Alternatives to RGS in the Guildford area?

[Ariadne78]

DS will sit the 11+ for RGS in January. I really hope he gets in, but I'm well aware that RGS has very high standards and being top of the class at his state primary is no guarantee that he will get in. We are doing Bond practice papers, etc. However, as he has no experience of having had to do an exam before, it could go either way for him. Even though he does well on practice papers, if he panics on the day, he may be unlucky.

At the moment we have no "plan B" and I could use some guidance on what this should be. St George's, Weybridge; Reed's, Cobham; and St John's, Leatherhead have all been suggested as alternatives. However, looking at the entrance requirements for these schools, it seems likely that if DS were to not make the grade at RGS, he probably wouldn't get in to any of these schools either. So I am stuck as to what should be our back-up plan. State school is not an option as we are moving house and will not be within catchment for any decent state school by the application deadline.

Any thoughts on alternative private schools?

not on the topic of your choices - but on taking exams....
try to time him from the paper he does, i.e. - on the next one he does tell him it is say 45 or 60 min (it should be written on the paper how long it should take), then as he does each just ask him to mark on the paper next to the question on which he was when that 45 or 60 min passed, then you see how long did the actual paper took
and do that with each paper observing patterns
after few weeks he should get better at his timing as he will be competing against the clock

good luck :)

Much more choice for girls round here!
DS1 is at RGS; we only put him in for that one private school as we were happy for him to go state otherwise.
DS2 will be taking the exam in January so Bond papers ahoy at present, which of course he is more than keen to do in his free time would rather stick pins in his eyes
DS1's friends at RGS tried for all the schools you mention plus Hampton, Salesian in Farnborough, City of London's Freeman in Ashstead. I can't really comment on the relative ease/difficulty of getting in to other schools as we didn't try for them. I do know a boy now at Uni (used to babysit for us) who didn't get into RGS but did get into Reeds.
Where are you planning to move to? You may be lucky with state as DS2's year (new year 6) is a relatively low birth year round here.
Good luck for RGS, if you have read any of my other post you'll know that I think it is a fantastic school!

Thanks happyAvocado. I am doing the timing with him and give him 2 marks: 1 mark for what he would have scored had he answered all the questions in time, and 1 mark discounting the ones he only completed out of time. The idea is to let him see what he can do but reinforce the message that timing is important. I'm finding that sometimes he is fine with timing but other days it just goes completely skew-whiff, with no apparent reason. Am hoping that lots of practice will help him to crack it. His school is no help at all. I can't believe that at age 10 he has never had to sit an exam!

Ivysquirrel, thanks. I have seen some of your posts on other threads. We are reasonably flexible about location though it will depend on budget of course and I would like to be as close to Guildford as possible. Am thinking either Worplesdon side or Godalming side as would like a semi-rural rather than town centre location.

State schools I would like would be either George Abbot or County, but I don't think we have a chance as won't be moving till next year by which time such popular schools are likely to be over-subscribed already. And probably can't afford to be in catchment for GA.

We are Worplesdon side semi-rural location as the estate agents would say!
Works brilliantly for us. Just about in County catchment for the last few years. Could not afford to buy in GA!
Feel free to PM if you'd like more detailed info

Look at Salesian, or maybe City of London Freemans. The entry for the schools you list is lower than RGS, where the pass mark has been rising year on year. If you live in Guildford do also look at the State school options, at least one schools takes several pupils from Prep schools every year (people do get in from waiting lists and appeals every year).
Otherwise Duke of Kent now goes to 16, the Royal school is opening a boys section, and St Edmunds in Hindhead now goes to 16. There is also St Edwards in Witley. St John's doesn't start until 13

I think Reeds is much less competitive than RGS. The pass mark is 55%. AIR King Edwards, Witley selects from the top 50% of the ability range.

Check you haven't missed the boat for St Johns- anecdotal evidence is that their lists are full for the next few years and you will also have to do a pre test in Jan of Yr 6 for 13+ entry. What will you do for years 7&8? Reeds and CLFS have 11+ entry

I have a friend with two boys at St George's. I don't think, from his experience, that the entrance exam there was anywhere near as tough as RGS.

My ds goes to Reed's, and loves it. I just checked the entry requirements and they need to score 105/140, which I think means a pass mark of 75%. It's definitely worth going for though. They interview on the day of the exam and so get a picture of the whole boy.

Is there any chance your ds could do a practice exam? It helps a lot. Also when my ds was sitting entrance exams he really got into the swing of things as he went along (he sat 5 and passed 4, missing out on the first one).

Salesian certainly didn't used to be great - much, much less academic than not only RGS but many of the other schools on the list and with quite a laddish culture that discouraged boys from pursuing an interest in music or drama. It may have changed in the last 7 years but it wouldn't be on my list.

We are in a similar situation, looking around Woking/Guildford area for boys secondary. Not much choice!
Leeds2 - do you know how Catholic the school is, involvement needed etc? We are not religious so would feel a bit hypocritical applying there
Almapudden - interesting to hear that about Salesian as I don't hear much about it and thought it looked good from the website. Although it is also Catholic it seems to have less emphasis on religion than others. I also thought it was still quite academic due to its results
Got the visits coming up so will have to see

St Georges has fewer than 40% Catholic pupils. It's main attraction is that it is the only selective independent school where boys can go in that part of Surrey.

The Catholic trappings are a corpus in each room, voluntary masses weekly, school masses a couple of times a term, a class retreat at the beginning of each year, opportunities to volunteer for a local Catholic charity, an opportunity to visit Lourdes. They have a chaplaincy team.

The only part of the curriculum that is impacted is that the have to take the Catholic paper in GCSE RS, alongside the one about St John's Gospel (they use an Anglican textbook for this).

It's good that St George's accept non Catholics but a bit nervous about the level of participation needed. I was drawn to Salesian as they taught the ethos of the Catholic faith eg respect, kindness but without too much of the additional masses and retreats
Getting really stuck if I can't include St George's or Salesian, only leaves me with RGS which could be impossible to get in to, or LVS whose results aren't great due to it being non selective

RGS
KGS
Hampton
Probably top 3 for academia all 3 very selective & getting more so.
All 3 competitive & sporty
St Johns coming in next.
St Georges & Cranleigh on a par
Reeds less academic, but smaller.
Haliford in Sunbury probably least academic, but like Reeds is very sporty.

Also Claremont in Esher is a great school, harder to get in to than it used to be, but is doing very well with GCSE results.
I have 3 teens & have a fair bit of experience of the above schools due to my children & their friends.

I think Salesian is just less effective at what would be called 'Value Added' if we were talking about state schools - my DP's brother went there and cams out with a fairly mediocre set of results and I think he would have achieved more at a more ambitious school.

What about Lord Wandsworth College at Hook?

I've had to cross quite a few off my list as they are either too far away (I will still have to drop my other children off in Woking) or they are too expensive. I think £6k plus per term is out of our reach