Chelmsford high school for girls

[smartiejake]

I took my dd (in year 5 so secondary transfer in 2010) to see this school this evening as she would like to take the 11+. She has just started at kip mcgrath for extra tuition (primarily for the verbal reasoning as they don't do that at her primary)She is bright and I think a grammar would suit her.

We were very impressed with the school. It had a lovely feel to it but I want the heads up from parents of kids who actually go there.

Is it really the wonderful caring community it professes to be (and seems to be) or just a pressurised exam factory?

anyone?

Bump

I don't have any direct experience of it (although live very close) but it is always rated very highly locally. The girls that flock in and out look like normal teenagers to me.

I know it is very highly thought of and results are good and there is huge competition to get in but I worry about the pressure they are put under.

One of my friend's daughters was at a different grammar in Essex and she was not at all happy with the pastoral system. The girls were seen as commodities (e.g. points on the league tables.) Her daughter was made to feel a failure as she was only predicted to get a B at GCSE (her worse subject) This school also had a fabulous reputation and had girls flocking in from miles to get in.

DD1 just started yr3 and it has been suggested that she start thinking about wether she will take 11 plus. Talking to another mum with a boy who just passed 11 plus last year really worried me because she said she visited several grammars in essex and was quite saddened by the kids appearing too 'geekish' and not at all well rounded. I wonder what the attitude is at the girls schools. Also fearful of putting her in for 11 plus 'cos i would only want her to go to chelmsford or colchester, but they have to not only pass but get into the top top grades to get offered a good grammar. Don't fancy going through all tuition for her to be offered a place at Southend grammar!
BTW, I have been told she would have to start tuition yr4, ideally. Am thinking of paying for one of these private assesments next year which supposedly tell you if your child has real chance of passing highly enough to get a decent offer.

Well, I'd guess that is pretty much the case these days if you're having to find income. It's all about business.

Sorry, hope someone can help

My dd was assessed in july at Kip Mcgrath and we were told that although she lacks confidence in maths (largely due to crap teaching at her primary but that's another story),her English and potential for verbal reasoning were excellent and so we started with the tuition a few weeks ago. (She is at the beginning of year 5 so over a year to go before 11+)

The girls at the Chelmsford Grammar I met last night were not at all geeky (think perhaps it's a boy thing.)

We are also thinking of trying for the Westcliff Grammar (a friend of DD1 goes there and is very happy) but not Southend as have not heard good things about it. Only problem is that Westcliff is quite a treck from here.

I went there (left 1990) and my mum used to teach there until the late 90s.
It was indeed a pressurised exam factory, though basically a nice atmosphere otherwise (ie not bitchy or competitive). Most girls were happy there but there were a few who were deeply unhappy. I personally loved it but one of my friends committed suicide the year after leaving and I think there is a good chance it had a lot to do with her having had her confidence destroyed over the years by the school. I also felt that most of us weren't hugely mature afterwards and a lot of people struggled at uni because they had been spoonfed so much to get their perfect grades at school.
What Smartiejake said rings very true - I remember telling people I failed my GCSE Physics because I got a B

Assuming the school has not changed that much, if your dd is only just about bright enough to get in, it would be a bit risky in terms of her happiness; however, if she can manage easily and is likely to do well academically it is likely to work well for her. There are lots of extracurricular opportunities there too.

Kathy, what a sad story how awful that kids are treated in that way.

Ginger - yes, it was tragic.
No-one was horrible to her or anything, it's just that if you are academically weak compared to everyone else in a school where academic achievement is all, you could easily end up thinking you haven't got much to offer. Some schools make much more of an effort to build up the self-esteem of the less academically successful kids but I think the teachers at my school had a lot to answer for in their attitudes. I used to have huge arguments with my mum about the way she & the other teachers referred to the 'dim' girls - no-one there was dim, it was a highly selective grammar school FFS, and anyway, there's not excuse for using such an awful word!
Smartie - I sound very down on the school - it's not that bad really, but you have to go into it with your eyes open and be aware it's not right for everyone.

Thanks Katy- that is the sort of info I am looking for although you were there quite a while ago- anyone got a dd who has been there recently?

smartiejake, was your friend's child at Colchester County High for Girls? That's where my DD1-9, also in year 5, is aiming. I hope it's not as there really are no other grammars she could possibly go to as we are already miles away. She currently gets an hours tuition every other week just in how to take the test. Her tutor thinks she has a very good chance. I really don't want her to feel like a commodity or a failure in any way and would be happy is she went to the local comp, but she is looking for more of a challenge.

Yes that's where she went. My friends other dd, although very able too, didn't even take her 11+ as my friend did not want her to go there.

The younger dd goes to Honeywood in Coggleshall and absolutely loves it. My friend is so impressed with the place and wishes her other daughter had gone there too as she hated her secondary school years and seems to resent her mum for sending her there. Sorry!

mmmm. Thanks for letting me know.

Of course it might just be that it didn't suit her daughter. I know some kids thrive in those conditions and only you can make the decision if it would be right for your dd. I know it would not suit my dd but want to know if Chelmsford is different.

It might suit my DD actually as she's academically very competitive and gets annoyed with herself if she doesn't get the top marks in the class for most things (which she generally does so she's happy). I wasn't educated in this country, so I just don't know. My DH started in a grammar school, but then moved and went to a RC comprehensive and then on to a good uni, and he thinks she'll do well anywhere. Such hard decisions...though of course, she'll have to do well on the test to get offered a place anyway so who knows?

