Secondary school next year

[bmz]

Can anyone advise me on what results my son should be getting now in order to me to think about trying for a grammar school next year. I don't seem to get any help from teachers. Any advice would be appreciated. Regards May.

It very much depends on the standard of the whole borough here. There are only 3,500 grammar places available and thats 25% of six 6's. Also teachers are not allowed to predict whether you should or should not try for grammar schools. Are you in 11+ region?

that should have read 25% of YEAR 6's,not six 6's!

thank you for your response. No i'm not in a 11+ region - i thought you only had to do any entrance exam for the school you wanted your child to try for. is this not right? this is my eldest so its all new to me.

I only know about the selection process for 11+ areas, since we've just been through it. Why don't you phone your LEA, they should be able to help.

as far as my experience goes (nephew has just taken entrance tests for grammar school) the tests are usually based on numeracy literacy and also non-verbal skills. These are tests that cannot be 'revised' for exactly but they can be coached in so they know what to expect. My nephew is brighter than average, didn't receive any coaching and passed the tests, so they seem to rely on a good level of basic intelligence, iyswim.

At the end of key stage 2, which your ds presumably is at the moment I would say that SATs levels of 5+ would put him above the national average and potentially bright enough for the tests. (But SATs are notoriously dodgy as the only marker of success)

also.. if your ds's primary school did CAT testing, which is what the verbal and non-verbal tests are like, it's worth looking at what scores he got here. They operate a bit like IQ results, in that anything over 100 is above average; 130 is the highest you can get.