Blackheath High GDST 11+ entrance exam

[Dondi74]

SE London mums, can you help? I have read a lot on here about Blackheath High and having visited as well, I am v. keen for our DD to go there (she is in Y5 at a local primary at the moment). I am however worried about her chances in the entrance exams; she has been practicing the GL Assessment papers and scores well when she focuses, but she is not always in the mood and can be quite resistant. She also has trouble focusing sometimes and can drift off, losing time and not finishing. We have a few months to get her in shape, but I don't know if it is worth the effort as she is not practicing regularly enough at the moment. Does anyone have any info on how difficult the exams are, say compared to a grammar school entry exam - what sort of score is needed to pass, how many places are offered compared to applicants etc? DD is never going to be a top scorer and get a scholarship; I just would like to get a feeling for the odds of her getting in at all. Thanks in advance.

Have never known anyone to be declined, am sure she'll be fine

I know 2 girls who were on the waiting list last year - one of them received an offer, other didnt. In Blackheath High 11+ assesment they ask 50 questions in Maths, in English and VR and girls has 150 in total to answer the questions. Ofcourse they give breaks between each tests. My daughter also did BH 11+ test and I remember she said it was tiring. Last year about %76 BH junior school moved to BH senior. BH has 4 year group and each classroom there are about 19-20 girls. Meanwhile I know a girl who was avarage child in state primary and had an offer from BH and in the end she had all A*- A from her all GCSEs. They support girls a lot and they do so much practice to improve their levels. In year 7 I remember they had Math assessment every 2 months and that really helped us. School is defintely not pushy but they contact you when they feel your daughter needs to practice more for their assessments. My daughter received about %50 (from Latin assesment in y7 and I remember her teacher called me and informed me about it). If girls need they can get extra support in lunch time or after school for Math or for their homework. I think BH is amazing school, they improve girls grades so much thats why I love it! My daughter got art scholarship but she never liked Science in the primary but know we do expect A from her. Local schools like Colfes or Eltham College (they are much more selective in 7+ and 11+) but if you consider them as a selective school their results are not perfect at all! - But BH is doing great job, their first entry point is nursery and all junior girls can move to senior without needing to pass the 11+ test! When you consider that their results are really good! But most importantly the environment and teaching quality also very good! We are so happy. Hope your daughter will have a place and I believe end of year 11 she will have perfect GCSE grades like other girls in BH! Good luck 🍀

This is from Blackheath High Head!

By the way I mentioned Colfes and Eltham College because my son was in Eltham College than he moved to Colfes (he received large amount of scholarship and he preferred Colfes sport and fully mixed school in secondary). I do school run between 2 schools for ages but never considered exam results or how selective they are when I chose school for my kids. My daughter had an offer from Colfes too - my life was going to be so easier if they were in the same school but preferred BH because we believe it is the right place for her.

2 years ago I was told that they were about 295 girls in the 11+ assessment but some Blackheath High Junior students also take the exam… they don’t need to pass the test but girls need to do the test if they would like to apply for the scholarship. There are about 80 girls in the year 7 and at least 2/3 comes from the Juniors. What is her score in GL Assessment papers? @Dondi74

Hi, thanks for replying. We have just started the papers, as we were not sure whether or not to put her forward for the exams. She has so far been doing them one half at a time - 25 questions in 25 minutes - to build up stamina (staying focused for a long time is her biggest area for development). She scored 90% or more in each of them, well inside time. She does need to build the ability to complete the whole paper in one sitting, but I was encouraged by her scores.

%90 is not bad at all and she still has time till end of November! @Dondi74

@Dondi74 did you liked the school when you visited? - thats so important!

@shinesparklesmile We did. We weren't going to bother looking at independent or grammar schools as we had reservations about DD's ability to perform under exam pressure. But we went and loved it. The odds seem pretty stacked against though, if there are close on 300 applicants for 30 or so places.