Hello smartiejake. My dd just started at Chelmsford County High School in September and she is absolutely loving it! We too took her to the open evening when she was in Y5 to see if she would like it and we felt it had a lovely atmosphere. We don't get the sense of it being an exam factory at all. They get good results because they start with very bright girls! We have found that they have lots of fun and the school are very keen to make sure that the girls enjoy their learning. So far she seems to be having less homework than friends who are going to comprehensives but she still seems to be learning lots.

As regards the caring community feel we have also found that to be true. Girls in other years have been very friendly towards dd and they all seem to look out for one another.

All I can say is that my dd (who is definitely not a morning person!) is waking up with a smile on her face and very keen to go to school! What more can I ask for?! If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Thanks KM1 that is what I was hoping to hear. That is exactly the feeling I got from the school when we looked round.My DD has been really fired up since she went on weds and worked really hard when she went to her Kip Mcgrath tuition yesterday. She now knows what she is aiming for. Not sure she will get in as it's SOOOO competetive but if you don't try you never know!

WHat kind of primary did your DD go to? Lots of the girls who went there on Weds night seem to be from private schools (where I know they do 11+ as a matter of course.)
Did she have tuition for the test, if so how much?

She went to a state junior school. I know from some work they did in Maths on statistics that out of her class of 30 girls, 12 came from private schools and 18 came from state school(this was supposed to be data analysis but it was probably just the teacher being nosey ).

My dd had a tutor. We always felt she was the right level to benefit from going to the High School and so we tutored her to learn how to do the exam, so that she wouldn't be at a disadvantage to compared to those at private school who often start learning verbal reasoning in the infants! She started with her tutor after the Christmas holidays in Y4 which I now feel was too early. When it is my ds's turn we won't start that early. My dd has an incredibly positive attitude to working and homework but even she was a bit fed up of it all by the time the 11+ came around.

I am glad your dd was fired up when she went to her lesson! We took my dd back to look round the school in Y6 in order to get her fired up for the exam. When I asked her then if she still liked the school she told me that she loved it even more than she had in Y5!

I bought her some bond 11+ practise books yesterday (the age 9-10 ones- don't want to scare her off) and think that although I do not want her to be hothoused to get in (the head teacher warned against doing this)and struggle all the way through, she will need to have practise in answering the type of quetions they use for 11+ as they are worded very differently to those in SATs tests.

Verbal reasoning particularly needs to be practised as this is totally different to anything she will have comme across at her state primary and as you say the private schools do verbal and non verbal reasoning as part of the curriculum from a very young age.

Good idea about the Bond papers and you're right you don't want to scare her off by giving her anything too daunting. I'd recommend getting the past papers from the consortium so that you can see the level of the actual test but I wouldn't show them to your daughter till very near the time to take the exam as they are very difficult and could be extremely off-putting if she saw this too far in advance.

Thanks- yes that's what I thought.

Luckily I am a teacher so can help her lots with the Maths. There are so many holes in her understanding of maths. I'm sure the only reason her school do so well in the SATs is so many of the parents either help their kids or they have private tuition (the tuition centre is full of her class mates.)

Hello all! I have a daughter who has just started at CCHS in September and loves it.I looked at all schools which could take my academic and found that CCHS talked the talk ie made a special effort on Open Day unlike Colchester who tend to rest on their reputation and the attitude of you want this so we don't have to impress you with any effort on Open Day clinched it for me.
However to keep our options on the back burner she did have try out days at private sector schools and was offered a number of scholarships. The fact that all of the girls in the private schools were at a different level academically, though in their favour they do acknowledge and nurture bright-young-things unlike at CCHS as all are fashioned into the restrictive tenplate so some girls are crushed early on if they are extrovert or very clever. Lessons in the sciences and languages are excellent and the pool is great! However the down side is that because they are so successful facilities are poor as they are the last on the government list for facility upgrades so you get the begging bowl evenings right from the start however a monthly donation is less than we would pay for a private school so quids in! I agree that children aiming for 11 plus success need tutoring and my enquiries are on the up year on year but some of my daughter's peers are like fish out of water as they have been trained to pass without any depth of English or Maths and relied on the Verbal Reasoning obviously because it equates to 50% of the pass mark. Here's hoping none of mine will be suicidal but I have a long chat with both parents and child before I tutor them.

Thanks mummytutor - useful info.

Out of interest, which private schools did you consider for your DD in the area?

I knew a couple of girls who went there through a friend of a friend. They were so 'Daily Mail' in their outlook. Whilst one of them wanted to go to university, they were both more concerned with getting married and having 'kiddies.' We were in our late teens fgs! Nothing wrong with that but quite different from my mindset at that age. There was very little appreciation of the arts amongst them, they were proud of their grades for the sake of being able to say that they had them but culturally they were very unaware. In terms of career, they were very excited about becoming secretaries on City trading floors, presumably with the hope of meeting a future husband there. It was like an odd 1950's ethic. They looked down upon those who were too fashionable, prided themselves in dressing like their mothers and yet with a couple of drinks in them were curiously very undiscerning about who they slept with married or not with some hilarious consequences. Both of them had a perverse view of men, believing that any man who approached them 'fancied' them, even if a man just stopped to have a chat! Neither of them ever had long term relationships. They viewed themselves as big fish but in all reality their pond was very small. And they had Irene Handle accents
P.S: No wish to offend anyone with a daughter there, these two were probably just screwballs.