11+ waiting for results

[Mumoftwinsandanother]

Hi there

My twins have both taken the 11+ in Bucks today. Results come out on 13th October, I think. It could really go either way for both of them. My biggest fear is that one gets in and the other does not (really quite possible).
Saw that last year there was a thread from parents during the waiting period and I wondered if anyone wanted to take part in a hand holding thread this year (for any county). Obviously have to be very careful what I say to DTs so would be useful to vent here.

Anyone else in similar position?

Still 5 days to go for Essex! Is anyone else going slowly insane?

Yep. Get posted out tomorrow so will hopefully get the letter on Saturday but could have to wait till Monday

I wasn't expecting results until tomorrow (Kent) but they came today. Dd passed both with a comfortable margin and she is so happy. And I'm really proud.

We didn't tutor so though I was confident she would do well, I did have some "oh fuck" pangs when I realised everyone else was using tutors.

On the back of her results dd will be guaranteed a place at local girls grammar. Really happy for her.

Another good pass for DS here in Kent. So glad it's over! Well done to everyone who's had good news, and hugs to those who haven't.

We are in Birmingham, DS got a score of 246. So proud of him.

Well done for all the passes and sorry to those who haven't.

@Holidayshopping yes this week feels like it's going backwards. Tuesday is taking forever to arrive. Monday is going to be painful, especially knowing the school knows and we don't.

Yes, I agree. It’s best to avoid the y6 teacher’s eye! I’ve taught Y6-it’s not much fun for them on that day either!!

Have you got a good plan B?

Unbelievable!
So you Kent lot are all wringing your hands because you may or may not get into Grammar and have the audacity to complain about the admission criteria to Bennett Memorial . A school you wouldn't give a second thought to if your kids 'made it to grammar' (despite god knows how much coaching )

Why do you think Bennett is so popular ? A why the admission criteria is so stringent ? Perhaps its to stop it being used a a 'second' choice for 11+ failure. And BECAUSE it has its Christian ethos at the heart of everything it does. Christian in the true sense of the word. Kind, Charitable and caring.

It works hard to make sure it isn't a second choice.
I am vehemently anti - grammar having seen fabulously gifted children denied a place a grammar because their parent can't afford to coach them through the exam ahead of less clever children with money. Until that changes and grammar is once again awarded in genuine merit it is just a free school for posh kids.

My children all went to Bennett Memorial. My eldest is just finishing her 4th year at Uni along side her 2 best friends who went to TWGGS. I refused to put my children through the grim brag-fest that is the current 11+.
They are better people for it.

Well done to everyone, my DD just passed for South Wilts grammar school 11+ but being totally unprepared I know very little about the school and wondered if anyone out there had any experiences of it they could share. Looking round it next week but DD is adamant she wants to go there inspire of it meaning her leaving her middle school....confused dot com! Thanks all! X

I think that's pretty harsh, fontofallknowledge. I don't like the 11+ system much, but I do have an academically-inclined child, and I do think that, of the schools open to him, the grammars would suit him best. If he hadn't passed 11+, then Bennett would probably have suited him best - but I would only have got in if I had asked the local vicar to 'big up' my church attendance - which, given our friendly relationship, I'm sure he would have done. However, I would not have done that - it would have gone against my own values and morals. I totally agree that grammars are (largely) free schools for advantaged kids. However, if all the parents of kids who've got into Bennett have genuine faith or genuinely intend to continue attending church once their kids are through the door, I will eat my hat. And very often it's the 'advantaged' parents with the sharpest elbows who are most likely to 'find God'.

Good on ya Font

Personally I'm appalled at the level of involvement religion has on education in uk. I'd do away with it completely.

We chose a non religious primary ( not much choice once all the church schools are ruled out) but it turns our HT is an evangelist and the dc now have more god pushed on them than ever before. Really bothers me but not much I can do about it.

Back on the thread in advance of results coming out here tomorrow - I shall be hovering over my email account mid afternoon! It’s felt like a long month..

I’m trying to put it out of my mind but really not looking forward to Tuesday. DD worked so incredibly hard but I’m not sure it was enough. She’s going to be gutted if she doesn’t get in.

Still no word from Reading. The more I think about it, the more I feel DS2 can't have passed, as we did no tutoring, and only a few practise tests. And we're both hopeless at maths! 😆 He loves the local comp so I know he won't mind if he doesn't pass, but I'd hate it to dent his confidence.

MASSIVE congrats to all the lovely passers on here! Well done to all of you! And hugs to everyone who didn't get the result they wanted.

My DS1 got his Kent test result today too and it's a pass. I'm so pleased for him, he really surprised me with his focus and hard work all Y5. He got through with a very good margin too.

He's just above the scoring level to be able to apply to super selective schools too. Would he struggle there though as he's only about 10 points above the cut of point? How an earth are we going to come to the right decision??

