Is it crazy to take entrance exam for a school we can't afford?

[lexlees]

Hi All,

We are have been preparing our ds for 11+ entrance exams, as he is very bright. Because of where we live we have only one option for a selective school because of the zoning rules.

We live round the corner from a top private school- and I had this strange idea of just letting my ds take the entrance exam for it. The problem is, there is no way we can afford the fees. I have looked on line and they don't seem to offer full any scholarships. My husband thinks I am nuts and that it could be disappointing for all of us if he does manage to get in and we can't afford it.

My gut says to just go for it and the money will come from somewhere if he gets in.

Any thoughts anyone?

It depends how much money you earn. If you are on a low income there's a chance of a bursary, if he is very bright there is also chance of a scholarship. Chances are you have a reasonable income but have to spend it all on your mortgage which doesn't help you much.

There are a couple grammar schools with no catchment area to explore (eg QE Boys in Barnet) and others that have a few places for out of catchment children (e.g. Chelmsford Grammar in Essex). Could you look at those as back ups? Work out if you could get him there or move to a convenient place if he got a place (probably cheaper than Indie school I suspect)? 11 plus forum will give you all the details of the ones you could look at.

Bear in mind that the indie exams are in January. By the time you have worked through the summer holidays to September, the last thing you want to do is do another 4 months over Christmas. We planned to do it but the results looked promising and we knew we probably couldn't afford it, so we gave up the tutor. You could do the same.

11+ forum will also give you an idea of how you are safe with the marks you get. The pass mark doesn't change that much from year to year.

(Good luck..waiting here today to here if we have our place at QE Boys)

Thank you. Were you fortunate to get into QE Boys?

Yes - we did, thank you. Very happy about that! BTW - Parmiters in Garston has approx. 10 places each year for children not in their postcode but the standard is very high. My son did both QE Boys and Parmiters. He just got the score to get into Parmiters out of catchment but was comfortably within the QE Boys score, so I think QE is probably easier to get into (even though there are 1000s of applicants for 180 places)