Common Entrance Results

[timmytoes]

I have heard that CE results are out and that at my son's school all boys got their first choice school. As DS is only at the end of year 4, CE is all quite new to me but I'm keen to understand as much as possible about the whole process of results . eg What happens if you don't get your expected results ? Is this common or rare ? Are some schools more flexible than others ? etc etc.

It is not common for DCs to fail CE. IME of 7 years at a prep school only one DC ever failed and that was because the prep school headmaster and the senior school said that they didn't think the school was suitable. The parents ignored this advice. Many schools now have pre-testing which again cuts down on parents being surprised about CE results. Prep school heads liaise with senior schools to make sure there is a match. It is not in their best interests to have DCs fail. They all like to be able to say they have a 100% pass rate for their pupils attending their first choice senior school.
Congratulations to all DCs who got their CE results today.

All boys at DS1's prep got their schools, but there will have been some management of parental expectations along the way.
DS1's place wasn't subject to CE, but he still had to sit it, which he was a bit grumpy about.

A boy at my son's school failed either Westminster or St Paul's (can't remember which) last year. I understand that this happens only very rarely, but the school in question absolutely refused to take him - even though he had a conditional place and had performed well in earlier exams. I imagine less academic schools might be a little more flexible.

I know two boys in the past three years who have failed to get Westminster/St Pauls despite having conditional offers. One from a well known prep school, the other not.

The mum of the first told me it is not uncommon, and in their case the prep had not really warned them that their son was at risk. The last time it happened at my son's prep was about 7 years ago when St Pauls famously got their numbers wrong. I suspect the other boy and his parents simply underestimated the amount of work he would need to do on his own to get to CE standard.

The trouble is that you are not supposed to keep a reserve place, so June becomes a frantic ring-round. I guess the other London day schools, and presumably some boarding schools, are used to this, and Prep school heads know the routine. Certainly both boys we know seem fine where they ended up.

I always love the prep school boast "all boys got their 1st school choice in common entrance".
What it ignores is that popular selective schools pre-test, and the school eventually settled on and for which common entrance is sat may have been the parent's 3rd or 4th choice, or not somewhere they had even considered before other became unavailable.
Most schools now say its all about the pre-test and common entrance is only a formality, the exceptions of course being St Pauls and Westminster. Prep school playgrounds are full of St Pauls scare stories and boys know that 70% will not be enough and they need the highest marks they can get to ensure a place.

Some schools are more flexible than others, your head will know which ones they can do deals with, e.g. we have a child who a school wanted to offer a sports scholarship to, but his Maths is a weakness and we knew he wouldn't be able to get 55%+ in Level 2 Maths, but our Head negociated so that they would still take him even if he 'failed' the Maths CE (he got a D in the end). It's all about picking the right school for your child and not being in lala land that your child is a genius when they are in bottom sets and struggle with core subjects!