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.

a recent SM newsletter stated where all the year 6's ended up this year. about half ended up at state schools, 4 even went to SI !!! oh the shame !!! he he he

Hi - what is SM??

Oh I sneak on occasionally to look at certain threads ....
Keep thinking I'll bump into you Willow at the B as we're there every Friday for tennis - maybe tea there one week?

Re tutors, one of the mums rang one for her Yr 4 child only to be told there was a waiting list, so just thinking ahead really. About 40% from our school went on to private/selective secondary education last year.

foxabout2pop - can I CAT you for the name of that tutor? Would be very grateful!

Bettys you can text me on 07779-289-041 - my e-mail is down so I won't get a CAT.

Thanks, will do!

If you have a girl RBKUT has excellent non-selective schools - Cooombe and Tolworth both have very good results.

I am pretty shocked that people think quite this far ahead - and I think the comment about worry breeding worry is very apt (I wasn't remotely worried when I opened this thread...still not but wondering if I should be...)Does anyone know what a Tiffin tutor actually does that intelligent parents can't do? Are past exam papers available to anyone? cos if they are I really doubt the value of a tutor.

and is VR and NVR - verbal and non-verbal reasoning?

in my daughters year 5 girls sat ( this was Skipton Girls High School btw) one withdrew after the practice and only one of the remaining four passed. At least two of the girls who failed were tutored and i mean weekly for over a year. Unsure about the third girl
The girl who passed was not tutored.

In my sons year the boys who seem to struggle are the ones who were often privately educated and then school-tutored towards the papers. Yes they get in - but are they really well suited.
(this is Ermysteds BTW) these schools are ery academic and not for everyone

very true hatwoman

Yorkshire has good schools of every kind (I'm from Yorkshire & constantly bemoan the dearth of similar choice here in London). Particularly in RuT the choice seems to shit be state secondary or private. There is one local church state school that may improve in time but that's guesswork.

yes the comp by us is top of tables for similar but i am a sucker for a free grammar school!

That should read "shit state secondary" ! I've been looking at the Yorkshire league tables with envy - pah!

hat, I don't think there's much a tutor can do that a dedicated parent couldn't - I do think (if you were inclined to want your children to sit those sort of tests) that a few sessions in exam technique wouldn't go amiss but other than that, the whole point of VR and NVR is that they are more of an assessment than a test of factual knowledge.

Dh and I have taken a decision not to subject the kids to tutoring - if, by the end of primary school, their teachers think they may benefit from trying out for Tiffin, then we'll take a decision at that stage but otherwise, our local comps seem reasonable enough and hopefully, they'll stay that way!

glad to hear someone thinking like us (I was beginning to worry...) not sure if we'll still be in this neck of the woods by then though

where are you thinking of going hat?

oh nowhere in particular . just always been at the back of our minds that living here and commuting into London was never a long-term plan. we're very fond of Oxford. tbh although I used to agitate to move I'd probably stay.

mmm lots of peeps on here like Oxford

the traffic there seems worse than London though - dh has relatives that way and it never fails to drive me mad. It also seems (like most places now I guess) outrageously expensive to live anywhere convenient.

we go there quite a lot - dh's family are there and we have quite a few friends there - lived there for about 6 years. we had a particularly nice weekend there about 4 years ago and in a fit of misery about sw london I logged on to lots of estate agents websites to do some sums - and was to find we couldn't sell our house here, buy one there, and use the difference to pay off a reasonable chunk of mortgage - coz the house prices for North Oxford and SW london were virtually identical.

Bettys - the one local church school you refer to, which is improving - do you mean Christs? If so, we're watching that one too! How old are your DCs? Ours are 6.5, 3.5 and minus 5 weeks.

Hello, just new on this thread and found it very helpful (but also rather depressing and and a bit worrying!)Wonder if anyone can give a bit of inside into private schools in RuT too (the last resort back-up plan) Do they also require entrance exams if you want entry at 11, 14 or 16? Are they also oversubscribed?? Do many join from state schools? I assumed you could just get in if you could pay (naive??), but our neighbour's boy (at 7) is now at a private primary to ensure he gets into a private secondary. I've heard similar for LEH although another neighbour's daughter just went at 11 from Collis. Any insights welcomed!

Foxabout2pop - yes, I mean Christ's. Was talking to someone yesterday whose child has just started there & is enjoying it. It has 1 year left of the old catchment policy (which spread as far as Wandsworth) before it becomes strictly local catchment. However it is over-subscribed & a certain amount of places are for church-goers only. The child in question was on the waiting list & didn't get a place until the summer. It's definitely seen as the better option to SI !

Poppetmum, all the private schools I have looked at require entrance exams, some are more over-subscribed than others. There is definitely a set of local people who put their child in private primary simply to get an edge on places in secondary, although a lot of private primaries also have an entrance test at 7 & 8.

Bettys - I think Christs is the fastest improving school in the borough. We are within walking distance and can also get a church reference so I have it in my sights if DS/DD don't get into the Catholic schools in west London and/or aren't academic enough for Tiffin. Interestingly, the CofE schools take Catholics but the Catholic schools don't take CofE, so that puts us in a good position - although of course there are fewer Catholic schools, so they are very over subscribed too. Lots of Queens kids can't access Christs as they live too far away (there other end on Kew), bjt the whole distance thing for secondaries may be got rid of soon if Labour has its way...

Bettys - texted you. Let me know how you get on as I haven't called them yet!

I've got it - thank you that's great, I'll let you know how I get on!