Open days/ evenings... Glad when it's over.

[lottie78]

All of the ke were impressive, but we did see many a 'pushy' parent parading their children round making them reel off their many accomplishments and their predicted sats scores to any camp hill teacher that would listen!!!
My Ds looked horrified lovely school, excellent education just seemed abit scary from an outsiders point of view but if your dc has the mark to get in there then they deserve a place.
Five ways and Aston did have a calmer feel, I just hope Ds passes, fingers crossed!

[um]

I wouldn't agree that FW is less pushy than CH (Boys, in any case).

FW children tend to get homework through the school holidays; my son never has.
FW tend to take huge amounts of GCSEs - some early - whereas CH Boys take 10 GCSEs in Year 11 and do not have a policy of taking them early.

[reeyah]

I agree with Um. If anything, KEFW is the one where children suffer burn out, as they are made to do extra GCSE's early. I'm going to bite the bullet and say it..they are doing it for league tables I think?! It's a great school if your child enjoys a lot of schoolwork.. not for others. The KEFW head is apparently more 'charming' too, maybe that's got something to do with the better 'feel' on Open Day??

Anyway, my favourite is KE Aston. All they seem to worry about is Rugby and DS is loving the fact that he can 'do a rough tackle'

[reeyah]

I also meant to add, I think we are all 'extreme' and 'pushy' to a certain extent.. That's why we are on this site

[mike1880]

I know a very confident, able girl in Y7 of CHG who feels quite daunted by the level of ability; anyone used to being the cleverest in primary, or very near to it, might feel a little taken aback when suddenly finding themselves very much in the middle (or at the bottom) of their year group. I think that will quite possibly apply to any of the GS.

CHB open days suffer more than any other (except perhaps KES) from the loud, pushy (and in my prejudiced opinion, invariably prep school) parent. Funnily enough if your child is successful you won't meet any parents like that at school events.

CH parents will always tell you that FW is more pushy; I certainly can't say I've ever noticed our son feeling under any tremendous pressure to achieve at CH ( unfortunately!). Our son is far, far too immature to have coped with being pushed through a raft of early GCSEs, as would have happened at FW. Hopefully the gentler pace at CH will suit him better and he might get his act together by the time he takes them next year.

Mike

[Turtlegirl]

I liked FW too (and Aston and Bishops Vesey tbh) and CH is too many buses away for us. But I think it's probable that the early GCSEs policy may change at FW when the EBacc comes in - certainly a couple of teachers I spoke to thought that might happen.

[mike1880]

It's the sort of thing that's always likely to change when a new head comes in anyway. My objection is that it's done for the benefit of the school, not the children. A couple of years ago when we went round with our daughter the handouts included a few pages on exam results which I took the trouble to read. One of the things they were doing was pushing a lot of them through AS English a year early and the results were absolutely dreadful.

If we'd sent our son there he'd have been starting GCSEs in Y8 iirc, there is no way he was anywhere near ready for that.

Mike

[MSD]

We really like their GCSE policy; 10 GCSE'S taken in year 11.

I also liked the idea of CH splitting the sciences starting in Year 7. I think FW don't do that until Year 8.

MSD

[Dave1879]

I know a very confident, able girl in Y7 of CHG who feels quite daunted by the level of ability; anyone used to being the cleverest in primary, or very near to it, might feel a little taken aback when suddenly finding themselves very much in the middle (or at the bottom) of their year group.

We knew of two girls who were top in our dd's class who lost a lot of confidence at CHG - so much so that, although theire GCSEs were average, their A level results were poor.
Sometimes I think it would have been wiser to have sent them to a reasonable comp where they probably would have flourished - but then again we get up in this craze to obtain a GS place which, in itself, feels like a be-all, end-all situation.

[nervousmom]

I have been asked a couple of times recently if we would consider CHB - assuming of course the relevant score is achieved.

My DS is the cleverest in his year, he just got 97% on a maths sats paper! If he were lucky enough to achieve a CHB pass I would prefer he did not go there as I would be worried that the standard would be far too high and he would go from being the cleverest to average or below. I don't think he would like this and I wouldn't want that pressure for him.

Our preferred choice, and his, is KEFW with KES (stratford) second and AGS third. Although he really wants FW he thinks he did better in the Warwickshire exam!

Not long to wait now!