George Herriot School Edinburgh - assessment / entrance test support for P7

[HBPene]

Hi, Does anyone know how are the assessments for George Herriot School in Edinburgh for starting in P7 please 🙏?
looking for some advise on how to get my child prepared. Also any idea on percentage of kids that get selected after an entrance test?

Thank you 🙏

I’d ask on Scotsnet or Edinburgh Gossip Girls (Facebook).

The school admissions office would be the best place to start?

Maybe too late for you for this year but assessments are supposedly 'age appropriate'. They won't tell you much more. I believe that they (and other schools, eg GW) use a private company to make the tests for them but it doesn't seem possible to buy these as a private individual. You can buy English 11+ workbooks in the main areas of assessment on Amazon - watch the age ratings on them. I bought some (Bond was the publisher/brand) just for timed test practice for nearer the time and got the ones for age group 10-11. Personally, I thought they were maybe still a bit advanced for what was needed so care is needed that you don't affect your kid's confidence.

What I thought was more useful was getting a tutor who knows about the general level of the tests/what should be known for P7 entry and can give your kid exercises to help/support on areas they are less proficient at. Perhaps urban myth but we heard stories about the private schools doing things at different times of the year from state schools and so there's a possibility they could be tested on material they've not yet covered in their current school. For both of my kids, we arranged a tutor 5-6 months before the test (probably a bit too far out tbh but you never know until you start) and were provided exercises and an hour-long Zoom call per week to discuss work/answers. Both of my kids were accepted to all the schools applied to (we chose GH).

I don't know about other schools, but GH adds one new class of 25 (plus or minus 1 or 2) in P7. They don't disclose nos of applicants (AFAIK), but rumours were that, when my eldest applied, there were over 120 applications for those spaces. For child 2, we heard stories of c. 70-80 applicants for P7. Sounds daunting but most apply to 2-3 schools and so you often get people turning the offer down for their favoured option. As long as they meet the standard, GH will favour siblings of existing pupils. I suspect other schools will as well.