Anyone with children doing 11+ tests this month?

[TheDullWitch]

I think I m more stressed out than my ds. Have awful feeling he flunked the maths test yesterday for a boys' school, he said he could only answer half the questions. And if they don't score well in all papers they don t even get an interview. Awful feeling of being judged: him and us.

Getting a state primary school educated kid ready to take private school tests is horrible. You have to compete with these prep school kids who are doing nothing but past papers for a whole year. Whereas you have to take full responsiblity for getting him up to speed in a system you don't really understand.

And state school maths seems only to be about sums, whereas the paper he sat was all problems, ie applying maths knowledge.

Woke up in middle of night thinking 'what if he doesn't get in anywhere?' Because state schools he'd get into are truly dreadful round here.

I'm not mad about it, no. But since the only decent state secondary school in our inner London area has 3,000 applicants for 120 places I can't see much alternative.

My dd1 is currently going through independent school entrance tests in NW London, Herts area. She is currently in state middle school. I have absolute nightmares about her coming out with no offers.
This will be particularly noticeable and demotivating / humiliating for her as in our borough you don't move on to state high school until age 12 - so it'll be impossible to gloss over having to carry on at middle school next year iyswim.
At each school there are hundreds of girls going for not that many places. Of course many are going for several schools so it may not be as bad as it looks?
I have found it absolutely impossible to get any useful views on how clever my daughter needs to be, how schools decide on who to offer to and how many kids come out with no places etc. It all seems to be a very well kept secret - is this because we wouldn't bother if we knew the truth - or is it because schools/parents don't want people to know that most people able to pay get a place and they're not that exclusive academically?
If all the schools are offering soley on exam marks then it'd probably be the same girls getting all the offers with an area - or do different schools offer to the 'slice' of marks they think are likely to accept the places i.e. anyone higher will accept a place at a even more academic school!
Anyway - you are not alone!

Good luck to your son, DullWitch. I hope he gets into the right school for him.
You have been exceptionally harsh on parents considering independent education on here on the past. Hopefully your prejudices will not prevent him from enjoying his education wherever he studies.

I wish now I d put him in for more schools. We re just trying for three private ones, the closest ones to home. I just didn t want him on an hourlong journey every day. Not to mention putting him through so many tests. But lots of parents are applying for six or more just so they get something.

Independent schools (and their charitable status) and selective schools in general are theoretically not top of the pops with me either but when I consider our state school 'choices' (which are not actually bad schools) there are reasons why I don't think they're right for dd1. If she does go to an independent I am expecting heavy disapproval from some quarters on various grounds.

'You have to compete with these prep school kids who are doing nothing but past papers for a whole year.'

What utter bollocks.

Each of my children that have already taken the 11+ have spent the preceding Autumn term playing Rugby, making Diwali lamps and organising the Christmas party. They spent the 3 weeks after Christmas break revisiting the basics and then sat the 11+. That my experience of three separate private schools.

Son number four sits his on the 23rd, he dug out his books on Sunday.

Good luck to your son. You might want to adjust your attitude about 'those kids' as they might become friends for life with your boy.

The private schools around here do practice for the 11+ - they do past papers in class etc. Parents have told me.

For a whole year?

I have to add that I fretted terribly with my first especially as he ended up taking his exams late after being in hospital. I was worried that he would miss out in cramming because he had a nasty leg break. Talk about having the wrong priorities.

Now I try to keep the kids relaxed, they have always had decent school reports so I know that they have covered the material, no need for me to force more into them. Also, it is such a shame to see kids who have crammed put into the incorrect stream in Seniors. They struggle when they could do well and build confidence in the middle stream.

I do, on Entrance day, always wish that I could sit the tests for them.

SarahJane > Sorry, I mean, the whole academic year, since Sept. I'm really not being snarky about prep school kids. I know lots of charming ones. All I am saying is the kids at prep schools around here have not done anything at all this term except past papers. Except on the days they are taking the actual exams. And over Xmas they had what amounted to four hours a day of homework, again past papers NVR/VR.

Your school sounds like ours SarahJane . Our Year Six mob have been working for most of the Autumn term on an extended project for Book Club and all the usual curriculum activities. Hardly the Dickensian crammer stereotyped so amusingly in our press these days.
Honestly, DullWitch, you are getting some good advice from the other side of the fence here. If you send your son off to one of these schools seething with resentment at the whole set-up and the other children your little class warrior will be forced to associate with, he is not going to have the lovely, enriching, educationally fulfilling time he deserves to have.

I'd be very surprised if most prep schools are not spending a lot of time doing papers - is that not why they are called 'prep' schools?
On the state side dd1s class have already started a constant round of SATs papers - although that test is not until late May - and sadly they don't seem to be very relevant to the independent school entrance tests.

mitbap > exactly, they are feeder schools to the private secondaries, their reputation is based upon how many pupils they get into the top schools. Fair enough.

And all the private schools say they are looking for "potential" and can spot a bright untutored state school kid from a super-crammed prep school one, I just wonder how much of a risk they will take. The school ds did yesterday only interviews candidates it will offer a place to, therefore they will just look at raw scores and never even meet a kid who has not done the type of maths on their paper.

Well, take it from me mitbap - we chose to go independent because we didn't want our children subjected to SATs, the dead hand of the National Curriculum and the National Literacy and Numeracy strategies. The children in Year Six at our school are probably less pressured and certainly a lot less crammed than children whose parents feel compelled to get them tutored to pass the local eleven plus
Of course prep schools differ in approach and in methods of recruitment (ours is non academically selective and no child likely to fail and be demoralised is expected to sit the 11 plus), but there are lots of prep schools out there with a child-centred approach that is quietly more radical than what the local state schools offer.

I don't see any evidence that DullWitch is seething with resentment. She's just concerned. However we try to justify this to ourselves and however careful we are being, we are giving our dcs the message that if they don't get through these entrance tests then they are going to have to go somewhere we clearly have considered less than optimal. We don't talk about it much to other people but it's impossible to hide what you are doing from the current school and friends etc - so I don't imagine that 'failing' will go unremarked on.

I would love a non-academically selective private school which would give ds a decent education. But they don't exist in S London, it seems. I don't even want him to go somewhere obsessed with everyone getting 10 A*s. But around here they are all league-table crazed super-selective.

You need to move further East, honestly DullWitch. They do exist, but in less trendy parts of S London.
Bishop Challoners in Bromley is lovely and so is Farringtons in Sidcup/Chislehurst.
And both are groaning with bog-standard local residents' children, I assure you.

and Colfes, while selective, is not the ridiculously competitive sort of establishment that I guess you are referring to

Same here DullWitch - in a way it is a positive disadvantge to live in my neck of the woods because all the local independents seem uber-selective e.g. NLCS and the like.

There is something very wrong with sending children to any school that crams from September to Christmas and then sets 4 hours of homework per day when the children should be chilling out. I can only repeat that we have used 4 different schools over the last 10 years and never had cramming. I want more for my kids. Stuff like fun.

In my opinion the 'prep' in prep school starts from the moment they start Juniors. Instilling a 'can do' attitude and an encouraging an enquiring mindset is what I've paid for.

I wish that there were better options available in the areas where crammers seem to be the norm. Poor kids, eh?