So where's this years Trinity/Whitgift/Dulwich/Alleyns thread

[soooooooknowwhat]

And any other schools you may wish to add... Have used threads from the previous few years as part of my research and ds sat Trinity today! I'm more of a lurker than a thread starter but decided to bite the bullet and offer a hand to hold. Good luck to all dc's sitting exams over the next few weeks!

I hope that he did enough to get a place.
Thank you

keeping my fingers crossed for you Rad

Thank you x

Hello sooooooonowwhat - I meant KGS - was just responding to earlier comment re there not being much difference between GCSE results - there actually is a 10% difference.

KCS results obviously higher still - weren’t they 99% or something ridiculous last year 🤔

We too are near KGS and didn’t sit the exam. Partly because there was a clash on days last year with T and I didn’t rearrange as wasn’t really sure how DS would perform there or whether a co-ed was the right thing for him. I’ve heard very mixed things some saying KGS was tougher others saying T was tougher last year but it sounds like they are similar.

If your DS is going on the tram you might be interested to know that we have seen KGS going to school at the same time as him so journey time is clearly similar.

I’ve just had a look at the 10 plus KGS paper for my DS2 - wow quite tough English paper - I clearly need to up what he’s reading in the next year! 😮😮

Just got a letter from Alleyn's inviting ds to art scholarship assessment and interview! I think they are sending letters out later to most people but we were waiting to hear re art scholarship so I think that's why we heard early, good luck to all others applying to Alleyn's!

sooooooonowhat great news...

Thanks spacecadet! From what I've heard Alleyn's are more likely than most to say no after interview and I have a very shy ds so not sure if he'll be what they're looking for. Ds is riding high on his success at T at the moment so is less fussed about any future rejections, so we'll just see how he goes!

Soooooo - I think that if Alleyn's give you an interview you'd have to do something really odd/bad to not get an offer afterwards. If you've got an interview you've done v well and very likely to get a place...

Just wondering- did anyone's child enter for St Dunstan's and if so have you heard anything? Had the impression they wpuld be quite quick aftet their online exam but haven't heard a thing.

Thanks Lily I hope so, but from what I understand they interview a lot of dc's (I can't remember the figures off the top of my head but from previous years I remember it being a lot) and so they would have to cull a little at the interview stage, also heard that they may have a preference for a certain 'type' of child. Either way I'm fine with it as I would hate for ds to get a place in a school where he was unlikely to fit in, so I'm going to trust that they know what they're doing and can assess if ds is Alleyn's material or not and if he isn't then that's fine too!

isa2 We got an email yesterday inviting my DS for the sports scholarship assessment which takes place tomorrow. No news about interview however we called the school and they advised that those invited for sports assessment have passed and will get an interview invite today or tomorrow. Sounds like it is a little chaotic and the poor admissions officer was a tad stressed. So I am expecting that everyone who have achieved enough at the exam will also receive an email within the next 48hrs

radmumsie my son didn't get an interview at trinity but did have an interview at whitgift and it went really well! They are 2 diff tests i think my son had a bad day for his t one. And I think he had put his all into the W one the day before lol don't worry too much. That's the only 2 schools my son sat exams for so we're really keeping our fingers crossed for an offer and decent bursary x

isa2 the sports scholarship emails and letter have been sent from St D's- we got an email on Tuesday and are going along tomorrow. The rest of the letters were going out 'later in the week'. There's another thread on here with others waiting too.

Some good news pn this thread!

The toughest bit is deciding which school is best for your child.
When i look at results all i really see is the admissions policy. I believe a bright child will do just as well at any decent school not just the academic ones, provided they are happy.

And i known of work colleagues who have had children culled after gcse at st pauls and kcs...

Sounds like it's been a good news day for everyone today which is great.

Firefox1066 hope all goes well for your DS tomorrow. Ours was positive, DS is shy but we got good feedback from i'v on him & his exam ( but no news on sports assess) and had a good chat ourselves so feeling less like i have to drain the wine fridge tonight. But I don't think he will be offered any sports scholarship as it wasn't mentioned and we haven't had a call back.

Thank you Emma and Good luck with whitgift.

Thanks for the good wishes orangetiger. Very well done to your DS! I'm pretty certain he will get at least a full fees offer and I can't see any reason why he wouldn't have got a scholarship also.

From my experience, at interview they usually only mention scholarship in an academic context. In any event, time for you to sit back and relax (!) for the next 3 weeks.

Best of luck to all those still waiting or for those with interviews/Assessments.

This time next week, it'll all be over!

Last year I was worried about the interviews as my ds is very shy also. However, I think they are mostly a formality. We practised a little on expanding sentences, for eg; asked about a favourite book, say something like 'I enjoyed reading this series as it had lots of science in which is my favourite hobby/subject'. With luck, they then go on to talk about science where ds a bit more knowledgeable and enthusiastic! The exam results and primary heads report count for a lot.

"What you’ve got to remember is that KGS has only started getting tougher to get into in the last few years so there will no doubt be another rise in pass rates once that cohort reaches gCSE age."

