Advice needed Kendrick school

[loulabelle19]

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me. My Daughter has just finished year 3. She got 3b in all subjects in her end of year report. One of her friends has been talking to her about Kendrick school and she has asked if she can try and take the exam when she's old enough. I have never mentioned to her the possibility of grammar school as we are in the catchment are for two very good comprehensive schools.
She is at a particularly good junior school and I know they will get the best out of her, (although she has had a rough year with a few different teachers). However I am concerned that if she has only achieved 3b now whether there is any hope at all she can reach the academic levels needed to get a place. I don't want to tell her she's has no hope in case she surprises me and makes significant progress.
Truthfully if I thought she was academic enough I would actively encourage her to go for it as I would like her to reach her full potential but I'm not sure whether she's setting herself up for a fall. She has a lot of friends who are already in the 4c bracket and I imagine it is children like this that will get a place.
Have you got any idea what sat level they should be at by the end of year 5 and how quickly a hard working child progresses through the sat levels?
I have offered to get her a tutor to help her along but she has asked if I can help her instead (which I'm more than happy to do).
Also she is a July birthday not sure if that makes any difference to anything.
thanks for your help

[aliportico]

You could certainly start doing some verbal and non-verbal reasoning with her - just pick up some books in Smith's or online. My younger kids all did them from that age because they saw my eldest doing them and wanted to have a go as they looked fun! Whatever happens in the future, she will learn useful skills, vocab, etc from doing them, and you can certainly keep it very low key for the next year.

As for setting her up for disappointment - I think it depends how you pitch it to her. Kendrick is a great school, but it's not going to suit everyone. My dd2 was adamant she wasn't going there, because she likes being at or near the top of the class, and wanted to be appreciated for her hard work, not just seen as normal, lol. She's at a Wokingham borough comp and we're very happy with it - her most recent parents evening was probably the nicest we've ever been to because her teachers were very enthusiastic about her attitude and achievements, rather than the "yup, doing fine" slightly blasé feel we generally come away with from dd1's Kendrick parents' evenings Which is not to knock it, I think it's a lovely school and it suits dd1 down to the ground.

But you can present it to your daughter as keeping all her options open - go to open days at all the schools you're interested in, and do your best at the Kendrick test so you have the choice of where you'd like to go. As the test and results have been moved before the secondary application date, you don't even have to worry about possibly wasting a CAF choice, so imo there's not really anything to be lost by preparing for it.

[aliportico]

Oh, and welcome to the forum

[loulabelle19]

Thanks for your advice.

I think we'll go down the road of preparing her and seeing where that leads. I guess we can just wait and see if the extra work leads to exceptional progress over the next year or two, she will then be in with a shot. She's always been very reluctant to do anything school related at home and this extra enthusiasm and determination has taken me by surprise.

We are also WBC and live very close to the Holt. I've always thought that was such a good school to have on the doorstep we didn't need to consider anywhere else.

Maths is her weaker area so I think we can focus more on really cementing the building blocks for this and get her reading lots.

thanks again

[sonasona]

Hi loulabelle19,

Aliportico has given you some brilliant advice. Go for it!

You'll find some excellent advice and support on this forum. Tinkers Duffers guide to Kendrick is a really good place to start but you could even leave that as late as Year 5 if you like.

Best of luck to your Dd.

[Tinkers]

Can't really add too much more, but just to say my DD didn't really start to flourish at school until year 4. Turned out she was basically coasting at school until she did cats in year 4, with amazing results and her teacher realised. Teacher gently pushed her a little more and she came leaps and bounds. She will start Kendrick in just a few short weeks.

Can't remember her year 3 sats, but year 2 she was level 2c for writing, 2a for maths and 3b for reading. Now 6 for maths, and 5 for both reading and writing.

[loulabelle19]

Thanks Tinkers, that's reassuring to hear about your Daughter. I guess you just don't know what they're capable of until they try!

[childrenanddogs]

Hi, it seems that we're both at about the same stage! I'm also a mum to an almost Yr 4 daughter in WBC (and catchment for The Holt) who has just started thinking about Kendrick.

I don't know if you saw my thread, but it had some really useful advice in, so may be worth a look - http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 10&t=32863" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And if it helps, the teacher that suggested Kendrick as a possibility for my daughter told us that as a very rough guide, they'd say that Level 5 by the end of Yr 5 is a good indication of Kendrick suitability.

Good luck with it, no doubt our paths will cross again in the next couple of years, particularly as our posts increase in frequency!!