Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Eleven Plus (11+) in Berkshire (Berks)

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now
Imranali
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:20 pm

Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Imranali »

Hello everyone,

My child is currently in her last 5 days of primary school (emotional times!) and is about to go to Secondary school in September. As we all know, there has been a change in the curriculum. How will this affect DD in Year 7? What's school life like in general? Does anyone know someone who will be in Year 7 at Kendrick 7C in September or in Kendrick in general?

Any answers would be much appreciated :) :)
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Tinkers »

My DD is in year 9.
The changes to GCSEs will affect her. However the options stayed much the same, with the only difference being that taking a tech subject is no longer compulsory. (DD took this to mean she could took 2 but alas they didn't fit into the option blocks in the end)

I'm not sure how it will affect the year 7s but I suspect not very much as such.

DD is happy there, girls are encouraged to join in with school events but not overly pushed. Parents are told to encourage their girls to do others things outside academic work, be it music, sport or whatever. Either as after school clubs or outside school.

The atmosphere seems relaxed for the most part. Unlike a few schools, teachers don't tend to give detentions for missed HW for the odd one forgotten. (I suspect they would of it was a frequent occurrence.)
Imranali
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:20 pm

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Imranali »

Thank you Tinkers :) Yes, I did hear in the informal meeting that the school encouraged children not to just work all the time. Their form tutor, Mr Bryce, also seems very nice.
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Tinkers »

DD says that Mr Bryce is indeed very nice.

There is one teacher you should know about but I'll PM you about that.
BlueSmarties
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by BlueSmarties »

My DD is just finishing year 8, the years seem to fly by!

In all the welcome assemblies, parents are reminded and girls encouraged to take on extra curricular - non-academic - activities. Extra academic work in holidays is considered unnecessary and frowned upon: the school wants to minimise the pressure on our young ladies and allow them to enjoy their life! :D

During term time, especially the autumn term of year 7, everything seemed very hectic. There were lots of opportunities to join in with concerts, performances, house activities - all of which help the girls to get to know each other and integrate into the school community. It felt very full on, but also very welcoming and enjoyable. You can do as much or as little as you want but most girls in year 7 seemed to want to join in.

Lots of clubs to try out, many during lunch time which again adds to the sense of hectic-ness (long lunch queues in the canteen, club to get to, eating lunch to squeeze in).

If your daughter can organise her time well, the homework is very manageable (try to get it done on the day it is set, rather than the night before it's due in). And absolutely no homework during the holidays. Very nice.

My only criticism is that drama was dropped in year 8 (probably to make room for Latin and the second MFL). Personally I think my DD would have benefited from doing more drama (and less RE, but that's another thread...)

We had Mr Bryce too, there should be a Mr Bryce appreciation thread! He was very good with his form and the maths group.

Tinkers might be hinting at one particular teacher who is infamous for disliking year 7s... They will never give top marks in their subject, is quite shouty in class but is supposed to be actually quite nice to the girls once they're beyond year 7 (have I guessed correctly, Tinkers?)

Have you joined the KPS? We found it a real advantage especially in the first year because they helped to organise several social events for the girls and parents to get to know each other. It was reassuring to at least be on recognising / nodding terms with other families as the girls made friends throughout the year. I believe they usually do an end of summer / pre-start of term picnic.

Also, they will distribute a list of names, emails and addresses etc. for those who sign up so you can always arrange meet ups / travel to school with anyone living near you. As well as well as being a handy way of asking everyone if they have found your daughter's lost PE skort later in the year! (Bound to happen at some point! :lol: )
Reading Mum
Posts: 1841
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:44 am
Location: Reading

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Reading Mum »

BlueSmarties wrote: We had Mr Bryce too, there should be a Mr Bryce appreciation thread! He was very good with his form and the maths group.
Everyone loves Mr Bryce - although he just doesn't seem old enough to be a teacher. I guess I am just getting old!
BlueSmarties wrote: Tinkers might be hinting at one particular teacher who is infamous for disliking year 7s... They will never give top marks in their subject, is quite shouty in class but is supposed to be actually quite nice to the girls once they're beyond year 7 (have I guessed correctly, Tinkers?)
I know who you mean but could think of another candidate too.

My DD, also coming to the end of yr 9, has really enjoyed her time so far. She takes part in after school clubs but avoids most lunchtime ones as it is a short enough break anyway and there's not much time to fit in eating and socialising. Music ones do tend to be lunchtime with sport after school.
DD was really shocked when her friend at The Holt explained their full escalation procedure around detentions/exclusions etc. as she didn't know anyone who had ever had a detention whereas the Holt system seemed to be well exercised :shock:
We had always said that DD had the option of going to her alternative school for 6th form but she told me the other day that she would not want to even consider that now as she loved her school and had made really great friends there.
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Tinkers »

DD is also refusing to think about going elsewhere for A level, despite the school not doing A levels in a couple of subjects she would be quite keen to do if they did. She'd rather stay there and do others than go elsewhere.

I've not met Mr Bryce personally as DD had Frau Alderson as a form tutor in year 7 (also very lovely, the girls in the form really liked her), so I have no idea who he is.

There has been a year 8 recently who got detention. She had been playing about with the lockers in DDs form room (including taking the keys out of DDs padlock and locking them in another locker :shock: ). Her friend dobbed her in. She had to write a letter of apology to DDs class as well. I've not heard of any others and neither has DD.

There isn't much bad behaviour at Kendrick, the girls tend to police themselves, but when there is they do deal with it it seems.
Torrylee
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:03 pm

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Torrylee »

My DD has just left Y13 at Kendrick, having been there since Y7. Other than a few friendship problems in Y7 and Y8 she has been very happy. It is a wonderful school, lots of opportunities to get involved in extra curricula activities as others have said, great camaraderie amongst the girls and I have never seen any hint of the kind of academic pressure that some might expect, in fact quite the opposite. My impression is that where girls have been unhappy because of academic pressure that pressure has come from their parents, not from the school.

DS was at Reading and I would also speak very highly of that school but since he has finished two years at Uni now I'm a bit out of touch!
Imranali
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:20 pm

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by Imranali »

Thank you for your replies everyone! I will keep a lookout for the teacher you PMed me about Tinkers! :) :)
berks_mum
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: Life at Kendrick, Reading Boys ect.

Post by berks_mum »

My DD just completed 7C. Big fan of Mr Bryce. Agree with all the cooments here. My DD is late bloomer so we decided to take year7 extremely easy. In the last term she decided to play badminton but no other after school club. And no study at home. 90% of the times she did her homework in school and did full time books reading(non academic) once home. She also loves her English teacher Mrs Male who did seem very good when we met her at Parents evening. She likes most of her teachers apart from that one Tinkers (if I got it right) says. But towards the end of the year things got much better.
This year she may pick up an additional club or two. She has made good friends, they cycle/walk, together before and after school and play in the park. Most of the the girls are kind, intelligent and hardworking but are not competitive against each other.
They have three maths sets which they review every year based on the February test for year 7 and then year end setting test. Setting is not based on on years' performance just the setting test score which was bit surprising for me but there may be a reason for it.
Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now