Ditto Emanuel.

The basic point remains - that your DC will come out with much the same grades whichever of all these very good schools they go to remains unaltered, because the proportion of top grades is so high that quibbling about how high became the stuff of anxiety not significant difference. What does make a difference is the actual ethos and day to day life of the school.

Re: Alleyns - the school has a long-lasting reputation for being more of a toss-up on admissions.

For interview (non scholarship) - and again with caveat that I am talking about how they have typically gone about it in the last few years, and I wouldn't necessarily spot a new change - Alleyns took the top (whatever number - about 200?) from exam, told the interviewing staff that all those they see would cope with the academic pace of the school and that the job now was to pick which of these they want in their classrooms. And then they make sure it's pretty much 50/50 for the sexes. So it's not necessarily the highest exam scores which get the offers.

Other schools (especially single-sex ones) are more straightforward for highest scores. Especially if they have interviewed before exam.

With the interviews, remember that they are interviewing 10/11 year old boys and they are expecting them to behave like 10/11 year old boys. They will be very good at this whereas, for example, I struggled to judge my DSs with that age in mind and thought they should respond in the same way as adults. They won’t be expecting a slick interview technique :)

Thanks Firefox1066 feel like i was being a bit over confident yesterday and now feel sure we messed up and ds won't be offered any place at all... we are 10+ at W so first time for us and i cannot believe how much it takes over your life and messes with your head. When i replay the i'v in my mind it wasn't as good as i thought and also DS was not asked any academic questions and in this letter it said he would be.. can't believe how paranoid it makes you. so easy to say "what will be will be' but so hard to actually practice it when ds so desperate to go...

anyway thanks for letting me off load (my DH fed up with me and we still have 3 weeks till letters go out!) and good luck to everyone with i/v's and assessment today. the weekend awaits!

Thanks AnotherNewt that is great to know re Alleyn's and agree that ultimately all these schools are great and hard-working, bright dc are likely to do well in any, so it's more a matter of convenience or finding the right fit socially. In our case, we have a ds who is very unsporty but very arty, so we're trying to find somewhere that being an unsporty boy isn't social death and where being good at art is valued. We feel like we've picked four schools that value other skills as much as sport but let's see!

And thanks Soupdragon that is reassuring. Dh and I always roll our eyes at just how long it takes ds to get to the point but hopefully they will be able to cut through the waffle and see what he can do.

orangetiger try not to fret (hard I know!) it does sound as though your ds has done absolutely fine and re not being asked academic questions - ds's scholarship interview at T didn't feature any academic questions at all, even though we were told it might, so don't read too much into it!

I agree that academic achievement is pretty much guaranteed by these schools. They will all get good grades out of their cohorts. Where they differ slightly in results, in reflects how selective they are at intake and this determines the overall results of a year group, but an individual within that group would probably get very very similar results in any of those schools.
So St Pauls or KCS might have more A... But that's because they are able to be more selective and the majority of their kids are extremely clever - so the staff down good job and get the best out of them. A school like Whitgift might have slightly less A because although there are lots of clever boys, the range of ability is slightly larger - so the staff work hard and get the best out of them, which is lots of A* plus some As too.
So it's true that rather than obsessing about the 3% difference in grades between 2 schools, which are both very good, the key thing is which will suit an individual child and practical stuff like journey times and paying the fees.
The children who go to any of the schools mentioned are capable of getting a string of impressive results including top grades. All of these schools will work hard to help their kids achieve those results. They won't end up with a load of Ds and Es.
I guess where it is hard,nips when parents have extremely high aspirations for their children and possibly unrealistic aspirations. Every pretty bright child isn't going to get into Oxbridge - but lots of parents see their pretty bright child and decide they are super bright and then get fixated on the schools with very high Oxbridge entry. I would say that from the schools on this thread, the vast majority of children will go to Russell Group Unis. These are great Unis with great courses which will set the kids up for real success and opportunity. These schools know what is needed to get the great grades required and how to helpnthebstudents get into these universities - so any of these schools means your child has a really bright future.

Every year on these threads, people fret and fret - and I know it's normal and whilst you're in the middle of it, it is all very scary. Most have applied for at 2 schools or more and many find they get offers for all of them and hardly any gets no offers. And by September, everyone has a place somewhere and starts school feeling excited about the next phase. And parents come on MN a few weeks or months or years later and say how things work out well. It's just worth remembering in the stress and might help a bit. The children on this thread are the lucky ones - they have parents who are interested in education and the vast majority of them will go to one of these excellent schools mentioned on this thread. Sorry if it sounds patronising, but we should count our blessings.

Very good post ChocolateW, completely agree with you

Great post chocolate and I agree with you.

I was offered a place at Oxford but didn't take it as I didn't want to and went to a RG uni instead. I had the best time and came out with some amazing memories and even better friends. And when I compare my career and happiness to those of my friends who went to Oxbridge, I feel I've had a better time.

You can't generalise, but my experience showed me that I would be very happy for my DC to go to RG unis (or not - I think this is just a crap way of saying I don't think academic brilliance equates to happiness and success.)