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!

not sure if they are supposed to?!

I think it’s highly likely that they are not supposed to and there could be slapped wrists if W found out (I believe, from previous years, that the schools read threads like this).

Nevertheless, congratulations to your DS!

I think that, historically, it’s always been a letter.

I was surprised that DD’s school notified me by email - totally unexpected.

haha thanks Firefox1066 completely unexpected have to say and in some ways has taken the excitement out of tomorrow. Not sure whether to tell DS or not... thoughts? spacecadet48 i have no idea really but assume that head teachers but be informed the day before by email? DS at state primary so not sure head would understand protocol as not many DS go on to private. she seems a bit confused about the whole thing to be honest! I know Whitgift got in touch with her for a written reference before he took exam so they must have contact details which i think you had to put on application form too. arrggghh - what to do now! thanks everyone for your kind wishes.

If you do not think you can accept without a scholarship and don’t know if you’ve got one, then I wouldn’t tell him until you know the whole offer

Emma303 why not try asking your DS headteacher?! if you from state like me they might actually call you not realising that's not the form (raised eyebrows!). i've been told by another mum that W do not send big A4 if you get a place, it's just a letter for place/no place which you have to reply to positively to get more info. so don't be despondent if you only see a slim little envelope!

Oh, that is interesting orangetiger - I had assumed that your DS must be at a prep, for the head to know. I’m not sure I like the idea of my state school head knowing before I do - after all, it’s not like they’ve had anything at all to do with the application and exam process

But huge congratulations to your DS! I think if it were me, I’d wait until I got the letter tomorrow to tell my DS. As they get their own letter too, to congratulate them, which is nice.

SoupDragon yes but we have to tell him he's passed even if he ends up not taking place, it would be too mean. he's done really well. he knows he had to get a SS for us to accept the place. Do you know hie school would be informed about scholarships etc or is that only something parents get told? wish the head hadn't called as i was in a way looking forward to the anticipation of letter arriving.. sort of taken the magic out of it.

Oh Gosh, the mention of a reference makes me sick to my stomach today.

As I said in previous posts, we are applying from outside London currently. Our state school is not used to DC going private. Another school we applied to tried to get references from our current state and it took them ages to get one. The school we were applying to had to inform me at some stage that they were not getting a reference and I had to chase it up and sort of struggled myself, they did not answer emails and I had to see HT at the school gates myself to get anything out of her. All this was before exams.

Now DS has written exams, I have not heard anything from HT. No responses even when I sent emails to say he was writing, having interviews etc.

Super nervous right now.

Great news orangetiger so happy for you! Firefox the 6am dash to the sorting office sounds very tempting! I will be checking in on you all during the no doubt ridiculously long work day and will post good or bad news when I get home tomorrow. Am totally obsessing over details now can't believe I won't get to find out until later. Will live through you all vicariously, fingers crossed for all the dcs!

yes but we have to tell him he's passed even if he ends up not taking place, it would be too mean

Of course you do. However, I wouldn't tell him until you know the full story. I think it would be a bit mean if you can’t tell him he is actually going.

I don’t know what the primary heads get told - mine never let on that she knew anything and she was actually a friend too!

Fab news orangetiger! I know our HT gets some school results today as well but not sure they'd tell us! Making me v nervous now....feel a bit sick! 😩🤞

Is it possible that the letter may not even arrive tomorrow? I will literally die if we don't get a letter and have to wait until Monday! I am assuming we will find out about scholorship/bursary in same letter as being told you've been offered a place?
My postie needs to come before 12.30 tomorrow or I won't be In 😭

Yes, you get told what the whole offer is - so “we would like to offer your son a full fees place” or “a place with a 100% scholarship for being a god”

or somewhere in between. 😂

In theory it could not arrive tomorrow. I think, from previous years, you might be able to phone the school in that case.

emma, yes, details of any scholarships/bursaries will be in the offer letter.

