Alleyn's 11+ 2019

[Vargas]

I have seen threads for Whitgift/Trinity, Dulwich College and others but I haven't seen much about Alleyn's.

My dd sat the exam last Tuesday. She found it "not too bad" but definitely got one of the later Maths questions wrong.

Just wondering if anyone else on MN waiting to hear about interviews?

Commiserations to those that didn't get Alleyns - easy for me to say but the kids do seem to end up at the right schools for them and Alleyns has far fewer places at 11+ as it's co-Ed and the children also come up from their own prep.

I can see what JCdaddy means. There is a certain cohort of child that will have been intensively prepared for the 11+ and the super selectives (mine included) and unfortunately it does seem to take this sort of level of preparation to get through. My ds won places with academic scholarships at both Alleyns, DC and WUS (without scholarship). Some of his classmates didn't pass the Grammar school tests but were tutored - some received offers from both or one or the other or none. They were all taught the importance of going for the big point questions and getting to the end of the paper to maximise marks. The slightly less academic ones seemed to have things like county rugby or grade 5 instrument qualifications. I also think they favour the children of certain schools. Ds school had about 12 offers from about 20 sitting the test.

there will always be kids who get places across the board. (I think you may have mentioned your ds's stellar performance a couple of times before MrsP!) - my point was that for most kids, the results are a mixed bag and there is little consistency.

and all of these schools will only be considering academic performance in considering who to invites to interview. grade 5 / county rugby has no bearing on that.

Sorry, genuinely not mean I go to boast, just trying to illustrate the level of preparedness (is that a word?) for these types of exams. Unfortunately we couldn't leave things to chance as we were bursary candidates so knew ds had to perform well. Horrible system but I guess we had a choice to do it or not!

On a separate note, does anyone know how many DC are usually invited for the 11+ academic scholarship interviews at Alleyns?

How many scholarships are on offer and what the interview questions are like?

Many thanks.

89fomveg there were about 3-4 children who went in (to different staff members) at our allotted time. We hung around afterwards as we were chatting to people we knew (and there were nice biscuits!). There was a steady stream of kids but not too many. Alleyns also have top scholarships, think they're called Sadlers Scholars' but you don't know whether you will be offered one of these until you accept the place.

Basically there's a general interview, 'what are you reading, hypothetical question' type of conversation (see threads below) and then an English and maths interview. Can't remember the maths but the English was a discussion on a poem. Maybe look through poems about nature, youth, ageing etc. just to familiarise your child.

Last year there were six Saddlers Scholars (awarded to the top six children in the exam who accept the place at the school) and another fifteen academic scholars (some have a major award and some a minor award).

Thanks MrsP, really helpful. I don't find you boastful, I think it's really useful to find out what it takes to make it through the super selective exams.

And thanks Abetes for the info, the schools don't tend to give out this information so it is helpful to know roughly what the numbers are.

I don't think the schools just use the exams to make their decisions, they look closely at CAT scores and school reports too.

Thanks Abetes and MrsP for that valuable info.

I love hearing the opinions/advice of people who have been through this process before as it is incredibly helpful.

@JCDaddy actually our son is much stronger in maths than English :-)

@MrsPatmore would you mind telling me how long for and how often your DS was tutored? I am not from the UK and have one child only so no experience at all and it would be really helpful to hear how others prepared for the exams.

WildViking, ds started tutoring in the summer holiday prior to Year 5. This was mostly working on creative writing as he could only write a few sentences in 45 minutes and really disliked it. We went through a couple of 1-1 tutors during the holidays - I wasn't happy with their approaches. Ds then started with a group tutor for two hours on a Saturday who had a very rigid and quite formulaic approach. This tutor knew the exams for all of the top schools inside out. He did work them hard though - taught concepts in class/maths not covered yet by the curriculum, which mock exams to go for etc.

This approach worked for ds as he's quite logical but it was hard and it required a big commitment from me and ds. The thing I liked about the group was that ds was up against some very hard working and committed children. He was coasting a bit on the 'top' table at school but we found that quite a few of the top table children didn't get past the first rounds as they simply hadn't been taught the right technique to ensure speed and accuracy. I don't know anyone who got a place in these schools without formal tutoring, either at home or with a tutor, but there must be some? Ignore the schools when they say they can weed out the tutored kids - they can't!

