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!

[lilybookins]

Pudding - sorry, yes that's right, think they did do interviews for (academic) scholarships AFTER the exam last year.

[Robotsandunicorns]

Hi Emma we are in the same boat. We got a no from T today 😓 And my son loved that school.

We have W on Monday so need to focus on that. 😬

[isa2]

Information from DC previously seemed to suggest Mon 15th is a poss interview day! Haven't heard anything from them though. Does anyone know how they organise things? Realising a bit of a nightmare getting all this time off work at no notice, especially if we aim for both parents present! Thanks for any DC insights.

[spacecadet48]

My son did DC on Monday too and haven't heard a thing either. I believe they send letters out to everyone within a few days of the exam both those not successful and also invites to interview. My neighbour is one of the admissions registrars so if need be I will pop along and ask. I am not expecting an invite for DC, competition is high and they only have around 70 places for 11+ as they have around 70 from the prep that move up.

[MeetieVonWrinkleSqueak]

Oh, robots, sorry to hear that. Best of luck with the W interview.

[Tolacar]

My so nice also sat for DC but haven't heard anything yet. According to the pack info, they said letters of invitation for interview will be sent out within a week of the exam. Interviews take place 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 22nd and 23rd. They also said that if your son is not invited to interview they will send a letter to let you know. So I'm guessing we should hear by tomorrow or Monday? I don't know anyone with a DC interview as yet and a few boys from DS school took the exam.

[Tolacar]

Meant to say my son! Not so nice...😂

[Tolacar]

How do you tag someone's name in a post?

[spacecadet48]

Isa2 I should add that interviews for DC I believe start on Monday and I am not sure how long they go on for. Good luck for your DS.....I just want it all over!

[LordWalterTheCourageous]

Hi everyone please could I ask those people who have secured interviews / places at Whitgift or Trinity what your top 5 tips would be for exam preparation?

My son will be doing the exams next year Jan 19 currently in Y5 and we want to start with some early preparation in the coming months.

Useful resources
Tutoring
General preparation for the exams
Advice on scholarships DS is quite sporty swimming, taekwondo, rugby.

Post here or message me thanks in advance and good luck to everyone with interviews.

[sooooooonowwhat]

Sorry to hear your news Robots, fingers crossed for your ds's Whitgift interview! Re DC, we sat too but haven't heard anything yet. A number of ds's friends sat dc too and they all seemed to find it pretty easy - ds also felt it was the easiest which we were initially really pleased about but makes me think that it seems to have been an easier paper in general so best not to get complacent. Plus ds is prone to making silly mistakes when he finds things easy, so let's see. Would be nice to find out if we have an interview before the weekend as ds has another exam Saturday.

Lordwalter I'm not sure I have much to give in terms of advice. Ds is at a prep and after a brief panic at the start of year 5 I just decided to let him do what the prep said as there seemed to be plenty to keep him busy. In ds's case we spent a lot of time on his extra-curricular interests as he loves it and I felt the prep had everything else covered, his head said this was likely to count in his favour as it shows he hasn't just been cramming for the past few years! If you're at state, I'd say the main things the prep does is to VR and NVR half an hour a week for 2 years, they encourage us to read with ds every day but can't say we honestly always managed it, he was in the extension maths group where they got to do lots of lateral thinking type stuff that I think is the kind of thing that is useful for scholarships, he had some UK maths challenge papers for homework. This last term (year 6) they did exam papers for all subjects every week. We still don't know if he's passed for any school apart from T yet and even so don't know if he will get a place, so not sure if this is the best strategy but I didn't have the time and either did ds to do more! We figured he would get into a decent school and then even if it wasn't a super academic one he would be fine! If ds had been at state I would have got hold of exam papers/syllabus early and made sure he had covered everything, through a tutor if needed. Hths.

[spacecadet48]

Lord Walter
My advice as I am now on child 3 going through it is as follows:

• Visit all the schools your interested in
  
• Have a list of preferred options
  
• If going for Alleyns/DC or those schools that are highly competitive with a small number of places be aware that they are expecting at least level 6 in KS2 and if child is in a state school it can be a big ask without tuition. An hour a week isn't enough and you will have to help him to do papers during the week. Check the schools and what exam style they use. Some use online ISEB, some are part online, schools have some sample papers too available on the website
  
• Get him used to doing exam papers, there are level 6 key stage 2 available online to download, Bond books I used stretch for my DS, I also used the Galore Park books too as they cover ISEB. There are alot of 11+ prep books available .NVR and VR is a must and lots of reading. My DS hated reading and it shows in his vocab
  
• Practice, practice
  
• As for sports some schools will expect your DS to be at county club level for team sports and/or a certain level for others. Whitgift for example will do a intensive fitness test that they have to do before even being tested on the chosen sport. So worth looking around at the schools that offer sports scholarships as not all do at 11+
  
  if your DS is at a prep they will do alot of the work for you!

