Signs to understand a child could be ok in grammar school....

[Thejokeisover]

I dont know if i am asking something completely stupid, but i wonder if there is an age when we can understand a child could be "grammar school material". And if so, which signs do they show?
Is it always the teachers that can suggest that?

I would also just like to say, ds is year 7, the 11+ he took (in a super selective area) was at that time a verbal reasoning paper. You could easily be tutored for that and not get level 5 in English.

The paper changed this year and dd will have to take a paper with maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning and English. Tutoring for this paper should raise your levels in school too.

dd has been way ahead since reception, but she is less driven in life than ds and so I don't think she is as driven to pass the exam. We will see.

To the pp who said her dc would be pushed in private school and not grammar, around here the grammars have a higher expectation and push more than the independent schools, so I think it varies school to school.

What nonsense. The child isn't choosing to be tenacious. Their parents are footing the bill and so want results and make their child stick at it.

And they can be as tenacious as anything, but if they don't have the raw ability, then they don't have the raw ability.

Tenacity is a poor substitute when surrounded by children who are grasping the concepts and processing the ideas much faster than you.

Grammar schools test for IQ. They also want children who put some effort in too. Most children at a grammar manage to provide both.

My view would be not to overthink it and to be fairly relaxed about the outcome. It's probably unfair on a child to set them up for a fall but if it's looking like even stevens then it's worth having a go. Children do not have to be child geniuses to get into a grammar, not even a super selective grammar in London. People can get quite silly about grammars and overrate what's required, which means some kids who should get places don't even try.

I would agree to go for the school you and your child like the most and then have a plan B. If you prepare your child and they don't pass, it doesn't have to be positioned as a huge failure; it is just one of these things. Of course they will be disappointed, but the lesson will be to go for it and try your best - not everyone will always succeed at everything.

At least you and your child will have no regrets as you tried. That's always my philosophy with these things.

I know I should RTFT but my 2p....

DD1 we'd no idea just that by the end of year 2 she was in the top few in the class despite beig a late summer born. asking if she should think about grammar was a very "behind the bike sheds" whisper as they school weren't allowed to promote the selective schools.

We then know where the goalpost lay in terms of the other two and it was fine.

As well as being really academically able /interested and picking things up fast I'd say look for interests outside school- my kids peers, like my DC are/were busy kids. They are not ( or very rarely are) kids for whom life revolves around school work. I think perhaps if you need to use lots of energy /time outside of school to keep up it's not the school for you.

And resilience- in buckets! Grammars are not the school for a child who gets really knocked back by loosing a few marks or not being top. Kids who have fagile self confidence would IMHO always be better being a big cheese academically in a comp than an average at grammar.

I'd disagree Theas, to the extent that grammars are diverse like most educational institutions, with a wide range of kids. Certainly that's true of superselectives and I'd assume the non superselectives too. So - some quiet, some not, some musical, some not, some sporty, some not, some sciency, some not, some homebodies with no extra curriculars, some out and about seven days a week. One just can't generalize. Equally with the confidence thing - some kids with not too much confidence would be more buoyed by being average among high achieving kids than top of the pops in a more broadly based school.

I completely agree with your point that once you've got one kid to set a measure by, with the rest it's far easier. It's with the first one it's hard!

Thank you so much everyone!

My son has CATS scores well above average, scores well (top 20 percent) in other "IQ" tests - he will probably fail all of his GCSEs. I hope not, I hope he will scrape 5 Cs, but if not? Meh. We will support home to get what he needs to do what he wants to do. My DS1 is 14, will be 15 on August 31st and we couldn't be more proud of him when he tries. He's going to get terrible GCSEs I think though. Oh well. He can have another go. When he's ready. Or not, if he's found a vocational career in that time and doesn't want to.

Hi everyone,

Sorry I realise that this is a very old thread but could I ask how your DC got on? My son is in yr2 and because of the current situation he won’t be doing his SATS. He brought home his mock papers & he did well. He is a late August boy too. Is it too early to tell? I guess I am worrying as I have a DD who attends grammar school & I would like him to do the same. Any advice would great, thank you 😊

@TCMcK

I'd make a new thread. You'll get a lot of different answers. In Y2 there's still a fairly broad range in maturity so quite a few late developers are still to catch up. Some children have an obviously high ability by Y2 - some early readers are beginning to get caught up by their peers and some slow developers are yet to shine. I would just make sure he keeps reading and enjoying school and keep an open mind.

Beware of teachers who make predictions like this. The HT at my daughter’s previous primary, was quite biased towards the older, more confident members of the class. Exceeding everything at KS1, endless assembly awards etc..and a couple of the mums gleefully gloated on how she had no doubt predicting they were 11+ pass material....at the age of 7! Neither passed it in the end, and both had tutoring from year 3. One of these children sat the test in 3 different locations, and didn’t pass one. Our daughter who by HT’s words...would need much support; (probably because we were leaving her school and didn’t like us pointing out their failings towards her) had no tutoring whatsoever, wasn’t even a big reader, because of visual processing issues...and we weren’t sure if we liked the grammars; scored very highly. If I had met her again, I would love to have let her know

Thank you for your replies I always knew deep down that my daughter would suit a grammar school. With my son I’m not so sure. Boys are so much more different than girls & I guess with him being an August born, it makes it harder to tell. He seems to be doing well at school, I was hoping that his SAT results would have given us an indication. His mock results were good though & he did them at the start of March. Maybe year 2 is too early to tell