MrsPatmore really helpful, thank you so much.

Thanks Mrs patmore for your posts. They give a very good insight. I would also say that rather than “weeding out”tutored children, the schools embrace it. That way their job is done!

Wow... I think I am still rather naive about this process MrsPatmore. I honestly never realised how much tutoring people do to get offers in these schools !

We didn't tutor at all - admittedly I am an actuary so I have the Maths covered.

Makes me realise we didn't stand a chance at Alleyn's ! And DC has very high CAT scores (2nd highest in his year) so I think with 900 applicants it is predominantly down to the exam and not CAT scores

My dd has never been tutored, but she does go to an independent school and they do 11+ preparation from summer term of Y5 onwards.

Vargas what kind of prep did they do please? Ours is independent too and they say the boys are fully prepared for 13+ but I am now not sure if that is enough. Our destination schools are Eaton, Harrow, St Paul's, King's, Westminster, Radley so all boys are fairly bright.

Wildviking - they did regular reasoning tests, practice exam papers in maths and English, and were encouraged to read regularly and widely. Nothing out of the ordinary, but much better done at school than at home from my point of view!

Many thanks Vargas

I have to say, it seems crazy to me that you would spend all that cash on a prep school and STILL use a tutor too - is that normal? What on earth are you paying the prep school for then if you still need top up? I think I'd feel very resentful about it or did you feel competition was so great and everyone else was doing it so you felt you had to?

I think it is possible for state kids to compete but I had no idea of the competitiveness or madness that went on with it until I was actually dropping my daughter at the exams.

She was at a state primary, decided on a whim in the July to put her in for a couple of Grammar school exams before the Jan exams for independents (as bursary applicants) and was completely shocked at the numbers. We saw frightened looking kids still being drilled on on practice papers in the car sat next to us at 7.30am in the morning, parents still drilling kids as waited in the queue.

I sent her into one which was just VR and NVR and she'd only done a few papers a couple of weeks before. I felt so bloody guilty but I didn't realise the madness that surrounds it - I heard stories of hot-housing at Sat schools, tutors since Yr 2 for x hours per week. It was horrible.

The independent exams didn't seem quite as crazy but again was shocked to hear that a lot of the girls, even from the prep school of the senior school still had tutors even though they'd been effectively prepping for that exam since they were 3 years old!

I might be wrong but I think if you get into one of these 'top' selective schools from a state school and have had no, or minimal tutoring then you must be v clever.

How did the interviews go today?

How best to prepare for Alleyn's academic scholarship interview? we have recently moved from another country and happen to receive AS interview invitation.

MTRT - sorry no idea how to prepare for scholarship interview! I have a feeling you aren't meant to prepare for them, but probably worth chatting to your dc about recent books read, what they like about the school etc... usual stuff.

Anyone get any feedback from dc's about interviews on Saturday? dd said it was 'fine', she was in a group with one other girl she knew which was nice. Her interviewer didn't have a badge on, she thinks he might have been a history teacher.

One of her best friends didn't get offered an interview and it is causing a little friction at school in her friendship group. This is why I hate this process, I think it can be really divisive. Hopefully it will all settle down once all the offers are out and the children can get excited about what schools they are going to.

Good luck to those doing scholarship interviews this week!

I’m in agreement with Vargas - I don’t believe there’s much to do by way of preparation other than to ensure my child knows the format of the interviews, is not too daunted by the process and can try to enjoy (!) themselves. (I may also have emphasised there will be nice biscuits afterwards)

Thank you Vargas and GreenPeas for feedback! This helps me relax, not that we have time to prep, with full time job and school!
Good to those who have interviews this week.

Thread is very quiet! 10 days to go...

Latest gossip in the playground is that Alleyn's interviewed fewer children than previous years. I could be wrong but sounds to me they are going down the route of only interviewing children they plan to offer to or waitlist? Anyone know any more?

I am sure in previous years they have had more than one interview day (for non-scholarships).

Good luck to all waiting, at least the girls' schools (SCHS and JAGS) offers come out this Friday, breaks it up a bit.

Morning Vargas, I was told on the day that there were 200 children being interviewed on that day. My DS was in group 5 at 1pm and I counted roughly about 25 DC in the group. So, guess they were divided into 8 groups during whole day.

Another 50 DC perhaps had an academic scholarship interview on separated day, I believe.