If your letter doesn’t arrive with the post, then you can call the school office in the afternoon to ask for the result.

Xpost with soupdragon!

Good practice from admissions should be that all heads of current schools are informed the day before letters going out. They should also know scholarship info too.

This is so the head is aware (especially in prep schools) if a pupil has not been offered a place at any school - the heads are then in a position to support parents and pupil with options.

Oh god the head kind of dodged me earlier no eye contact what so ever this was at lunchtime. I can't even cope with this 😂 oh no I don't think I could bare to phone up and be rejected over the phone how horrible. I need to stop speculating and just find a way to keep occupied for 24hrs lol

Bellie, yes, I can absolutely see that in a prep school where the school plays a big part in the whole process - advising which schools to go for, preparing for exams and interviews, liaising with the admissions teams after the exams to try to get as many interviews and offers as possible - and also where presumably the majority of the children are applying for private secondaries, then yes, I can see the point of the head knowing the results in advance.

But for the head of a state primary to know in advance? No, I’m sorry, I don’t get that at all. If you come from a prep school you might not realise, but a state primary plays NO part in the process at all. Zilch. It’s just not in their remit. If DS2 gets an offer, it is not due to anything they have done at all.

And even at our state primary, in a naice area full of pushy parents, and which is 3 form entry, so 90 children in a year, we had about 8/9 boys sitting the indie 11+ exams last year. And that was a lot! I can assure you that if any pupil didn’t get an offer, they would not be in the slightest bit interested and would offer no “support”.

So it’s not in any way remotely like a prep school, and no, I don’t see why my head should know the result at all unless I chose to tell them.

This is why I was surprised to hear that a state head had been told the results already.

Emma, try not to read too much into that. If your head does know, which they may not, maybe they didn’t want to give away the fact that he had an offer.

Meetie - all heads at state schools have a legal obligation to track where their pupils are going to. Come march 4th when state offer day falls, they have to be able legally provide a list of where their pupils are going. Therefore it's courtesy as well as a requirement that the heads know what their pupils have been offered. Therefore admissions just inform all heads from all schools at the same time. This way no pupil can 'go missing' from the education system.
Most state heads are not interested in the slightest, but some have worked hard with their pupils and are extracted when we tell them.

Emma303 please don't' worry i wouldn't have called, i think the HT might have thought she had to tell me.. who knows! MeetieVonWrinkleSqueak i'm sure all the private schools follow the same process and they let all headteachers know the day before by email. Remember if you are coming from state you are going into private. I can't imagine they would bother going through every email address to see if the HT was from private or state and i'm not sure i would want my ds labelled state or private either. I'm not really sure why you are sounding so affronted by it - presumably you are looking for a place in private school?

My thoughts exactly. Best to treat everyone the same. Otherwise, next they’d be accused of discriminating.

Congratulations again orangetiger. I have to say I’m envious you know already . Roll on tomorrow

But that’s got nothing to do with an offer. An offer does not mean acceptance. Many pupils get offered indie and grammar, so how does knowing that they’ve been offered an independent place mean anything in terms of keeping track of pupils? I don’t know of anyone at our school that has let our head know on state offer day whether they are accepting the indie place or the grammar or the state comp.

And the PP was referring to a 10+ offer in any case, not 11+. So if they were to take up the offer, they would let the school know anyway that they were going to withdraw the child for Y6.

I’m sure the state heads are thrilled when they get told the results. But so are the parents! I get that it’s easier for the secondaries to just tell everyone, but my opinion is still the same, that given the primary has had no involvement in the process, there is no reason why they should be told of an offer - or at least certainly not ahead of the parents knowing.

orange, I already have one DS at T, having been at a state primary. I myself went to an indie, having been at a state primary. I really don’t care which school people came from, and nor do the staff or pupils. I have no issue with prep schools at all, we just didn’t see the point when we had a perfectly good primary a 5 min walk away.

I just don’t see why the offer is any business of my head - is that so hard to understand?