11 plus support thread for exams 2024

[ElvenDreamer]

Hi all,
Anyone fancy joining me for for an 11 plus support thread for those yr 5s who are probably just starting a bit of prep now ready to sit exams in September 2024?

State grammar is the angle I'm personally coming from but all welcome no matter if you're applying to private selective, state aptitude tests etc.

This will be my 3rd and final time of going through this and I've found support threads here really useful the previous times.

Crunch time here for DD she had first exam Monday - one today then another Sunday. We then need to wait to see if we get called to sit the second round for two of the schools. I wondered what your thoughts were on allowing her to go on her year 6 PGL the weekend before a potential second exam ( second exam date 28th sept) I feel she should go for mental health reasons ( she has worked hard and missed out on a lot this year) but husband wants to cancel as he says it’s too much of risk ( late nights and 3 study days lost). Would value your thoughts.

@Danlsb - has she got any friends in the same situation? Could the parents get together and organise a trip for these kids to eg Harry Potter World type thing instead?
There is no way I would cancel something like that for my DC due to a test without an alternative for them that is equally fun etc. I would not want them to remember the 11 plus like that.
My older kids have totally forgotten about the 11 plus because kept it so low key. They are doing really well.

I would let her go. 28th September is a weekend so she will have almost a full week to catch up on sleep. And three study days is irrelevant at this stage.

I’d definitely let her go. At this stage she either knows what she’s doing or she doesn’t. The extra days study will make no difference. However if she doesn’t pass, she’ll always remember she missed out on PGL “for nothing”. It makes the stakes so high.

If she has a few nights to catch up on sleep (which she will) I think it’s far too valuable an experience to miss out on.

Yes that’s my thinking too

Yes definitely let her go, 11+ is not the be all and end all, and you don't want her to end up resenting the whole experience because she was made to miss other yr 6 rites of passage. 3 study days that close are going to be neither here nor there I'd have thought.

We are just over 2 weeks away from crunch day now and goodness knows which way it will go.

I'd let her go as well. She'll have time to bounce back from the tiredness and I'm sure she's well prepped for the tests.

Good luck, ElvenDreamer! We're in a similar position to you but only 10 days to go. I'm hopeful DS will do well enough but it's for a state grammar and the VAT changes may mean more competition for not many places this year and it's one test on one day... I wish it was over and done with!

My eldest DD sits for CCHS exam on 13th. Does anyone know roughly what was the format last year please? They don’t give out past papers. Also if the final score is age standardised?

Are you Warwickshire @MincemeatMaestro ?

I was surprised to find other counties sitting different exams on different days and some only doing reading and maths.

Warwickshire have all in one session and it's reading, maths, VR & NVR 🤯

@Danlsb definitely let her go!

Yep, I'm in Warwickshire. Are you? I don't mind getting it all over and done with in one session, but I'm not looking forward to having to wait until National Offer Day to find out whether DS's score is high enough. I think he'll do much better at not thinking about it than I will.

When do they take the exam? Do you have to wait from September to March to find out results??

I'm in Kent, DD will do her exam next Thursday, VR and NVR, then a break, then maths and English.

We then have to wait 5 weeks for results which I thought was bad enough! Annoying that we have to go to open days for schools that we we needn't have bothered with!

Not long left for 11plus exams start. We have 1st exams next week , our practical exam on 10th Sept and then actual exam on the 12th Sept. I am glad in a sense that twins will be fimilair with the environment before the actual test . Then we have a week gap before our last exam can't wait for it to be over. I am so nervous for them .

In Warwickshire, you take the exam in mid-September and get the results in mid-October. The majority of places are allocated to the highest scorers within each school's priority area so there's no firm indication what score is needed because it depends on how many children apply and whether they're in a school's priority area. In previous years, the council have released an anonymised spreadsheet of all 3000ish scores in October so you can get a feel for the distribution before applying, but the scores do vary from year to year and from school to school. For our first choice, I'd be reasonably confident with over 240, accept it's unlikely with below 225, and have months of uncertainty in the 225-240 range, though high 230s would usually be OK and below 230 is much less likely to be high enough.

