11+ 2025 support thread

[AquaPeer]

Hi all,
I really enjoyed reading previous 11 plus support threads and I think we’re probably ready for a new cohort of year 5s start their prep?

so I thought I’d set up one for next year. All welcome!

we are trying for dame Alice Owen. DD currently has group tutoring once a week but we are looking to increase to twice a week before Xmas.

i am trying to get her to do a cgt GL 15 min tests a day very unsuccessfully! This half term is going to be all about embedding routine 😀

look forward to meeting other parents preparing

My dd1 has ADHD and ASD diagnoses. She is v bright though and has the potential to do v well academically if she can find the right formula for revision etc (she's heading into y10). It wouldn't surprise me if dd2 was the same but it's in a way that's more compatible with school and friendships (more people pleasery basically) so we haven't yet pursued a diagnosis

Oh no, so sorry to hear this! We also have DAO on Monday and i hadnt even thought of the possibility of my kid getting sick before an exam! I assume you've checked the requirements of where and how to contact them if your child is absent due to sickness?

@sweetmelody how is you daughter feeling? Any improvement?

My DC was sick on the day of an exam last autumn. We had to email in to let them know and provide a doctor’s note as proof! It was a Saturday session and no GP available. Had to use the Livi app and pay privately! It is an online app. The school accepted it.

Oh bless you. I started typing a reply to your message this morning but didn’t get around to finishing it. In answer to your question, the process is pretty clear around ‘calling in sick’ so no concerns there.

She’s so much better. She did one of the GL papers this afternoon and scored her highest ever score. But still quite congested and I cannot see the point after all this work of her sitting the paper tomorrow if she can wait until she is 100% recovered. But she wants to do it and says she’s ready. Also conscious that she’s an 10 year old child and doesn’t necessarily know what is best.

We have actually just had a chat since I typed this and she said she’s feeling 95% herself bit just wants to get it out of the way now. She is also worried about everyone contacting her afterwards having done it, and she hasn’t.

Also have to bear in mind that she has the MAT straight after. I’ve reassured her that she doesnt have to do anything she’s not 100% happy to do and Ive told her we will make a decision in the morning.

Will see what tomorrow morning brings.

Thanks so much for this! We spoke to the doctor on Friday and they’ve assured us that if she needs it, they can provide the doctor’s note tomorrow/Tuesday but yes, it would be a private letter.

Good luck to everyone sitting tomorrow hope it goes well 🤞
@sweetmelody everything crossed your dd feel better in the morning so she can get it done and out of the way.

Ds had his last mock this morning. We should hopefully get the result tomorrow I’m really hoping for a good score to give him confidence. He found the section on synonyms hard he said but when he went through it with me he only got one wrong which I’m really pleased with as vocab isn’t his strong point.

Yes good luck everyone and I hope your daughter is feeling better @sweetmelody. I can empathise with just wanting it over.

She’s good! Kids bounce back so quickly (while giving us heart failure in the process). Thanks for all the well wishes and best of luck to everyone today x

Best of luck to everybody testing today! @sweetmelody glad to read that your daughter is feeling better, I hope she does well.

The Kiwi twins sat and passed their final mock yesterday; they said it was the hardest yet and even the very mathsy twin was looking a bit grey when they emerged. Super relieved to have two clear passes in hand considering that the next tests they sit will be the real things. @troppibambini6 I hope you receive a similarly confidence-boosting result today, sounds hopeful with the synonyms!

Does anyone else do atom learning? The track progress thing has suddenly gone weird. She's been above the line all along and suddenly the day before the test it's showing that she's been a way beneath it all along. She's tearful and I'm trying to tell her it's a glitch as there seems no data at all for August (and I'd put today as the test date which might have something to do with it)

Oh I've just had a response from atom and apparently it's an error

Leaving aside the almost-hilarious nature of the "the struggle is real" tone in this piece, as a Bucks resident I now have a nagging fear that the rise in private school fees will see a surge in the number of parents well outside Buckinghamshire putting their well-tutored kids through the Bucks 11+.

Most of their children won't stand a chance of getting a place at a Bucks grammar school, which once you've passed the test select solely on catchment and distance. But every year increasing numbers of parents all over the south east enter their kids anyway, either because they're ignorant of the admission process and assume they'll get a place or because they see it as a cut-price practice test.

It wouldn't be an issue, but for the fact that the score standardisation process is based on ALL pupils who take the exam, not just the Bucks ones. The top one-third are given a passing mark, everyone else drops below. So every time a child from outside the county earns a passing mark, they push two Bucks children below the line (and of course the self-selecting nature of out-of-county applicants means they are more likely to have been tutored to within an inch oof their life and are thefore more likely to pass). As the Bucks school system is totally selective, there are no "comprehensive" schools for local residents to fall back on - the whole system is set up to send the top third to a grammar and the rest to an upper, which come in wildly varying quality.

Anyway, long story short, my latest worry is that DS will finally get his head around NVR and achieve what would normally be a high enough raw mark to reach the magic 121, only for a bunch of hot-housed prep school prodigies from Surrey to shove him back below the line post-standardisation...

