WaitList and In Year Y8/Y9 for Grammar schools

[InYearWaitListSS]

Could you share experience for your Child into Y8/Y9 for Highly selective schools. Have been though various schools and exams and again been put on wait lists. It is really a looong wait game. Any Positive stories would be helpful

I work in education in a selective area (including supposed super-grammars). We are a non-selective school. So we lose students in mid-late Sept Y7 as waiting lists change. (Bugger for the school finances as the autumn census early Oct drives funding). But i have now found out there is a Y8 entry exam - so we again lose students in Y8. What is slightly odd to me is that we, despite being a new-ish school, get students into Oxbridge, Russell Group etc. The area I live and work in has a snobbery. If you are on waitlists - is that independent? Is your child really that academic that only a super-academic will do?

Thanks for your reply. Is there a set of areas you can recommend with great HS schools and impeccable results.

DS is academic would be in Y9 come September. Though He is not very happy in his current school, he is thriving well and has been getting good feedback overall. I see that he likes to be challenged to improve. He tends to fare beyond average of the cohort he is in. So a Grammar school with a great academic record is sure to put him in a better position. Some schools have the In year test but then put the kids in waiting lists for spaces to be made available and while some grammars let him sit on the test with about 60/70 sitting for a single place.

1. What is the best way to prepare for these tests
2. Is it advisable to move houses/shift in hope for Grammars. Is there hope to keep trying till EOY9

So are you hoping for a grammar place in a grammar school in your immediate locality, or looking for a grammar place, any grammar place, even if it means uprooting your family for your DS to take it up? Bear in mind that if it's a school which only invites to test when there is a place to be filled (our local grammars used to do this, but at least two of the four - no idea about the other two - have now moved to having set testing dates, whether or not a place is actually available in the year group at the time), they may want the successful applicant to start quite soon afterwards.

DD sat an in-year test a few weeks before the end of year 7 and was one of the three who did well enough to be offered a place - of which we received notification on the Tuesday, with a required start date of the following Monday. That was ten years ago, though.

Tbh, I would look to encouraging your DS to find things outside of school to provide breadth and depth to his learning - e.g. museum visits / lectures etc (one of the few benefits of the <insert ones own expletive)> pandemic is the proliferation of 'hybrid' presentations of public educational events), rather than a constant straining to move him to a different school.

If you want the best grammar schools move to Northern Ireland. Best results in the UK. Have a look at schools such as Friends School Lisburn, Methody, Rathmore, Aquinas, Banbridge Academy, INST, Campbell.
Property much more affordable too!

Or move to an area with no grammars and good comps. You often find a good strong cohort of top set kids and less pressure on places.

In Bucks, most of the grammars offer no places in y8 or 9. They remain full. So do not move to Bucks. It would be a massive gamble. Better to work with the school you know and do your own enrichment.

I'm in West kent - our grammars are oversubscribed with long waiting lists. But the boys Grammar schools are Judd (super selective), Skinners (super selective I believe), Tun Wells Boys Grammar school (former boys tech) - 2 campuses - Tun Wells and the Annex (fake) at Sevenoaks. Don't try North Kent - students pass 11+ each year and still cannot get in, but East Kent is very different.

You will be on a waiting list and you can check with the county the prioritisation of that list eg Looked After, EHCP, siblings etc

From Y10 onwards you will (quite rightly) struggle to move him due to curriculum choices.

I agree with PP's = do your own enrichment. I managed to get my child through numerous GCSEs at pass grades (which for them was incredible). Well beyond what their schools had managed previously.