Hockerill Anglo European Collage - entry via aptitude test

[rosemaryc]

Just posting here too (put this on the main Education board a few days ago). Many thanks to anyone with any insight.

Hi, we are in the same county but a long way from the catchment area (1hr away). Anyone here's DC done this test, especially if applying from outside the catchment area? I know it's very competitive.
Thank you!

Any info much appreciated OVienna :-)
No not visited yet but will next school year. Trouble is we don't really have a plan B as though in Herts we are nowhere near any other selectives and only a 50% chance of getting into the ok school in our nearest town!

also nowhere else that does the IB and gives some degree of a bilingual education (DH is French).

Mme, yes we're scared. We're very scared!

I know - Herts sounds like a nightmare with the school allocation process. We are also trying for a school up north but will poss struggle to relocate. DD at a fee paying prep now but I am not impressed with the local privates in our area on terms of cost and quality. But that's another thread!!

Omg :-( That's pretty tough!
DD also at a fee paying prep but due to my bad health and uncertain future earning capacity can't move DD2 there and can't continue through seniors with 2. If we'd known this was going to happen we might have started out in a different area!
If you apply for both a day place via aptitude and a day boarding place, are you able to rank which you prefer?

It also gives the lowest successful aptitude scores;
Language 93.8
Combined 90.1
Music 90.9
but of course no idea what this means :-) %?

Also says 7 out of 52 boarding places allocated to girls day boarding (15 total day boarding)

Furthest distance place allocated was 283m!

Good lord.

It is a lottery but of course it's advantage over, say a grammar school, is the sibling rule. It appears that siblings took more than half the day places this year. The problem is getting dd1 in but she does at least have a hope re tests, whereas I don't think dd2 would!

Sorry meant to say I am looking at Hockerill too!! Looks like it might be best to hedge bets As you say Mme M as it is a risky plan and you need good back ups. The school website is good in that at least you know the odds up front.

Mme Morrible, can I ask how you dealt with the boarding need issue if you were originally going for day boarding?
I think I'm right in thinking you at least find out the test scores soon after the test, so you can get a feeling for your chances at least against those min. scores.

Not sure if this is too late but thought I'd add to the conversation. DD sat the aptitude tests and got one of the places! Sorry if this is long winded but hopefully it will help someone.

There are 2 tests that are sat on the same day in September one after the other. The first is language aptitude and the second is music aptitude. There were no maths or English tests (I think that Dame Alice Owen test like this). Knowing other languages or playing instruments was no advantage - as already stated the test is purely looking at aptitude for languages and/or music. It wasn't possible to prepare for the tests in any way.

We were sent the test results in October - before the deadline for state school applications. The results only gave percentages; one for language, one for music and one combined. However, they didn't give any idea of ranking so although we knew that DD had got a higher mark than had been required the previous year we had no idea about how she ranked for the tests that she sat. I believe that over 300 children sat for the 12 places that are available (7 for language, 3 for music and 2 combined).

We applied for both a day and a boarding place but our preference was day so we put this first.

DD loves being at Hockerill. She has made loads of friends, both day pupils and boarders, and the school is stretching her academically.
Waiting for the email in February telling us the school that she'd been allocated was incredibly stressful but, as someone said to us after we found out, we feel as though we've won the lottery considering that a comparable education in the private sector would cost us over £100k.

One point - the closing date to apply to sit the tests is in July so before the end of Year 5.

Badpups - great to hear from someone who has experience of (and whose DD got through!) those mysterious aptitude tests! thank you.

Any info about the test would be appreciated. Is the language one a bit like verbal reasoning?

300 is a scarey number though ! :-)

Badpups - thank you so much for contributing!! I have one important question though - How close did you physically live to the school to get one of the day places via the aptitude test? I am wondering if it is worth bothering with the aptitude tests as we are not in Hertfordshire and I'm guessing chances are there will be someone closer who scores at least as high as DD might.

OVienna - I asked the school and was told that distance wasn't a factor unless 2 children got the same score (in which case the nearer one will get the place). I suppose the good thing is that the scores are to one decimal place so more differentiation but still.....
I am in Herts but an hour away so still a fair distance.

Okay, thanks for that.

Sorry if this has been covered already but can I check a) if you apply for a day boarding place as a plan B, can you go back to day at 6th form if you want b) am I right in thinking that a sibling could still take a day place under sibling rule without the need to be a day boarder? c) as a day boarder they have to stay for prep if you want to pick up early, or is it mandatory

thanks :-)

Hi MmeMorrible, yes DD is also in year 7 (can't believe that she'll soon be year 8)!

We do live in Hertfordshire but are a 40 minute drive away from the school so definitely can't be classed as close.

The language test was apparently nothing like verbal reasoning (which she'd done a lot of at primary school). Some was in English and some using a made up language (which might have been an obscure "real" language). The music test included listening to a piece of music.

I don't know a huge amount about the day boarding but I think that they are expected to stay at the school for prep unless there's a very good reason to leave earlier. The after-school club programme is fantastic, DD has done at least 2 clubs each term and would have done more if we'd let her.
I think that they can switch at 6th form but would have to reapply - there seems to be a bit of movement at the end of year 11 as not all want to sit the IB which is the only option in the 6th form.

Thank you Badpups. So you do this journey daily both ways?

Wish there wasn't just one school like this - talk about putting all your eggs in one basket! :-(

Thank you MmeM

I bet this isn't correct but I have also heard this week the structure of the test changes every year- music anyway.

We also got a place boarding.
Day boarding is relatively competitive although I do not think anything close to free day pupil applications (if you discount cost of the regular address games).
Weekly boarding is now almost not competitive - namely for boys.
Boarding places also come free regularly in later years - often unrelated to any family movement.
I am fairly certain that at boarding interview just want to make sure your child and yourselves will not cause trouble or even query why anything is run the way it is.
There are many parents that are school staff, including in this board, so they may be able to confirm.
They also do not expect your child to be happy for the first years. The school mainly wants to have full control of everything so they mostly filter on that.