I really can't wait for all this to be over.

I’m not in Bucks and we aren’t sitting the exams, but if what you suggest is true, then what happens if these kids get the pass mark but don’t live in catchment? If they don’t get offered a place does that mean that the school just doesn’t take as many kids that year? Or would they start offering to local kids who scored 120/119 instead? I hope your son gets a place. I do think that applications may well be up for grammar schools country wide.

If they don't get enough passes inside each school's catchment area to fill all places then they start allocating in distance order, straight line from school gate to front door, regardless of county. Looking at our three local grammars, last year the furthest-out was 11.103 miles for AGS (boys only), 13.507 miles for AHS (girls only) and 14.163 miles for SHF (mixed). 11 miles from AGS takes you about as far south as Chesham, yet there are always hundreds and hundreds of test-sitters from inside the M25 and out the other side. A lot of them have outstanding comprehensives at the end of their road but see the word "grammar" and think "that must be better, I'll go for that".

There's a long-running campaign to get the Bucks grammar schools to standardise on in-county scores only, but it never seems to go anywhere. Had we known all this when we moved to Buckinghamshire in our late 20s with no kids, we'd probably have gone somewhere else. It's an insane system.

Good luck to everyone today! We're almost ready to leave the house. Can't believe it's September already!

I was wondering the same as Lamarais - do they leave places empty if not enough catchment kids reach the passing standardised score?

It's the same at Latymer I think - there's a (fairly large) catchment but every year lots of non catchment kids sit the test. In theory this is valid because the key date for being within catchment is 31 Oct (or even later to be added to the waiting list) but in reality few do. There's no strict pass mark, it's a relative score, so you often find people jump up the rankings once the non catchment people drop out of the running but you need to be in at least the top 300 to get your English paper marked and one year after the non catchment people dropped out there weren't enough people left in the top 300 to get a place. On the positive side I guess if you are in the top 300 and within catchment you stand a decent chance.

I think it's similar at Henrietta Barnett except it doesn't have a strict catchment, more a priority area, but you have to come within the top 10% to be invited to the second round and it's possible many of these people will never move close enough for the school to be a realistic option. I don't really know what people's motivations are - perhaps they have a notion of moving house then reality sets in, or they have a plan A that works out, or it's just practice like you say. It's just part of the madness I guess. I don't really live in a grammar area so could opt out and ignore it all so it's easier to accept I guess.

As above, if there aren't enough 121 scores in the catchment area, they start allocating based on distance from school to home. And - here's the twist - the Aylesbury grammars (and I think the other Bucks ones too) now calculate that distance based on the primary address of the child on 1 September the year before admission. So you can't sit the test and move to the catchment area if you pass and still be sure of getting a place - you have to wait for the second round of admissions after national offer day.

That's a bit of a weird policy isn't it? You'd think lowering the cut off would make more sense than allocating to people who may be nowhere near it.

You would. But no. There's a well-trod appeals system so if your kid ends up on 120 or 119, did well on most parts of the test, has a few years of strong school reports and a really positive endorsement from your pimary's head they can get "promoted" to a pass. Anecdotally, it's used as a means of admitting in-county children who were pushed below the line in this manner. But there are no guarantees, it adds layers of complexity and stress, not all parents will go for it and you have to wait until February to hear the result.

@Lamarais and @DolphinOnASkateboard

Bucks do a review process. I know quite a few DC that got 118 to 120 last year and got in - you have to plea your case and don't find out for a number of months so your stress is even more drawn out. So actually, out of catchment offers rarely happen for the schools that are closest to us.

You have to have proof that you are a catchment resident as of today 1st September.

I really hate the exam tourism, it really skews the marks for local DC. It makes my blood boil on 11+ boards in October saying: 'Yay my DC passed Bucks, we currently live in Gloucester where should we move to for x school?'
In reality, this DC will never get a place yet has caused massive stress for local DC /families.

These parents who do this are gits, all they have to do is read the very clear admission criteria that is publicly available more than a year in advance.

Glad you posted this. We have the exact same thing. Got a shock when I logged on today. They really need to fix that urgently!

They've put the August data back on but it's still showing the benchmark way higher. Good way to mess with us the day before the test!

Hard agree, especially on the gits part. And they all seem to think that because their DC got 135 they'll somehow be entitled to a place regardless. I don't understand how people can be smart enough to raise clever kids and find all the details of how to enter for exams elsewhere and get them there on the day and everything and still be completely unaware of admissions rules.

Apparently there are professional tutors from many miles away who tell parents to enter their children in the Bucks exam as it provides excellent real-world exam practice.

Whenever I explain this situation to people they assume I must be mistaken because it sounds so insane, but there we are.

Anyway, if anyone on here lives miles and miles away from Buckinghamshire or is planning on having your child set the test next Thursday for any reason other than putting a Bucks grammar down as your first choice school, please withdraw them now.

FWIW, in Bucks selection reviews for 2025 entry, 77.7% of reviews were successful for kids who scored 120, 66.9% for 119, and 45.6% for 118. After that it drops off steeply.