11+ Exams - Are we being realistic? / Waiting List offers

[Greenstheword]

This is my second time going through the 11+ process. Eldest DS was a breeze - academic and enthusiastic about revising for exams.

My 10 year old DS who is now sitting exams is mildly dyslexic and scoring 100-120 on CAT tests, depending on the day.

He has problems with spelling and his handwriting is slow and untidy. His Maths is great but he rushes and makes mistakes. On ISEB papers he generally scores in the 80's % On Atom he's scoring on average 115.

I am worried he will end up without any offers at all. We just learned he did not make the second round for Kingston Grammar. Our other schools are:

Hampton, Reeds, Emanuel, Ibstock and Radnor House. Realise he's unlikely profile for Ibstock but didn't want to leave it out as we live very close by.

Has anyone had WL offers from the above schools and did your DC have a similar profile.

Which school is your older ds attending as you may get the benefit of sibling link? In terms of the ability of your older ds's cohort has this helped with your school selection?
Best of luck for your ds tomorrow at Hampton but as your probably know it's a really tough entrance exam even for those you are eventually offered a place. The schools looks for equal ability in both subjects, ie there is no one in my child's class when he started who was obviously weaker at maths or English

My older DS is at Hampton.

In terms of ability, there is a wide range in his year group. DS probably sits in the middle. Some boys have dyslexia or other ND.

So no sibling preference really unless it's very borderline in which case they would opt to keep children from the same family together.

I wonder if I am being completely unrealistic in applying there with younger DS looking at the disparity in their CAT scores.

@Greenstheword , it's such a great school as you know and your younger ds will get an offer if they think he will thrive. Yes agree re dyslexia and ND.

I certainly know DCs at Radnor who sound similar- a couple were allowed to use laptops in 11+ due to poor handwriting.

OP and @hockeygrass - how do you know abilities in your child's classes? Both of mine are at selective independents and I wouldn't have a clue how any other child is doing unless I knew their parents and they told me!

Well being honest, I don’t think he will get Hampton with those scores . He has a chance at reeds (in my child’s year the boys who got offers were 120-125ish) but I can’t imagine Emmanuel or ibstock either. How did you decide on these schools?
We had similar scores and same dyslexia and we would not have considered these choices and were advised not to by prep school.
You have a chance at radnor this year (although previous years have shunned SEN) as they need to fill kneller hall - sorry to be blunt but the 11+ with SEN is a totally different ball game and you need to be realistic about the schools that will want and accept a dyslexic child.
Are you at a prep school? You will have a better chance at these schools if you have your head teacher fighting your corner if you get waitlisted and they have a good relationship with these schools.

Suppose it will depend on the competition this year - my boy was 120 last yr (god knows what he did in the exams) and he's on a waiting list place at reeds and still no call .... suppose every year is different.

Hope that the cost of living will put off some people so less competition....

Can he stay at his prep school for yr 7/8?

What did the headmaster say?

Which local schools did you apply to?

I don’t think you need to be too concerned about the CAT scores. On another thread the consensus seems to be that they are only looked at in borderline cases, if at all.

80s in ISEB papers and 115 in atom mocks seems fine to me for Emanuel and Ibstock. Remember you need to add around 8 points to an atom score.

Hampton might be a push. I don’t know about Radnor or Reeds.

Using CAT and Atom scores as a guide really - to get an idea of how he might perform in exams. He is very variable. One day might score 135 in Maths and the next day score 105 in English.

We do not want boarding and less academic options seem limited. Unless you travel an hour+

In two minds about Ibstock. I repeatedly hear that they are not supportive of dyslexia or any neuro diversity at all.

@boredboredbore , I can see the pace the dc are taught at and everyone seems to keep up. My dd is at Surbiton High and the teaching styles and pace are very different yet my dd got great GCSE results (although they were TAGS). In the first few years at hampton - when they studied The Inspector calls which is a gcse text - as their year 7 summer term book, I asked my 11 year old son if everyone in the class could answer the question - what does this play tell you about the class system in England at the time? and he said yes! My dd then studied the play when she was 16!

He can stay on at Prep until 13 but the idea of being in limbo for another year doesn't fill me with joy.

We would be thrilled with Reeds just not sure how realistic that is. Ibstock could be doable with scores/ability range but I hear only negative feedback about the school locally.

I think Ibstock is changing and I know a few happy families there. A couple of the families have DCs at both Hampton and Ibstock actually. I know they used to be dire with any SEN but again, I think this is changing?

Two things you need to think about is whether the school will support your child’s dyslexia and whether the school teaches at the right pace for him. It does seem you have aimed rather high and hope that he will sneak into one of them on a good day. Reeds is v supportive of ND children but unless he is amazing at sport, music, art or something else it can be hard to get a place just due to the sheer number of applicants. I would have set Reeds as your aspirational school and had the lines of Halliford and Radnor as back ups.

Radnor definitely there on the list. I think DS hasn't reached his stride yet and on a good day gets top scores in Maths (140). Hence the aspirational schools for 13+.

Ibstock have refused any exam concessions for his dyslexia - all our other schools have offered them. This makes reconsider whether to sit the exam for IPS. Not sure I want to put him through another exam and group assessment unnecessarily.

I pulled out of any school that wouldn’t give my DC the concessions of extra time and lap top. He still gets those concessions in every exam at his senior school.

If he's at a Prep I wouldn't sit Ibstock then but would say that Radnor is a good bet.
You could try Latymer for a year 8 place next year. Very good SEN support and they do have occasional places at y8 and y9, although maybe not great location wise for you.

I had Latymer Upper down as one of the more academic schools - on a par with KGS?

It's quite a bit harder to get into than KGS but possibly good for a spiky profile and SEN?
I'd not panic yet anyway and see what happens. Don't let the KGS result knock you.

I think you'll be ok with Radnor House, they have lots of places to fill.

Halliford might suit him. More interested in the individual than the test results...

@Greenstheword I feel for you, going through this exact 11+ and SEN nightmare now for the same schools as you!

if I were you I’d go for these and see what happens
for us Kingston was the only one that didn’t give extra time, everything else was very accommodating!

good luck with Radnor today x

@Greenstheword how did your DC find Radnor? Mine was chatting about manta rays 😂

They seemed happy and yes the descriptive writing was some sort of ray in the ocean. The CEM tests sounded like a lot in the timeframe - 30 questions for each subject in quite a short time - 10-15 minutes? (this could be wrong!)