[orangetiger]

We have invite for sports assessment and interview for whitgift.. anyone know how many boys do the sports assessment versus get scholarships? also how likely are you to be offered a place if you have an interivew? new to all this...

[orangina]

So do you think that letters from DC might start arriving from tomorrow? Eeek!

[spacecadet48]

I am certainly expecting a letter with good or bad news from DC in the next couple of days.

[Monkey533]

This is a bit of a tangent, but DS is at a state , "top table" across the board in class but not really sure what his options would be when moving to secondary as don't know how that will compare with other students outside of the school. The school seems to do absolutely no prep for moving into independent secondaries.

We were expecting to start tutoring him next year but wondered if there were places that would do a one-off assessment of what problem areas might be (NVR for instance I think he may struggle with.) and even better if they can give advice specific to the local indies and not-so-local grammars.

Any recommendations?

[MeetieVonWrinkleSqueak]

monkey a good tutor should spend the first session assessing your DS and then tutor accordingly - they shouldn’t have a set approach/work scheme that they use with every child.

They should also know the local schools a bit too.

Neither W or T have a NVR paper at the moment, so it’s worth checking with the schools you are thinking of applying to first, before possibly wasting time on it. But again that’s the sort of thing that a good tutor would know anyway.

(We were/are state primary as well).

[PopGoesTheWeaz]

Thanks, I guess I just wanted to do that first session ahead of starting the actual tutoring to get a gauge of what was realistic, and see if we could do a soft start on practice in any problem areas before next year. But maybe I just need to ask around for tutors and see what they suggest.

[AnotherNewt]

For DC, good news is a phone call (and they sometimes ring well into the evening) offering an interview time. Letter/email confirming it follows (if they still bother with those)

Alleyns I think the same.

The 'no interview' letters will (usually) be sent out once they've done the ringing round. Pretty sure they're paper letters.

[LordWalterTheCourageous]

Thanks for the advice.

Son is at independant prep school right now Whitgift being his first choice school followed by Trinity.

He is a bright boy but can be lazy and over confident in his abilities.

This is the reason I am looking for advice to start preparations well in advance. Your advice is much appreciated so I can get things moving.

[LordWalterTheCourageous]

Thanks for the advice.

Son is at independant prep school right now Whitgift being his first choice school followed by Trinity.

He is a bright boy but can be lazy and over confident in his abilities.

This is the reason I am looking for advice to start preparations well in advance. Your advice is much appreciated so I can get things moving.

[SoupDragon]

they are expecting at least level 6 in KS2

This is not possible as there is no level 6 any more is there? The levels changed in 2016 I think.

[SoupDragon]

they are expecting at least level 6 in KS2

This is not possible as there is no level 6 any more is there? The levels changed in 2016 I think.

[spacecadet48]

Soup Dragon...wasnt aware of the change in KS2 but the top local privates were looking for L6 standard previously. That hasn't changed and if you look at Alleyns papers they certainly are not a level my son was doing at his local state for level 5. It's tough going for kids as my eldest didn't experience such tough competition and that was ten years ago but i noticed the difference when my daughter sat 11+ 3 yrs ago. Anyway it's all fine if your child is in a prep and bright but harder for those in state trying to compete.

[spacecadet48]

I should add SoupDragon that it's not all private schools that look for that level. Alleyne, JAGS, to a lesser extent DC but tough anyway due to smaller intake at 11+. My daughter and older son were shocked on looking at some.of the maths papers and my daughter who is in yr 9 said some of it is yr 7 level. That's why i am careful with the schools i choose. My kids have gone to a very good local state however there not prepping kids for entrance exams. Some friends moved there kids into prep because of that. As they have them drilled by yr 5 and yr 6 is practice. Anyway i saw the difference in the years between my eldest and DD and made sure my 3rd was better prepared. Anyway it's bloody stressful but I am hoping for whitgift for my DS but will see!