SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

[Jumpalicious]

Hello, I know there’s an excellent thread for the girls. Not sure if there’s one for the boys? Anyone want to come on board? I know we can’t divulge details of round two grammars since there will be late sitters, but was thinking more of a support thread. Any takers?

Flyingpandas- that's interesting and hopeful!!

Re Guildford - lots from our school apply to RGS especially if they have easy access to the train. Reeds, Claremont and St John's are popular as closer to home. We picked KGS as it fits with my work and it's a more academic co-ed but it's not that easy to get to in normal traffic.

@Northernsurreyandconfused, we thought about the weekend sports fixtures too... a Home fixture sounds good, but it could be that the Away matches are closer to your actual home. We ruled St. Johns, Leatherhead out on that basis - 40 min drive from us.

Originally, I was keen on schools with coaches. Depending on the school, the coaches only depart at a fixed time after school - meaning that if your DS wants to do an after-school club, they'd miss the transport home and you'd have to pick him up, yourself. Some of the school buses pick up at 7am and don't drop the boys home before 6pm (depending on where you are on their bus routes) - a v long day, before they even think about homework.

The Esher-Guildford train service is pretty regular and part of the RGS social life - they meet each other, the Tormead and GHS girls. DS has friends at RGS that live in Walton, Esher, Weybridge. In some respects, the train is more flexible for them to do after-school clubs and the boys build more independence.

Good luck with choosing. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to visit the schools in person... and you'll see how much your DS is at ease and sense what he feels about the school. At Reed's, I had to push my DS through some doors to see what was on display (odd, as he'd played cricket and tennis there for 3yrs), whereas at RGS, he'd chat to the boy showing us around and get involved with the demonstrations. Still baffled why there was such a difference...

Re Hampton coaches.r
Vast majority pick up 7.30 inwards and drop off by 5pm. Clubs run at during a long lunch break . You can look up all the coach routes online.

Pretty much down to waiting now I think. I’m not expecting an academic interview at Hampton - though that would be a good sign!

How are the nerves holding up? Twiddle thumbs and hoke school till the end of term....

Reading the posts - it seems like a lot of applications this year. Hopefully for my sake it is just multiple applications being made rather than a massive increase in boys applying..... not good for the nerves

Agreed on the waiting. DS also sat Reeds, and I think their offers come out fairly soon (Friday?), so hopefully we get good news there and then the pressure's off. Purely based on the fact that it was the same exam as Hampton (ISEB) and my assumption is that a Hampton interview is indicative of a good exam performance. Plus I listened in to his Reeds interview and thought it was one of his better ones, so fingers crossed.

That said, Reeds didn't invite him for a scholarship interview, so given that they used ISEB, I'm guessing that rules out Hampton. But I was never expecting a scholarship, I'd be happy with a place at a school that DS wants to attend. Which is all of our choices, so we'll see what happens! I just want the next few weeks to go very quickly...

Also, anyone else struggling with home schooling? DS's view is that there's not much point as exams are done. He has a couple of live lessons which are fine, but the rest of the day needs some sort of activity. If he were in school they'd be doing Young Enterprise type activities, but there's no home alternative as yet. I'm trying to get him Year 7 ready by doing some advanced maths etc. but all ideas welcome!

@BookShark I feel your pain! We have next to no school provision. Some basic maths and English which takes my child a few minutes. I’m not really sure how to support him. It was a bit more obvious with the 11+ (various 11+ books!) but what now? If our kids do get places at these various schools, will they be ready? Or maybe that’s the point: they will all be in the same boat, more or less. Schools may have to revise expectations of what the children know, or not. But maybe the gulf between prep and state will widen (eg are prep children already learning, say, Latin?). Anyway, jumping ahead of self. Places still need to be gained. Good luck one and all!

Snap! Limited provision on our side as well. Trying to ban screens during school day and main strategy is asking DS to read as much as he can. Letting him go and watch documentaries/ online lessons on things he finds interesting

He just isn’t interested now 11+ done in doing too much more, feels - probably fairly - he has done more than loads in his class already.

Feeling the pain on the home learning - our primary is actually not bad with provision and DS is well motivated, but finds it all fairly easy and races through the work (recorded rather than live lessons) and really they need to be doing more to extend the more able ones tbh.I encourage lots of reading here too and we have a morning screen ban but it’s still not ideal. But I guess they’re all going to be in the same boat to some extent.

@BookShark I had the same thought about scholarships - we were never expecting one anyway but as DS was not invited to the scholarship interview day for RGS, I would be literally on the floor with astonishment if he got invited to a Hampton one!

Good luck to the Reeds applicants btw...keeping fingers crossed for good news for you all this week.

@BookShark I don’t know anything about Reeds and their scholarship process. Have they decided who to call back for scholarship? Maybe their criteria might be different?

The big hope for scholarship interviews in my mind is that it is definitely positive feedback during this wait period. Anything to fill the wait, but not hopeful!

At least not getting an invite isn’t bad news as such....

From the website, I think their usual process is to call you back for an additional interview. But this isn't a usual year, so who knows?! As I said earlier, while a scholarship would obviously be lovely, we don't expect one, and it wouldn't be the deciding factor in picking a school, so other than it being a positive sign, I'm not going to worry about it too much.