He had tutor ever Saturday and dutifully did his home work but we weren't particularly pushy with him. I know another local family who's son had the same tutor as ours but he also went to group tutoring. So two lots of tutor home work on top of school work.

Being atheists, faith schools have been out of the question for us. I agree with Clitterati that school and religion shouldn't mix. It really irks me how much praying and god pushing is done in our DC primary school. And it's a fairly bog standard primary. When DC1 started there, it never occurred to me how much religion they actually push on the kids.

In our old mixed faith london school Re was very much about learning about different religions and beliefs.

Now we are in a less diverse area it's about "let's all pray to Christian god who is actually real". I'm astonished they can do this.

Well done everyone for getting through this process. We celebrated when dd sat the exams as I wanted the message to be about her effort regardless of the result.

@Holidayshopping yes our catchment school is good, we are very lucky as a couple of miles up the road it's a different story.

Still waiting impatiently for Essex results though not expecting a pass having seen the raw score for maths last weekend. It's not something a lot of people, DH included, understand or care about so I'm keeping my anxieties inside!

It's been a long week although my DD came home yesterday with a certificate for demonstrating a "wonderful attitude towards learning" and has been nominated by her teacher to buddy some year 5's who are struggling - it sums her up really; she loves learning and praise and she's patient & kind in helping others who don't get it as quickly- the more I think about it I wonder if she's better suited to non-selective no matter the result.

The weekend is going to draaaag!

Brisklady . Surely you can see that by choosing Grammars for your 'academically inclined' child - as a 'best fit' , but then go on to say that Bennett would have been your second choice - then you are saying Bennett is not as acceptable for academic reasons (A non-selective comprehensive school that hasn't creamed off the top academic achievers , yet routinely places equivalent numbers as the Grammars at Oxbridge and RG unis. )
It's for exactly this reason that Bennett has difficult entry procedures. To prevent parents who have thrown everything they've got - at 'getting their kids through' - then trying to get into Bennett as an after-thought , if they fail. Thus making Bennett a school for 11+ failures.
The VAST majority of children at Bennett opted out of the 11+. Their parents deciding from an early age they were not going to enter into the divisive and highly pressured system. They choose Bennett because it's NOT selective. Not because their children HAVEN'T BEEN selected.

Yes Bennett is based on church attendance , it is not based on the size of your wallet as Grammars now are.
Church attendance is open to all, no matter your income. This means that my children have attended a school with children from all economic backgrounds. (and religions by the way) .

By supporting an 11+ system that you 'don't like much' when you actually have the choice of a school with comparative results that doesn't categorise children at 11 as clever or stupid - only perpetuates the grisliness of the whole system.
That for me would be the greater moral dilemma.

@totallyliterally I think we must live a few miles up the road from you !

I think Tuesday is going to be horrible.

Sorry, don't to want to derail thread. But Font, you're incredibly defensive about Bennett! I know how academically strong it is. I'm basing on a small sample, but the children I know who go there are one who failed 11+ and one who chose it despite an 11+ pass. But you're misunderstanding me - Bennett wouldn't have been our actual second choice, even though academically it would suit DS well, because I would have to have lied to get in there. How would that have made me morally superior to those who take the 11+? In an ideal world all schools would be first class true comprehensives, which cater just as well for v clever kids and not v clever kids. But in Kent, that school doesn't exist for us. So I will send my child to the school where I think he will be happiest and make best progress

If Bennett had been an option I probably wouldn’t have put DD through the 11 plus. Which one is morally worse, faking religion for a school place or tutoring for grammar?

I don’t think there’s much Christian about a school which fails to serve the needs of the local community. Not all children fall into the neat two camps of church going and not doing the 11 plus or being tutored for the 11 plus. As it stands a child can live minutes from the largest comprehensive school in the area, watch a stream of busses come in every day bringing children in from miles around and not be able to go to that school because their family doesn’t have, or fake, faith.

@Fontofnoknowledge where we live going to church is a very middle class activity so your argument is flawed from the outset.

Absolutely. Having a strict religious entry criteria is a well known ploy of schools to keep the “riffraff” out. In theory religion is open to all, in practice a child from a chaotic and dysfunctional family is very unlikely to have parents with either the will or the ability to for fill that criteria. At least grammars don’t pretend to be anything other than elitist, a comprehensive school should be comprehensive.

don’t think there’s much Christian about a school which fails to serve the needs of the local community. Not all children fall into the neat two camps of church going and not doing the 11 plus or being tutored for the 11 plus. As it stands a child can live minutes from the largest comprehensive school in the area, watch a stream of busses come in every day bringing children in from miles around and not be able to go to that school because their family doesn’t have, or fake, faith.

Brilliantly put.

Helipad - I have some experience of this, feel free to PM me for more info. DS (Y10) is at an SS and doing well - sure, there are some stellar kids there but the majority are like him. I was nervous of sending him there, but it was absolutely the right choice.