This is the pushy parent Tiffin tutor thread.

[uwila]

Okay, so wh ohas used a Tiffin tutor? Did it get your kid(s) into Tiffin? How old were they when they strted tutoring?

Okay, so my DD is only 3 1/2 but I like to plan ahead/. I've heard you can sign up for tutors that increase your chances of getting into Tiffin (boys and girls schools).

Any experience/opinions welcome.

Thanks.

Celia2 - have CAT you... Uwila, CAT'd you also!

catesmum - do you feel going to Tiffin benefited you though? I mean in terms of what you did after you'd left - having such a strong academic foundation.

What you said about Tiffin reminds me of comments I've heard about Queen's primary in Kew - three families I know have taken their children out of Queens as its so pressuerd their children were very unhappy.

Isn't 3.5 a bit early to worry about this. I mean she could turn out to be unacademic and all this would have been a waste of your time. I can understand looking into this if the child was a bit older. Also if what the poster said below is correct your child may have talents that lie is subject that are not pushed at Tiffin.

Why are yo looking into this so early? I am truly interested.

Celia - is year 5 age nine? I always get confused about this as DS's school calls the years something different to every other school for some reason.

i have been thinking about this and DD1 isn't yet 3!
only because for the good tutors you just need to get your name down, then forget about it until they are 7, 8 or whenever.
By then, if they are academic - great. If not, you don't take it up. But better to have a choice then to find out age 9 or 10 that your DD's teacher thinks they have a real chance of getting in but there is no way you can get hold of a decent tutor.

It is like the private school 2 roads from where i live. You have to get your child's name down by the time they are 3 months old (for 5 year old entry). Otherwise it is full. We decided not to, but it was an active decision not to.

catesmum, i would like to hear more! i know Tiffin is an exam factory and glad to hear it is just the last 2 years tbh.

i think most successful schools are pretty much like that.

i was in one where 40% got 5 A-C passes at GCSE. So that means 60% didn't. and that was a girls school with an excellent reputation (but no entrance criteria). There was no pressure - and if you weren't in the top set you didn't really have a chance. And now i think the streaming has been stopped. i can only imagine what it must be like.

grr just posted and lost it

the journey to Tiffin from where Uwila is now (not that I know exactly where you are uwila, but have a vague idea) wouldn't be that bad (but you may have moved anyway).

Uwila, if you are thinking about moving to Twickers and get your dd into that school, bear in mind that you have Waldegrave as an option at secondary level. It's an all girls state secondary school in Twickenham with v impressive results and an excellent reputation. Entrance is on distance criteria (some complicated quadrant system but if you moved, you'd know where you'd need to move to get a place iyswim).

Celia2 - is your DS in a state primary?

foxabout2pop - what do you consider to be good catholic secondaries in west london?

Foxinsocks - agree Waldegrave has a great reputation!

Wish there was a similarly good boys school in the area

There were reports in the press last week that the government is going to change the entry criteria for seondary schools so that no child gets in due to living in the right catchment area. Places would be allocated by lottery. There were parents being interviewed about the value of their houses going down as a result of no longer being in the right catchment area for good schools.

Don't know what it's like down south but falling rolls are hitting here in East Mids for entry to Y7 in Sept07.

Applications/registrations for most private school are below previous years and I've heard that the best state schools aren't hammering the 'we only accept the best' speech quite as much this year.

Twickers:

Boys: Cardinal Vaughan and the London Oratory

Girls: Gumley House, Sacred Heart and Lady Margarets

All those take kids from DS/DD's school.

Also Wimbledon College - but don't know much about that one.

Mind you I went to Sacred Heart and it didn't do my spelling much good did it? LOL!

i went to london oratory for sixth form. was very strict and quite a journey from hampton where we lived. good though!

Fox, we are considering the Oratory and Cardinal Vaughan for ds. For some reason our primary school regularly gets boys into the Oratory, but has had bad luck recently with the Vaughan, not sure why. But once the first preference criterion has gone things will get easier, methinks.

But probably harder for selective schools.

Twickers - all those nice Catholic boys eh?

Frogs - CV may be more oversubscribed as its higher in the league tables maybe? How old is your DS now? Mines 6.

Irritatingly, there seem to be far more decent girls schools than boys schools in our area.

Mine's in Y3.

I think a lot of people are put off by the religion test, which I do think is a bit naughty as it's hard to see how you can test religious knowledge without also testing general ability. A few years ago there were tranches of not terribly bright boys getting into the Vaughan, but that was still in the days of interviews.

(Sorry, uwila for hijack!)

i think the oratory used to ask boys (age 11 entry) to recite some prayer that they would only know if they went to mass...

for girls: will you look good in the uniform? we can be more selective with you and up our exam results!