Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Prep School and Common Entrance

13 replies

angrysquirrel73 · 02/11/2020 09:13

We are thinking of moving our DCs (yr 6 and yr 3) from an all through school to a prep school. A change has been forced on us due to a change in the school's provision. Other than that we have been pretty happy - my only beef being DC1 is not being challenged in maths.

Both children are academically able and in the top 10% of their classes. DC1 is well motivated, DC2 needs more supervision ;-) but is young.

In years 3 and 4 DC1 was given different maths homework and the teacher differentiated the work well. But now more children have joined the class and so far this term it has been revision of long division which DC1 has already mastered and done twice and has said they have learnt nothing this term and is on the verge of boredom which is sad for them. They all have the same worksheets at school and the same homework. I have asked the teacher to meet to discuss this. This is not the first time and I already raised my concern in Year 5 and not much has changed.

So for one reason or another we are looking at other schools. My concern of course is to choose a new school that will suit the children including being sufficiently challenging.

DC1 would also be swopping from the current curriculum to common entrance and has no experience of latin. So I am wondering how hard is common entrance? Can you cover what you need in years 7 and 8 or will they struggle? Do you need to do latin?

How does your prep track your child's progress and report it to you? And how frequently?

Many thanks for your help.

OP posts:
After8itsgrownuptime · 02/11/2020 10:54

If you are sitting for common entrance you will still need to take the exams in year 6 called 11+ Pre-tests. This will be anytime from now until end of do jan 2021. He will then get an offer based on his results in feb 2021 and is then usually (but not always ) asked to sit the common entrance in Year 8. The schools we are looking at are asking for a pass mark in English, maths, science, one language (not specifically Latin).
Most application deadlines are now or are due shortly.
Have you applied to any schools for 13+ and has your DS done any exam prep?

angrysquirrel73 · 02/11/2020 11:18

We are looking at 2 senior schools which both do their own 13+ exam. I've checked and the one senior school does its own 13+ exam in October of Year 8 and the other in January of Year 8. So although they will follow the syllabus we wont be reliant on the CE result IYSWIM.

OP posts:
After8itsgrownuptime · 02/11/2020 13:28

Ok. I’ve never heard of the 13+ being done like that . It’s usually the pre-test at 11 for CE entry at 13+.
We are doing 13+ CE and we have our Pre-test exams in January 2021 and then our 3 schools are asking for a percentage pass mark in English, maths, science, 1 humanity and 1 language.
None of them ask specifically asking for Latin - sorry I can’t be more helpful

After8itsgrownuptime · 02/11/2020 13:30

Sorry what I meant is that we do the pre-tests in January 2021 and then our CE in October of year 8

LIZS · 02/11/2020 13:33

You can get a decent level of Latin in two years. It is no longer a C.E requirement though, often Spanish is taught instead. CE is not a high stabdard nor do you "fail" However if your elder dc is already year 6 does either school offer 11+ entry? CE is a bit of a specific syllabus to a specific end and carries no value in itself, year 8 is dominated by revision and practice tests.

Orangesarenottheonlyfruit · 02/11/2020 13:41

I wouldn't worry about latin. Neither of mine have done it.
I have noticed that CE seems to be being phased out and replaced by secondary schools' own exams. These will take into account (hopefully) that all kids will be taught slightly differently and are meant to test intelligence rather than being able to memorize an exam.
CE isn't especially hard. It does depend on where you're looking though. If it's at a school that has few places then the tests will be harder than a school that has plenty of spaces. Winchester is obviously far more testing than a more standard public school, for instance.

angrysquirrel73 · 02/11/2020 13:42

LIZS one school only starts at 13 and has no pre-test. The other school starts at 11 but our child will be too young to take the train to get there. This would be our back up school and I'm pretty confident they can walk in at 13 so no need to do the pretest. The 13+ only school is highly selective and the back up school is not very selective.

OP posts:
angrysquirrel73 · 02/11/2020 13:43

Orangesarenottheonlyfruit thank you that's helpful. I'm not against Latin per se its just they wont have any prior knowledge.

OP posts:
PresentingPercy · 03/11/2020 01:14

At our prep, Latin was only taught to the scholarship group. Everyone else did French. Schools are moving away from CE and many parents found y8 was revision and dcs were bored! It’s time for change! Y8 should be a year for learning. My DDs went to their senior schools for y7. Most in the prep went in y9 after CE. I know which dc had the best y8!

reefedsail · 04/11/2020 06:34

It's unusual these days for a 13+ entry school not to pre-test at 11.

DS will be doing pre-test in January 21 and hoping for an unconditional offer at that point so he doesn't have to do CE.

AnotherNewt · 04/11/2020 06:42

If the schools are setting their own entrance exams, then your DC does not need to do CE

Does the school you are looking at have experience in preparing pupils for a completely different style and timing of exam? Because prep for a competitive 13+ exam in autumn/Jan is not in itself going to fit well with a curriculum designed for a non-competitive exam normally taken in June.

GU24Mum · 05/11/2020 07:55

OP, are you sure that the 13+ schools definitely don't do any testing in Y6? It's really changed over the past couple of years - if you have a child now in Y9, they are likely to have had to do testing not before Y7 but if you have a child in Y8, pretty much all the schools did some form of testing in Y6 alongside the 11+ even if they as a school didn't take at 11+.

angrysquirrel73 · 05/11/2020 14:06

AnotherNewt good point - I have checked and the school is sending someone to the 13+ school we are thinking of this year and has done so in the past so has knowledge of the process and exam.

GU24Mum yes there is no 11+ exam. I've heard (Tatler podcast) that several London girls schools are moving to 11+ so that people know where they are heading and can take the exams at the same time as the grammar school exam but this is not the case where we live. The two 'posh' 13+ schools near us require you to register in year 6 but then you can sit CE exam or school exam in year 8. There is no 11+ exam.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread