11 Plus Exams Forum

Been to the open evening at FW today & must say that it is a BRILLIANT school - kids were polite, knowledgeable & helpful. Head's speech good. Facilities were great. Can't really fault it. Will be checking out chb tomorrow.
Anyone else agree with me about fw?

I felt the same when I went to see it. It has the loveliest grounds and facilities of all the KE schools. The distribution of classrooms/buildings leaves no concerns about the amount of pupils. It has a great ethos as well.

For us, we just felt a single sex school was better for DS and more convenient, otherwise it would have topped the list for us too.

KEFW is lovely! DS2 has been going round the schools again (despite having done the rounds with DS1 before ).

I didn't make it to one of the Open Evenings as I've been quite ill this week, so DH took DS2, armed with a list of questions. He asked one boy "Is there anything you'd change about the school?" and the boy (without hesitation) answered, quite seriously, "Yeah, all the teachers!". DH thought it was hilarious especially as all the surrounding pupils and teachers gave the boy an evil stare as he said it!

(*not KEFW btw but not saying which school )

Ds1 attends and loves it. The site is certainly the best of all the free grammar chools in the area - and better than some fee paying ones.

I have some concern about the current Head - she has moved from an all girls school - but time will tell.

Moseleymum That made me chuckle...

Went to the chb open day this morning and to be honest I wasn't as impressed as fw.
I know some dps swear by chb but we just felt facilities, head's speech, mix of dc, vibe etc was miles better at fw. Horses for courses again I suppose.

It's a nice site when the sun shines, I've never seen it in February with the wind blowing off the reservoir but I bet it doesn't half bite

In the past FW took too many early GCSEs for my taste (son was definitely not mature enough to take anything early - barely mature enough to take them at 16 tbh ) but as far as I understand it that's one of the things that the current head is changing.

I went to the open evening at chb the other night and noticed that there were VERY few white faces having a look round. Now I certainly don't want to stir a hornet's nest but I was wondering why this is so? FW on the other hand felt a lot more 'mixed' in both those dps who've come to look around and in terms of children already at the school compared with chb. I certainly don't want to upset anybody and hope no-one is offended. It's only that this topic has recently been mentioned on this forum that made me inquisitive to know whether white folks are being put off by chb for one reason or another.

It's perfectly reasonable to discuss this as long as we all be respectful.

I would suggest that the reasons for this include its location (as it's is easier to get to from some of the areas with a higher Asian demographic) and the fact that the nearest decent secondary school is an oversubscribed Catholic secondary. So even for the Asians that live nearer to the school but might not otherwise have thought that a grammar was necessarily the most suitable choice, they don't actually have a lot of other choices in the comprehensive sector. A lot of local parents feel under a lot of pressure to aim for it.

Of course, there is also the obvious reason that it is such a high performing school! I am not aware of white parents being put off by it for this reason - although I think there was one parent on here some time ago who was concerned by this. I think she was from Solihull though and might have found the the normal ethnic mix in Brum a little too radical

I think you will find, however, that the mix of children who actually attend the school is from a wider range than the parents you find at the open evenings.

My daughter, currently in Y8 at CHG, helped at the open evening. She noticed very few white people there. She heard one of the few white people comment that it was like being in India!

But her experience has been excellent and she has a good group of friends from mixed backgrounds. So don't be put off.