Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Is this a reasonable question to ask a Secondary school, and should they be able to give me an answer reasonably quickly?

327 replies

seeker · 05/03/2012 09:26

We like in an all selective area, and 23% of children go to grammar schools.

Would it be reasonable for me to ask the High School what % of their cohort are likely to start year 7 with level 5 SATS?

OP posts:
thetasigmamum · 07/03/2012 11:52

Genuine question- why is Reading a special case? All I know about Reading is that it's the home of Ing - the little signs on the station tell me that anyway. Does Reading have grammar schools?

nickelhasababy · 07/03/2012 13:35

Grin me too, thetasigmamum. me too

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 07/03/2012 14:26

Doesn't reading have a couple of grammars and the rest of the schools really are comprehensives rather than secondary moderns?

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 07/03/2012 14:26

sorry Reading

scummymummy · 07/03/2012 23:27

Really sorry for you and your boy, seeker.

The grammar school system utterly sucks, imo and this sort of situation is one of the reasons why. I imagine your boy, you and his dad, all his teachers, friends and acquaintances etc expected him to pass as his sister did. He's from an academic family with high expectations (nothing wrong with that!) and it is likely that he feels he's let you down (even though I know that's not the case). But his emotional security and sense of himself is at stake here and it is likely that he feels pretty gutted. So this is the time when you need to pretend for all you are worth that you are NOT very disappointed and don't think this is the end of the world. And keep on pretending until you truly believe it.

So I would try very hard not to worry too much about the high school's standards, (which may well be fine and if not you can deal with that when the time comes), and concentrate ALL your efforts on making your boy feel good about himself and his new school. I wouldn't appeal, if there's little chance of success, as it undermines the message you need to give him which is HE IS ACE, CLEVER AND FAB and that his new school is the type of place where ACE, CLEVER AND FAB kids like him go. And he will be fine and do fine. This type of school stuff is overrated, imo. Most important is that he feels good about himself and confident that you and his dad believe that he will succeed wherever he goes and that the world is his educational oyster.

clemmie73 · 08/03/2012 12:02

I hope you receive good news with your appeal, seeker but I can't help but wonder how your son would have fared had you " played the game " and did some proper 11 plus preparation with him ? You have said previously it was a social experiment ( your son's future ??) and you obviously felt he would fly ...but the content of the test is one which children are not taught .Do you regret this now ?

bibbityisaporker · 08/03/2012 14:12

I adore ScummyMummy's post. Very wise words.

Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 16:44

Thank you scummy mummy. I agree that it's a crap system. Fortunately, we've never made a big deal out of it, and plenty of ds's friend's are going ton the High School, so he isn't feeling bad about it. he was disappointed on the day, obviously, but he is a very grounded and level headed person, so although his pride took a bit of a knock, his self esteem remains more or less intact. We do tell him he's ace and fab and clever on a regular basis- and he is!.

Clemmie- I was obviously a bit tongue in cheek when I talked about social experiments! Although he wasn't formally coached, he did do some practice papers and he scored highly. I genuinely don't think any more preparation would have made any difference. Ironically, I think if he had just failed, I would be questioning myeself more, but his scores were so low ( significanly lower than the very first practice paper he ever did) that I think something went so wildly wrong on the day that it would have happened however much preparation he had done. I could be deluding myself about that, obviously!

OP posts:
Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 16:48

Sorry, I don't think I made clear how much I agree with scummy mummy's brilliant post!

Oh, and clemmie- you talk about "your son's future", as if it has somehow been blighted! I genuinely don't think his future will be any different because of this. It might be harder for him to achieve his full potential, but he still will.

OP posts:
Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 16:50

Sorry-me again! I didn't think he would "fly". Nobody can prdict that. But I certainly thought he would probably pass.

OP posts:
wordfactory · 08/03/2012 17:09

Seeker is it possible he failed on purpose. I know a jid who did this to avoid going to a school he really didn't fancy.

Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 17:17

I did wonder that. But his scores were in the same proportion as expected- just 15/20 marks lower. I think if he was capable of achieving that on purpose he probably ought to go directly to grammar school without passing go!

