Who's taking dd to a North London Consortium exam tomorrow?

[mitbap]

Are you nervous!

I hadn't even thought about nursery (i.e. preschool not childcare) until I was on maternity with dd2 and realised everyone else with dc dd1s age were sending them to one. I did get a place at a private preschool but it was more than 3 miles up the road and she then did not go to school (first school at end of road nearly) with anyone she knew! Didn't matter much in the long term. The nursery was excellent and dd made lots of new friends at first school.

You could also, meb2006, get a copy of The Good Schools Guide, or subscribe to it online. Apart from the editorial content, you will find all the schools' web addresses, if they have one. Try the library before you buy it, as it's an interesting read, but pricy. Mitbap has given you good advice about state schools. For private, I'd say generally most don't want your child's name at birth, but some waiting lists for junior schools (though not the really academic ones) close on the early side, so it's sensible to get a feel for what you might want.

Thanks for all this - when I get 5 minutes I shall get looking - I just saw one school's site that has entrance exams at 4!

And she's got an interview at North London Collegiate! Proud mummy moment!!!

Oh mitbap, that is definitely the big time. Congratulations to your dd!

If people typically apply for half a dozen schools what sort of distances does the child have to travel to school. Do they provide a bus service?

Sometimes long distances. I have rejected some fine school son the basis that it would be difficult for dd to ever do the journey under her own steam (i.e. no fairly direct public transport). Most of the schools have a coach service with pick ups in central places - but this is quite expensive. My dd will have to use tube and/or bus for most options we have gone for.

My two minded girls got into SAHS, one is just 4, but the other was only three in July. I am pleased for them and their families, my DD is thrilled as it is her old school.

Excellent stuff - is that them settled right through 'til 18?

They don't have to sit again at 7, but do at 11, and they are now not guaranteed automatic entry, thry have to reach the same standard as external candidates.

meb, my order would be
North London Collegiate
Haberdasher's
St Helen's

(that would also be the A level ranking from best to worst)
If you are into London itself then St Paul's Girls would be up there at the top or second. St Alban's - the private one, St Margaret's Bushey, Northwood College and Royal Masonic may be if they're not quite in the league of those at the top of the list. I've probably missed some goods ones out.

My daughters went to Habs and NLCS at 5 and 7 respectively but about half the entry is from state schools at 11. If you want the cleverest children you'd be stupid as a school just to recruit from the private prep schools.

We were warned for years (the schools are good) that daughter 1 might not pass at 11 and she did a lot of exams without any pressure at 11 but in end passed for Habs where she already was anyway. She's slightly dyslexic and did much better in the seniors where the subjects themselves rather than the basic handwriting and spelling come more into the fore.

what is she expected to get in SATS? Is she sure of getting three 5s, because if not IMHO I would avoid NLCS, one of our friends teaches there and it is very high pressured. The girls themselves are very driven.

My daughter didn't feel pressured at NLCS. Some girls work hard. My daughter played the cello, cross country ran, played lacrosse, tennis, badminton for her it was basically sport and fitting lessons around that. I didn't feel any pressure whatsoever even if she had friends getting 11 A* at GCSE. It's a big school and there will be all kinds of girls there. Only common feature is they all passed the entrance test so are reasonably clever. It's also a really nice school and I think in a survey last year was the best in England actually of every school. I just never saw that pressure and nor at Habs or did it just flow over my daughters' heads as they chose the things they wanted to do out of the wide range of things on offer?

When did she leave? I was only repeating what our friend who teaches there NOW says, about the girls and parents.

One of my mindies mum's teaches at Habs and is responsible for Oxbridge entrance, I'll ask her what she thinks. I know that her DD will go there when she is 5 as did she and her sister.

She's also been doing 11+ interviews all last week

I don't think I should say exactly but recently. Depends on the girl really. Some will be pressured in a comprehensive because they set their eye on 9 A*s at GCSE and some will spend their mid teenage years at NLCS/Habs in London nightclubs and put in the minimum of work at school to keep going (and if you're clever you can sometimes get away with that). Some will hear a teacher say do this by then and panic. Others will hardly listen and ignore the instruction. I think it's an internal psychological process as to whether or not you fee pressured, obviously partly also influenced by your school the girls you choose to hang out with and your parents.

I think the harder presure to resist is friends who like to appear as if they do no work and then do well. Some of them don't need to work because they're so brilliant and some are working very hard but in secret. For teenagers peer pressure is the biggest pressure of all which is why I think how we treat little ones up to about 7 or 8 is crucial in how they later turn out.

My dd is sitting for 11+. We didn't go for Habs - really just because from where we are the journey seemed to be one that could not easily be done without using school coach and we have so many other options around here that are on bus routes or tube routes.
Academically I think other schools in the area are roughly in the following order:
NLC
St Helen's
Heathfield
Northwood
Royal Masonic, St Margaret's
Peterborough and St Margaret's

Anyone got any advice about what goes on in the St Helen's or North London Collegiate interviews. They are longer than others dd has done and I'm expecting them to be more challenging (others have been fairly easy chats about schools and hobbies etc) but have no idea about the format?

p.s. I don't think my daughter is actually assured of 3 5's at KS2 (particularly in English) but she's got to the short list interviews everywhere - including NLC.
It doesn't do any harm to aim high but make sure you're also going for 1 or 2 slightly less academically high flying schools.

Gosh, I always thought the entrance exams were much harder than SATS and all the children entering would have been level 5 in optional yr 5 sats

Astronomer - That was my fear too! We started this worrying we might have no chance and may end up publically humiliating dd. Note we already definately have a place at one school.
I guess it's in the interest of the schools and some of the types of parents that use them to not discourage this idea.
As I've said in previous posts in fact it is probably not logical to assume that everyone who can scrape the fees together has gifted children.
Also although over 400 girls may go for some schools they are all applying for I'd guess >4 schools so over all across all the schools in the area it's maybe not as competitive as it looks?!

I'm sure the interview techniques have changed in 30 years, but when I was interviewed for NLCS it was a cosy chat, and the only question I remember being asked was what I could do with a brick!

At Habs Girls the headmistress was wooing me, not interviewing me, by telling me all about how I could go horseriding and what wonderful facilities they had.

All interviews finished now - hurray! At one school she did get asked something along the lines of if a tree could talk what would it say!! The rest was mainly straight forward chit chat about school and hobbies and a few reasoning/maths/writing exercises thrown in.
Waiting for the north london consortium school results - but have three other offers already. Thanks to all for helpful comments on various threads !

dd got 6 out of 7 schools. As ever the angst was unecessary. Thank goodness we were only really fixated on this for 4-5 months rather than several years! Thanks to all who offered hints and opinions on this and other threads.

Congratulations. i still think it's worth sitting for several schools. My sister's children's school only likes them to do 1 or 2 but I think that's too risky.