Henrietta Barnett practice papers

[HBswitch]

Hello

DD10 will appear for the Henrietta Barnett exam in September this year. She is doing very well at an academic private school - top 5 across a year group of 50 children. She has also been doing Atom Learning.

This has probably lulled us into complacency. she appeared for a mock exam (hosted by the Eleven Plus forum) and performed miserably in it. I need to increase the level of practice she is currently doing but i dont think we will benefit from tutoring at this stage.

What practise papers and mock tests do parents recommend which are at the right level for the Henrietta Barnett entrance assessment, please?

it switched to GL from CEM a few year ago there are no spatial NVR since.

In general it is unlikely for GL to introduce spatial as the 2D NVR is challenge enough but one can never say never.

Thank you.

Wishing all the children appearing for the HBS assessment next week the best of luck. DD has been assiduously attending mock tests and working through CGP books (the latter much easier than the mocks have been). This has helped, but she has an outside chance at best, I would say.

Good luck, the journey is far more important than the destination.

Just dropped in to mention that despite the odds, DD did make it to the second round at Henrietta Barnett. Very happy for her although of course it isn't over yet. We are in catchment so hopefully that will help.

Based on the historical data, within 3 miles the chance to get in is close to 100%.

Good luck

Anyone can shed some lights or the reasons for HBS headmistress Clare Wagner resignation just after 2 years in the post?

How does it work. Our DD got in 2nd stage and is prepping hard as we will move to HBS. Is there a last date to move in? Hypothetically, if all 104 top rankers are in catchment, then we don't have a chance?

@Hbs2ndstage I assume you mean you will move to HGS, not HBS.

The admission policies on HBS' website are helpful to read. if there are applicants in the top 300 appearing for Round 2 which meet any one of the criteria (looked after children, receiving pupil premium grants, within catchment) in that order, their scores (round 1 + 2) will not matter and they should be offered a place, assuming there is no over-subscription (ie number of such candidates <=104). The remaining candidates are sorted by rank order score for the places that remain. I believe historically there has not been over-subscription for criteria 1-3 combined. Of course, hypothetically there could be this year, but no reason to believe this is more likely.

Also, looks like the waitlist moves quite a bit between offer day and the school starting - I believe WL50 odd was offered this year (see the eleven plus exam forum threads).

All the best.

All the best to all the kids appearing for round 2 tomorrow!

This year the total allocations with higher priority than out of catchment is closer to 50. This number has been increased steadily over the past 4 years but it is unlikely this will hit 104 for next year.

A lot of applicants (within or outside 3 miles) will forgo their allocation for private schools, and some sensible out of catchment parents will took their local state school offer in the end if they were in waiting list from March. So normally you will see nearly half of the initial offers made from HBS will get turn down eventually.

@PreplexJ do you know if hbs gives out bands anymore (band A likely to get it etc) or that has stopped for a while?

They don't give bands anymore.

The school always said you have to put their school in the first preference in the CAF form which you don't have to if it is not your first preference, and the school won't know about that.

Congratulations on getting through!

My DD9 will be sitting this in September 2024 - any words of wisdom? She also has atom learning but not sure how well this prepares for HBS.

Considering purchasing the eleven plus tests also but is it too early for this at the moment? Do they change the content each year?

I assume that due to being in the catchment your DD will be offered a place - congrats!

@GummyNut I felt Atom was too easy so - while I subscribed for a couple of months- I cancelled that.
The GL and elevenplus practice tests were good. DD also appeared for some in person mock exams offered by eleven plus exams. This is all she did. NVR took some getting used to since she hasn't done much of that before.

@PreplexJ how is your DD enjoying HB? We are hoping for a place next year. Thanks

@TinaMartins DD is not in HBS. She did the 2 round exams last year. Maybe some other parents in the thread can help you with the actual experience in the school? When your DD do the exam next year probably my information is a bit out of date.

I share the exam information (alongside a few other girls school) because,

1. Want to help the prospective parent who is preparing for this year. I am glad to see parents like @HBswitch has a good outcome.

1. Want to counter on the misinformation on the PP posted in the thread, she/he had clearly no experience on this exam before and try to give some random thoughts on the exam format.

@HBswitch congrats on your DD getting in. May I please ask if you thought the mocks provided by plus exams were useful? Heard they are really challenging and the outcome for some kids can be discouraging.

Yes I think the mocks were useful. They were fairly challenging but there wasn't anything else she could do at a similar or higher level after doing the GL papers, I felt..I also wanted her to get used to exam technique.

Thanks for your insight @HBswitch, is the cohort size large enough and student ranks representative would you say?

@HBswitch are you able to give any insight as to what was in the first round exam? Ie what types of nvr questions were there? In the English were there SPAG questions ? Was the level of difficulty similar to the gl papers? Thanks for your help !