OP posts:
nickelhasababy · 08/03/2012 17:19

that's a good point, wordfactory - he is a bright boy: it's very hard to get significantly low scores if you haven't done it deliberately, unless you're really very bad.
If he's done practice papers and done well on those, there's a chance that he chose at least some wrong answers deliberately.

seeker - i know you don't want to dwell on it, but has he indicated this might be the case?

(i know that even asking him about it might open a whole can of worms, so I don't blame you if you decide not to entertain the idea)

nickelhasababy · 08/03/2012 17:19

x-posts

Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 17:28

I haven't directly asked him- but I am as sure as I can be that he didn't. The one thing that did genuinely upset him about it was being beaten by his arch nemesis (aka best friend). They compete like crazy, and ds is usually slightly ahead because he works harder and concentrates better!

OP posts:
wordfactory · 08/03/2012 17:34

Ah well, you may never really know what happened then. Perhaps he did somehtig like skip a page, or nerves got the better of him.

I know a boy who completely mucked up an english entrance exam becaus ehe got the wrong stick entirely as to what the piece was about. All the comprhension questions he answered from a different view altogether.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 08/03/2012 17:40

Dd2 turned over too many pages at once by accident in her practise maths SAT: daft mistakes, easy to make, impossible to know until it's too late. Not that I think ds probably would have done that in all the papers, obv., just that it's all too easy to mess up.

clemmie73 · 08/03/2012 17:55

I didn't mean to be rude or offensive , seeker ! just genuinely curious as my son is due to sit the 11 plus and I couldn't imagine putting him through it with minimal preparation ( I'm just doing bits and pieces at home, not 24/7 ! )

Have you / will you see his papers at all ? He didn't mark the answers in the wrong place or anything ?

Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 18:05

I didn't think you were- I hope I didn't sound as if I thought that!

No, i haven't seen the papers- the whole right balance of scores but 20 marks lower means that I don't think it's a mistake. Unless he turned over two pages at once in all three papers.....!

OP posts:
clemmie73 · 08/03/2012 18:18

No, you weren't , but I know how emotionally charged the whole thing is , ( I have 1 already at grammar ) and I do know of a few people this year who are going through a similar thing to you. So didn't want to upset you further ! If you have a good local school then that's not so bad. It's just a shock when the future you had mapped out will change somewhat although I agree there is no reason your son won't do so well.

JoannaPancake · 08/03/2012 18:24

Seeker that does seem really strange. Have you asked for a remark (if that's possible in your area)? I don't suppose there's any chance that there has been an admin error? As you say, if he had failed by a small margin that would be one thing, but for his scores to be so different to the practice papers seems very odd. Just because the marks are in the expected ratio doesn't mean that there hasn't been a mistake...

Original poster
seeker · 08/03/2012 18:27

I'm honestly not that stressed out. It's a bugger, and it's going to be tougher keeping an eye on his education than dd's- (we just handed her over to the grammar school 5 years ago and she should emerge this summer with a handful of A*s and As)- and I am PISSED OFF that the kids who pass get stuff the kids who don't don't, even though they deserve them just as much- but he'll be fine. I think that the privilege thing is even more apparent- there are very few kids at dd's school who don't have aware, supportive parents, so they get two lots of advantage. At what will be ds's school, for a lot of them, school is the only chance they get.

Sorry- I'll get off my hobby horse now.

OP posts:
clemmie73 · 08/03/2012 18:28

Sometimes that can just be the nature of the 11 plus .My eldest son scored 21% in his practice papers 2 weeks before the big day which was stressful to say the least, although did pass and my second son who I am working with now is swinging wildly between 70 % and 30 % in his practice papers. Maybe Seekers son just unfortunately had that bad day on the big day.

Bletchley · 08/03/2012 18:39

Is there a twelve plus?

somethingscary · 08/03/2012 20:05

Have you tried the eleven plus website? Plenty of people on there who can offer an opinion/good advice.

Swipe left for the next trending thread