@MincemeatMaestro we have a similar problem to you, state grammar in Essex for us and 'passing', will not cut the mustard, dreading the wait to March, and like you, suspect a massive increase in numbers due to people trying to jump ship from private education.

@Gilmoregirly good luck to your DD, my DD is there but the exam has changed since she took it so I can't help you with what you need to know I'm afraid, I'm pretty sure they will age standardise though.

@MincemeatMaestro @ElvenDreamer same boat here - dreading the extra competition for state grammar places here!

Just two weeks until first exam and three weeks until second exam for my DD now, I think she’s as ready as she’ll ever be, but at the moment she says she doesn’t even want to go grammar school 🙄 one of the local comps has been doing loads of promoting themselves to her primary school and she just believes what she’s been told that it will be non-stop fun there. I’ve heard a different perspective from parents of older children at the same school, but I don’t want to say too much in case she doesn’t get a grammar place - don’t want her to feel lots of pressure and don’t want to bad mouth a school she might end up at! It’s a very difficult balance at the moment between keeping up her motivation to try for grammar and not making her feel that it’s the be all and end all!

@Danlsb I’m another vote for let her go! Have you decided yet?

@OutOfNameIdeas We're in the same position of balancing encouraging the grammar school but not running down the local comprehensive option. We're in the fortunate position that our local comp is a good school and there will be plenty of other bright kids there because not everyone applies for the grammars and there are so few places available. But DS is such a geek that I think the grammar is where he's more likely to find his tribe and be challenged academically; it'd be such a good fit for him.

8 days to go and we're doing a last push on punctuation and NVR. Good luck to you both, @ElvenDreamer and @OutOfNameIdeas, we're almost there!

Thank you for your support - I have told my husband that she will be going. Although we are now having another disaster with DD running a fever of 41 ( her preferred grammar is tomorrow and one of the everything in one go formats ) so am sitting at the walk GP walk in centre to hopefully get a certificate incase she is not well enough tomorrow- Sod’s Law if that happens the new date will be during the PGL trip.
I know what you mean about the comps vs granmar in the kids heads - most of my daughters friends will be going to the local comp and they have had a taster day there where they did trampolining so she thinks it’s a great place to go 😊 sadly it’s academically failing 😬. Although no matter what happens all the work they have put in for the 11plus will help wherever they end up.
good luck to everyone 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Oh no @Danlsb I hope your DD is ok for tomorrow. Let us know.
Good luck to everyone! I really can't wait for it to be over now. DD's is 21st and DS's is 28th. Also really worried about the extra competition due to VAT on fees.

We are in Trafford. So exam on 16th, but it’s one exam for the 4 schools , so good in some ways but all eggs in one basket if they have a blip on the day. Wishing everyone with exams coming up good luck

Just under two weeks to go here. Eek! Good luck all. I’m curious about the VAT impact too, as apparently entries have gone through the roof!

Where are you? In Bucks registration closed mid June and the surprise election was early July, so people would have had to know the risk, register and start preparing before 4 July. Most people I know were blindsided by the VAT matter (which really surprised me as I’d known about it for years while being in the state system)

We’re in Essex, but get a lot of grammar pupils from London. Registration closed late May. Rumours has it the number registering has gone up from 5,000 last year to 7,000. We’re state too and were well aware of the likely VAT changes - I assumed people were just registering as a back up in case

Thanks for this info. We’re doing Warwickshire this weekend and hoping for Rugby schools. What are thoughts on scores needed for the wider priority 2 area?
Quite worried and trying not to let it show to DD!
thanks

I'm in the southern priority area rather than eastern so haven't paid too much attention to the scores for the Rugby schools. However, https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/directory/57/school-admissions-document-library/category/489 has the offer day documents from 2021 onwards, which is a really useful resource. From a quick glance, 220 has always been enough, 215 has usually been enough and 210 has never been enough for Priority Area 2 for Rugby High. Is Priority Area 2 for places within the priority circle but not in Warwickshire itself?

Good luck to your DD! We've got a Saturday slot so it'll all be done in 3 days, which is scarily close but I'll be so glad when it's over!