Guildford high school (GHS) senior school question

[NewGHSmum]

Hello,

My DD will be joining GHS in Yr 7 in Sept 2022. She is currently at a prep school. We received her SAT results today, and she has done amazingly well in Maths and Grammar, but not so much in Reading(Comprehension). Her scaled score is reading is 106.
My worry is if this means that she will be placed in lower English sets in Yr7 ? Can existing GHS parents please shed some light on how GHS decides on sets in English and Maths in Yr 7 ? Is it based on SAT scores or they do their own assesments ?
Also, do they regularly redistribute and move girls to a higher set if they perform well ?

I will be very greatful for any insights xx

I'm not a parent but they break up for the summer holidays today so everything for September is already finalised. Also how would they know the result?

I went to GHS (although admittedly a long time ago) We weren’t streamed for English at all. Maths we were streamed but I can’t remember when or how but I certainly don’t think they took any pre-entry tests into consideration.

Does this really matter? Everyone who goes to GHS will have done amazingly well in their previous schools, entrance exams et cetera. They've got to divide the classes up somehow though?

My DD went to GHS. I don't remember her being streamed immediately in year 7 but she may have been. Either way, they are very good at assessing ability and if your DD is in the lower set it's likely that's the right place for her. Girls do move between sets fairly regularly.

@1Wanda1 Thanks for your response!
As long as they assess in Yr 7 before creating ability sets, I am happy with whatever set DD is based on her ability. It's just that she has already achieved highly except the SAT score in reading and so I just want to ensure she will not be stuck in that range in senior school.
Do you know if GHS set GCSE predicted scores based on SAT's ? Another worry on my mind!

Lots of prep schools don't sit SATs and not all schools would share the results.

GHS are not really interested in SATs, from memory. In the junior school there they do them in year 5.

I'd really recommend not getting too wound up about your daughter being in a particular set. She's at GHS, one of the most academic schools in the country. It's already quite high pressure without the parents adding their own expectations. My DD is super-bright (when she left GHS one of her teachers wrote that she was in the top 3 in her year). Even so, she was in top sets for some subjects and lower sets for others. It's an unfortunate fact that in the senior school the girls (depending on the cohort) can get a bit competitive, which I think really needs to be balanced by the parents. If my DD came home with 97% in an exam she'd be devastated if someone else got higher. That is obviously not a good perspective. It's a great school for bright, motivated girls, but not a happy experience for those who feel the weight of expectation to always be the best.

They don't set them for English at all so don't worry about the result. Also, they'll do Midyis and take more notice of that than SATS.

This was posted couple of weeks ago but I will still reply. Those results don't matter at all: sets are only for Maths, and they move the girls around. My daughter is doing much better in the Senior School than in Junior. Forget about SATS results and enjoy the summer.

Why are you so worried about this? If that's where she is performing, then it's best she's placed in the appropriate class. Are you trying to be hyper competitive before your DD even arrives at school? Relax, let the school do it's job.

I agree with everyone else. When mine were there, not that long ago, they set only for maths. They were taught in form groups until October half term and then moved into their sets after that.

And yes, girls did move up and down sets as time went on.

Selective schools don’t tend to set for English…it’s often only Maths and even then not usually in the First Form.

This is a super selective school where the ability range is less than usual - they are all bright girls. No setting.

Most independents don’t t even look at SATS S results if they receive them. Bear in mind that the majority probably come from Preps that dont do SATs they aren’t useful as everyone won’t have them.

It will be Midyis or CAT4 testing, which are essentially like IQ tests which are sat by schools, either at end of summer term before joining or autumn term. Often this is more so the school has a sense of the ability of the cohort, rather than being about individuals. It can also be used to highlight possible special needs which can exist even in very bright students - spiky profile which means significant differences in skills such as maths and perhaps verbal reasoning might just make the school look again at a student and think about them ab it more, in case there is some help or way of tailoring learning to help them achieve their best. These results don’t tend to be shared with parents or students…for internal school purposes.