@BookShark

All true. I wonder how well distributed the ISEB results have been at the top end for them to know who to offer scholarship to.

I’m pretty sure DS would groan if I told him we had another interview . Agreed, am not too bothered apart from it offering some positive news in the waiting period.

Give us an opportunity to focus on home schooling

Thanks for the wise words and advice. Good luck to everyone over the next month, will be checking back to see how you all get on.

Very much the same here on the home learning front. DS does all the work quickly and without much gusto, as doesn't see the point. Plays some Tetris and Temple Run, watches his various knowledge-focused YouTube channels and then in the evenings we compete in MathTrainer (mental maths website) and occasionally do a few challenging problems from past Olympiads (before you think we are some super clever boffins, think again, we tend to struggle,m which is more embarrassing for me! ;))

Oh, and thanks God there are many series of Dr Who, which we only started with a few months ago!

Home learning crap here, though better than it was in the first lockdown. The school is setting one lot of work for the whole ability range and not marking any of it anyway. DH is finding science and travel documentaries to watch with him, and he’s still doing some Atom stuff. But it’s not education, it’s just marking time.

We’re about to see if he’ll go for the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes adaptations, as we’ve got the whole lot on DVD. I’ve also been looking out old films to broaden his education a bit - we’ve had some success with Humphrey Bogart, particularly the African Queen.

Well done, better than us!

Oh funny, our boys all sound very similar! Reckon they’ll all get on if/when they go to school together (now there’s a thought :-)

@Growupsofast is your son compliant on the screen ban... or rather can you give me some tips on what you do, on this front? So much of his day seems to be messing around gaming on line (I’m working, which doesn’t help, plus I’m a soft touch, plus when he does work on school stuff, it’s too easy so he does it fast... like all your boys!). Not like I have to nag him to actually do any school work, just that there is none. Maybe I just need to crack down a bit more on the silly/as in pointless computer games he plays...

Like the old movie idea. Certain artistic wilderness where mathsy DS is concerned, haha.

Good luck one and all for, what, is this the education section’s “2 week wait”.

Ps @Growupsofast I have tried the reading direction. He seems to think 50 minutes of reading for pleasure (oxymoron in his mind) is some epic effort. Not one to curl up with a book. Occasionally had luck with certain books eg Harry Potter series, but otherwise, he seems to do a very little bit of reading interspersed with an aaaawful lot of nonsense computer games. And some useful YouTube videos.

Not saving it is easy. I often catch him, and we both work at home as well. Broadly our line is - school hours - no games or YouTube game videos - ie what would you do at school. We let him do whatever he wants while he eats lunch, before and after - within reason.

We let him choose his books, not suggesting they are intellectually demanding! I might try the educational YouTube videos suggested upchain.

Our problem is for some things he won’t engage if they are too easy - this is especially true as some of the maths is pretty straightforward. I’ve given up trying on that, not sure I have a great argument for why he should do it

@Growupsofast I’m so glad you said that about your DS’s books not necessarily being intellectually demanding! Mine is a keen reader but loves stuff like Dogman, Big Nate, Wimpy Kid etc. Definitely not classic literature

It if helps, re screen time, we’ve found what seems to be a reasonable happy medium - no screens till 12, which is when I go to work (in a school, so physically have to leave the house, and am not back till 5). Between 8-12 they get home learning done and have “reading breaks” of 15 minutes at a time between lessons.

The down side of that is that they are then pretty much glued to a screen from 12 onwards, sigh, but at least they get a screen free morning. DH (wfh) tries to block an hour out of his diary in the afternoons to play a board game with them, or take them out for a walk but quite often that doesn’t happen...

But they do seem to have accepted the morning screen ban (after initial protests!). Might be worth a try anyway.

These are great tips. Books. Yes, thinking on it, he will curl up with, ahem, the “non classics”. I think part of the problem re his computer “addiction” is that he facetimes with class buddies while computer gaming, so this is a bit of a social lifeline for him. But I think I’m going to impose a ban until noon.

Although again, as soon as I come down, he’s watching YouTube - seems to be part of his morning routine (& not always bad - useful videos too). But yes, I see his brain turning to rot. @Growupsofast do you ban all screens even first thing (we have done this in the past, but clearly this ban has long fizzled out).

The not marking school work thing happens here too. In fact, children just self mark. He therefore does next to nothing. Anyway good luck and thanks for tips!

With the days grinding slowly towards offers day, can I ask parents with recent experiences for DS at W or T provide any insights or ‘things they wish they knew now, before accepting the offer” I need a reality list of pros and cons to process with DS before being swept up in emotional decisions.

Have a look at UKMT - Junior Maths Challenge for maths extension during lockdown. The challenge is the end of April, although you may need to ask your school to allow your child to sit. My daughter has taken the challenge since year 5 and is now in year 8. I wish all junior schools would allow children to sit in year 5, as it really helps with 11+/13+ prep. It is a challenge that needs to be practiced beforehand though. Hope that helps!

A couple of action adventure series my DS is enjoying curled up under a blanket (and with the bonus movie also on tv) the Maze Runner - James Dashner, Hunger Games trilogy, Alex Rider series, this leads into James Bond (Daniel Craig sanitised editions) . I would prefer classic Sherlock Holmes or Charles Dickens but with home schooling that is above my pay grade and patience..