to be quietly proud of DS achievement again . Could you, please, advise what to look for at the visit to T. and what sort of questions we might ask as it would be obv. fairly different from the open day visit format.

Vik123 · 15/02/2015 17:44

Mum3074, I am very confident my DS will get in to wilsons.there is no doubt about that. That's why I said like that. Anyway we have made a decision to send him to w. All his hard work for grammars.

Liquorice12 · 15/02/2015 18:15

Did you go on one of the smaller tours Mum at T? We went on one but I still keep coming up with questions about T. Do they get put in sets for instance? I must have asked at the time but think my brain has finally given up after all this stress and can't remember anything! I still have the slight niggling worry about DS who is state-educated being okay against children that have been to prep school and joined T at 10+ especially as he is used to being one of the brightest in his class.

olguis · 15/02/2015 18:19

mum3074 Did your DS not get in at 10+ and got a scholarship at 11+? Could you tell me a bit about this? pm if necessary
I have a couple of questions specifically: did he work a lot to prepare for 10+? And did he further work a lot to prepare for 11+? Do you think he really improved within a year and how did you see that? Many thanks

Asterisk · 15/02/2015 18:48

Boys at T only get put into sets for maths, Liquorice. Don't worry at all about the state school thing. It really is a complete non-issue as far as I can see. Boys aren't particularly interested in which school they all went to previously and there is no evidence of state-primary boys being disadvantaged. Mine certainly wasn't. It's a wonderful school -- can't fault it in any respect. Bag sweep, by the way, is a great opportunity to claw back some of the kit that inevitably goes missing. So far we have recovered, swimming towel, calculator, entire pencil case, sports bag, locker keys, gloves etc. Pity not all of them were found before replacements had to be purchased, but still. I look forward to bag sweeps.

andien · 15/02/2015 19:43

@emo - any specific reason(s) you passed on JAGS? Deciding between Alleyns and JAGS - really had a nice feeling from Alleyns but can't ignore JAGS' results. DD undecided herself.

burntoutdad · 15/02/2015 20:01

Vik - how can you be so sure that Ds will get into Wilsons? It is admirable that you have so much confidence in your Ds's academic ability but sometimes that can give false security and set them up for a big fall. Maybe better to say that you would expect him to get in but nothing in life is for sure!

bananadrama · 15/02/2015 20:01

Liquorice, my DS joined T at 11+ from a state primary. They were all put into sets for maths based on the entrance exam test result I believe & this is regularly reviewed according to performance throughout the year. I would say that my DS has not been disadvantaged coming from a state primary & is thriving at T academically. He was very close to passing our local grammar school tests & I am convinced that he would not have been so challenged academically had he attended one of our local comps, which is where he was allocated on National Offers Day. I can see that T really know what they are doing in terms of getting good results out of the boys & I know that my DS will end up with some excellent GCSE results, possibly comparable to his old primary school friends who are at grammar schools.

Maybe one disadvantage would be that prep school children will probably be used to a higher homework amount. It took my DS a while to get used to the amount of homework that T set right from day 1, but he has got more used to it as time has gone by. Stops him spending all his time on the X-box!

Hope that helps!

basildonbond · 15/02/2015 20:25

@andien - the results for JAGS and Alleyn's are almost indistinguishable (last year Alleyn's had marginally better rates for A and A/A by a couple of percentage points but really nothing in it)

So really it comes down to gut feeling! Ask your dd where she feels most comfortable - I think Alleyn's has a lighter touch than JAGS and the presence of the boys certainly helps rein in some of the girls' perfectionism which is no bad thing imo

Original poster

Firefox1066 · 15/02/2015 21:11

So DW, DS and I have made our decision....Firefox Junior will be going to Whitgift! Was a really tough decision, especially as my nephew is doing so well at T and we know most of the T teachers and and Mr B very well. DS loved both schools but we all felt that W was a better fit for him... This was based on nothing more than "gut feel". Even Firefox III (currently in Year 2) got a vote and was unequivocal in his preference for W.

The decision was also made harder because the W scholarship was 4 times more than the T one rendering the fees at both schools pretty much the same, but as DW and I both work in the City and long hours, flexi boarding at W is definitely something that may come into play at some point in the future and that was thus the clincher.

Without rushing the decision of course, I am really pleased we made it this weekend because we can now release the T offer and make another 10+ parent currently on the wait list very happy!

These are ALL excellent schools and I hope that, in the midst of all of our parental neurosis concerns about scholarship amounts, bag sweeps, peacocks etc we don't lose sight of the fact that our DS's have done amazingly well to get to this point.

Best of luck to all!!

OP posts:

Original poster

Firefox1066 · 15/02/2015 21:14

Oh and one last thing... I'm seeing lots of people choosing T, am I the only one on here choosing W for 10+??

OP posts:

a2b3c4 · 15/02/2015 21:17

Does anyone know what the induction process is for W 11+? I saw on the offer letter there's an afternoon on 28th Aug. Is there anything else that week, as I seem to remember one of the boys that showed us round say that he had a few days of activities where the boys get to know each other? I'll call W this week but assume it must be the same each year?
We have already booked to be away at the end of august so will have to move flights etc..hmm

Liquorice12 · 15/02/2015 21:53

Thanks for posting asterisk and banana. Very reassuring. The 3thou difference makes the difference for us Firefox (though we are 11+). I do love both W and T and if their fees were the same ..who knows.

Original poster

Firefox1066 · 15/02/2015 22:08

Agree Liquorice12...I don't think we'd be able to justify the £3k difference so the scholarship definitely made the difference

OP posts:

InASchoolsDilemma · 15/02/2015 22:09

Liquorice - the Trinity website states that 60% of the intake is from state primary. Your DS will be in the majority

burntoutdad · 15/02/2015 22:29

Firefox - our Ds will be joining yours at 10+!
So they will both enjoy the Lake Garda trip at the start of term.

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