Tell me about getting in to a selective STATE grammar school please.

[LupusinaLlamasuit]

Yes, yes, yes. I know. It is wrong and shabby and my socialist principles will have to go in the bin and I will have to hand back my Trotsky hat and badge blah blah blah.

It is probably even MORE wrong than a private selective school.

But we are weighing up all the options, and the most likely is still the decent 'normal' state school just up the road.

But I just want to have a look at it (the out of county selective grammar) and see. So before I do, I need to know what I need to know IYSWIM. There will be examinations and 'inside information' and stuff won't there?

He is very bright but guess he will need practice papers, yes? Is it worth doing the exam just to see or is that too stressful allround and do we risk losing a place at the local school therein?

Thanks

Our local grammar schools still have a catchment area ( 17 mile radius) they offer places to kids who past test within catchment first, then widen net. Test is apparantly very hard, most parents I know use a private tutor, up to a year ahead to prepare, some of these kids are also at private school.

Also, past test papers are not made available but they do reccommend certain books, for verbal and non verbal reasoning for example, Bond books ( I think). In my area the closing date to register a child who would start in 2010 is, ..today.

foofi - that means they aren't - by definition - comprehensive schools!

I think the thing is that the rules and criteria vary from area to area, and from school to school. Where we live there are grammar schools which select on score and then on distance, and others which select on distance, but not on scores as long as you have a pass. You have to approach the individual school you are interested in to find out what their criteria is. They will give you all this information at Open Days - usually in October.

Checkout BOFA11plus.com , it lists all the state selective schools in the country, there are 178!
It has up to date Local Authority information and links directly into each school admissions page (where possible).
If you want to see what the tests are like you, can do these free 11+ demos online, they will be marked and you will be tutored through the ones you get wrong.

margotfonteyn- can i ask which part of the country you live in?

Unlike some posters, I live in fear that a comment I have made on here will appear in an article in the Guardian/Times/Telegraph, so I am not prepared to say. Sorry.

It's not London though

understood.