How soon and how many 13+ schools should you look at?

[MrPickles73]

Dc1 is at a private all through school which does well til 16 but the A level results are not particularly stellar.
We would like to consider moving to a highly academic school at 13+. Getting into the 6th form would be super competitive. If they don't make it we would be happy to continue at our current school at least til gcses. What year do prep schools start getting pupils to tour 13+ schools? Dc1 is in year 4. They have a friend in yr6 who has been to see the same school. DH and I went 2 years ago but DC was too young.
Also DC2 is the opposite gender so we need a different plan B school. In a not particularly competitive area and with reasonably bright kids is 2 schools enough? There's not really an obvious 3rd choice.

We started in Yr 4 but we were moving at age 11 - Yr 7, which more and more secondaries now offer.

We looked at about five or six schools and narrowed exams down to three: a favourite, a back up and a safe bet, all excellent schools we'd have been happy to send DC to.

Every school is different but if they have an 11+ intake and you want to opt for 13+ you can still sit early and hold a place provided they pass the entrance test at 13.

Worth asking around locally and getting prospectuses now, at least. I was glad we did it very slowly and gradually so DC never got 'schooled-out'.

A lot depends on the school some pre test in yr6 usually the more academic so visiting in yr 4/5 would be appropriate and normal. Registration dates also vary, some who pre test in yr 6 will still accept registrations up to yr 6 others will close their registration dates earlier. Read the admission sections on the websites of the schools you’re interested in.

Doing common entrance other than from a prep school is hard. I'd move at 11.

I was wandering round DH's school the other day when it was a tour morning and the boys looking round all looked to be Y4/5. They do pre-test in Y6.

The selective school has no entry til 13+ so 11+ is not an option.

We had to register for several schools in Y5, for pre-tests and interviews in Y6 or Y7. Conditional/ non conditional offers in Y7 for entry into Y9. With other schools, register in Y8 was fine, with tests and interviews also in Y8 for places in Y9.

We applied for 4-5 schools, but dropped some on the way so had 3 schools we properly had in the mix. Many of DS1's friends applied to 9 schools.

But we're in London.

We have started looking now and going to open days - DD is in Y5. The schools all said that this was the right time to start initial enquiries - felt terribly young to me.

I think Y4 is probably a bit too soon.

As far as numbers, we have quite specific things we are looking for and this has meant we have ended up with two definite possibilities and a third that we should probably go and see but ticks less boxes.

A lot will depend on what happens when you go to visit. In the past I've been to see schools that sounded perfect on paper and I have no idea why I just really didn't like them when I visited. This time, we loved the first school we visited to the point that it seems a bit of a faff going to see the others.

I went to 5 in Year 4. Might have been 6, actually.
Took DS back to see 3 of them in Year 5.

The problem as I see it is if your DC is at an "all through" school, and you are thinking of transferring them at 13+. Then surely that means common entrance? Will the "all through" school even prepare for that? If not then you might well want to transfer to a different Prep to prepare. In which case the sooner you check that you do prefer the more academic senior school the better.

But if the real issue is A'level results you need to ask: does the more Academic school get a lot of joiners at 16? Does the present school loose a lot of students at 16? And where to?

Yes the academic school gets a lot of joiners at 16+ but it's very difficult to get in then and much easier, apparently at 13+.
6th form leavers go to several places including 6th form college because it is free and you get counted as a state school pupil for uni admissions. If we were to go state for 6th form we wouldn't go to that one.
We're very rural here so geography and transport play major roles.

It is probably worth at least thinking about boarding schools as a point of comparison, even if you don't think it's really for you. Year 4/5 is the right time to start enquiring I think. Although fees are higher, the bursary cut-offs can be very different. At year 4 it is so hard to imagine what your 13-14 year old will be like! We were advised to look at public schools for our youngest when he started year 5; felt awkward and "not our place" about the whole idea at first, but it turned out (eventually!) exactly right for him and has saved him significant travelling time.

The point is: if lots of students join at 16 - then it may not be the school itself which is better - but it is poaching good students (and maybe even pushing less achieving ones out) to boost its results. Especially as private school parents often look more closely at A'level rather than GCSE results. In fact you say it is harder to get into at 16+ than 13+, which shows it is being more selective at that entry point. I would also strongly suspect that the less hard working or high achieving or demotivated students are being "encouraged to consider their options".
If your DS is happy where he is, then I wouldn't undervalue that.