11+ 2025 support thread #2

[AquaPeer]

we are on the home run now! Continue to support, love and share in this thread

link to previous

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5200929-11-2025-support-thread?page=40&reply=147336748

continued good luck to all x

No they can’t do that. How would they ever standardise fairly. Definitely the same paper both sessions.

But I think in Latymer they have different papers over the 3 test days... but you're probably right about today. Sounds like too much effort too, to change the papers!

I think that’s the way to go! No one can learn a lot in a week.
We are considering not making our daughter sit the HBS round 2. Since we will prefer our local grammar over it. But everyone I have mentioned it to think that I am mad to even have the thought 😬.

I'd definitely have her sit it... you never know. Always good to have more options. How far is HBS for you?

I agree, let her sit it she has made it this far and being in a "we dont want this anyway" mindset might allow the answers to flow better and she may just pass.

Why would it be a good thing that kids whose parents have paid for them to go to preps and be taught for the exams are going to take places away from kids in the state system who have had no help from their schools whatsoever?

Apologies to anyone whose children took it and didn’t pass but I have heard from quite a few people that the Medway test is incredibly easy and it hat children who are in anyway bright pass it. My source also said that kids who aren’t even greater depth routinely pass. Also that some of the Medway Grammers don’t get particularly good results.

It's set up (as far as I understand) to allow 20% of the year's cohort to pass and go onto grammar because that's the number of school places available. Obviously not all children in the year take the test but that's the kind of split. Unless i've dramatically misunderstood.

This wait for results is so painful isn’t it?! Why does it take so long!

I don’t know if more kids will take the test but I’m anticipating maybe less movement on waiting lists than usual as potentially kids who would have gone to an independent school may keep their place at a grammar?

I have friends with kids at private primary who are hoping for a grammar place. They are generally mid-high income earners who can’t afford the fees anymore. And if I’m being totally objective they pay taxes for a state place regardless, so their kids have a right to those spaces too. But it obviously makes it harder for state educated kids to get those spaces and that definitely doesn’t feel fair. The VAT policy has really backfired in that regard in my opinion. Would be interesting to see the data. I think maybe there has been more of an exodus than they anticipated.

QE had 3,300 sitting the test last year.
I saw in a group that this year there were between 5-6k and this information was from someone in the school! Never thought 11+ could be this tough!

I'm ok with more kids going state as I'm in principle in favour of as many people as possible having a stake in the state system. It doesn't feel quite right that they've had a leg up to secure a place at a grammar school but then it's not a fair system in so many ways that I struggle to get worked up about it.

The waiting is endless I agree. I wasn't expecting to hear anything over the weekend but now Monday is approaching I'm all antsy again.

It could be made as least a bit fairer if state schools were allowed to teach for the test.

When I was a kid hardly anyone in Bexley had tutoring and there were lots of very working class kids at the grammars, definitely not the case now.

This may be the case. I can only assume that the lower levels of the children passing are related to class and race.

I agree. Although from what I’ve heard, independent schools don’t focus much on prepping kids for grammar schools. My friends have told me they do a load of interview practice and barely looked at the multiple choice style papers that lots of grammar schools use. But obviously a lot of them do push kids academically so they may well be advantaged in that way. Like you said the system is unfair in multiple ways. But we still all do it 😂

The whole system is daft isn't it? TBF it isn't really the system in my borough so I don't feel I can complain too much, but then the rest of the system has stuff like religious criteria and postcode lotteries. It's not how I'd set things up but you can only work with the system you're in.

Honestly, I don’t think the kids in independent schools have that much of an advantage for these 11+ exams. Perhaps it’s dependent on schools with some doing better than the rest. I was actually very happy that our state school going daughter had no school homework. I don’t know how we would have managed to do any 11+ prep on top of the school homework. And atleast for our local independents, I heard from some parents that the 11+ prep that they did at school was quite at low level so they had to do everything at home with extra tuitions. Also, if your child goes to an all through independent school they don’t prep at all.
So overall I think I was happy that we had a relaxed year of prep with no pressure from school.

Yeah I'm not sure I'd have been happy if they were spending their days at school on cube nets and codes. The maths and English would be useful but obviously they do teach those.

Monday morning. Technically my day off though I need to catch up from last week so a day of refreshing my emails awaits.

I'm working today, but yes... email refreshing :) But now that Latymer has said 1st week if Oct, I'm guessing nothing before Wednesday...ugh

Did we decide they'd definitely updated that as opposed to the ooo being more up to date? Gah

We're in Liverpool (waiting for results from the phase two Blue Coat test). It hasn't made much difference here. The Head said at the open day that 1125 children had applied, which is comparable with previous years.
However, we really don't have much of a private school culture here. I think there are only two mainstream private secondaries in the whole city. One is very Christian and the other is tiny (and full). We experienced what the rest of the country is currently experiencing 30/40 years ago when the money left the city. Two of our local state schools are ex-private.
I agree with previous posters - the whole system is inherently unfair. Families who can afford tutors, books, time to prep with kids etc will always have an advantage.
It does feel fairer here than what other posters are describing. I do wonder how it will pay out in the rest of the country. One possible scenario is that people can't afford private primary and that advantage is taken away, which is partly what happened here. Another is what happens in Birmingham, where parents pay for (cheaper) private primary in the expectation that it'll coach their kids for grammar school entry. Which is depressing.
This year is also a 'bulge' year, at least in Liverpool. We really struggled to get my son into primary school when we moved here. All the local reception classes have spaces now.

Good luck @CheerfulMuddler . My cousin's son goes to Bluecoat in Liverpool though his daughter does not.

Mmmm... I'm not sure. What did the ooo say? 29th Sept?

11 days until Bucks results, ahhhhhhhh!!!! This wait has felt like ages already.
Open mornings this week, so it will be good to have another look round and get a feel.

Thanks! My son really, really wants to go, so I'm very nervous. He's a bright kid though, he'll do well anywhere.

Really?? Wow, that's quite a jump, isn't it? I can't quite believe it.

I'm really sad for my DS. He worked so, so hard the whole year but he's very pessimistic now as to whether he'll get in anywhere (he did 4 exams).
He managed to scrape through to the 2nd stage of DAO, but having seen the cohort taking the 2nd test, and from what DS mentioned to us, it seemed obvious that DS (who always "exceeded the expectations") can't compete with the people for whom tutoring is not an extra that you do 1 year before the exam, but a kind of a normal thing that you add to your kid's life since they join the primary, because that's what your life looked like and that what you do back home.
We have another son and my DH is telling me now that we need to put him in some tutoring group in Y3 if we even want to dream about any grammar school.

Our state primary doesn't care at all about 11+ and tells parents off for tutoring.
They don't teach even 1/4 of the curriculum. They even told us our son won't need tutoring and he will pass all the exam, because he is so bright! Basically, they live in Lala land and have no idea.
We can't afford private school :(.
I'm fed up, this system is sick...