Can I prepare my son for an 11+ from Spain?

[Guest55]

The Bucks 11+ selects the top 30% (or about a third after appeals) so actually is a lot less selective than the other two areas.

Where does the 1 in 9 come from?

[Averagedad]

Guest55,

I think people would appreciate more if you had responded to the question asked by the OP, which is,

'Does anyone know whether it would still be possible for me to prepare my son from here to sit the exam in October?'

I think people would also appreciate more if you had explained in more details 'where does it come from' on,

'The Bucks 11+ selects a lot less selective than the other two areas.'


I think people would appreciate most if you had used the Sir William Borlase's itself (like I did) and not the Buckinghamshire's 11+ in general (like you did) when rushing your conclusion about the '1 in 9 chance'.

Stay Happy.

[Sally-Anne]

Just to clarify and expand on a few points in Averagedad's post, for the benefit of both Carmen and others.

The first 11+ our elder boy took was the Buckinghamshire's, in September 2009. The Buckinghamshire Council was really helpful as it had sent us a lot of useful information (e.g. advising us every student was supposed to take 11+, parents had to write to the council if they did not wish their child taking the 11+)

This is the Secondary School brochure, which is available online here (the 2013 version will be published in June or early July): http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/schools/a ... ear_7.page" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

The Buckinghamshire Council posted us a pack of six 11+ papers (Verbal Reasoning): Two were a bit like 'Warm Up' paper and the council instruction was to let the child do these two first before trying the remaining four papers on later days. It also advised us there would be two VR papers for the REAL test and the better scored one would be chosen to 'rank' the child.

This is the official familiarisation pack, which would be sent to you in Spain for you to take your son through it. There is an introductory workbook, and then 3 Practice Papers: Paper A, which is easier, and then Papers 1 & 2, which are closer to the standard of the real test. They should be taken in that order.

(Can't remember if both papers were taken on the same day as our boy took 3 separate 11+ from 3 different councils)

They must be taken on two separate days, at least a day apart.

The Qualifying Standardised Score at the time was : 121.

It has been the same for many years, and is very unlikely to change.

1) It was about 1 in 9 chance in getting into Sir Willaim Borlase's

Guest55 is correct, in that the chance of qualifying is around 30%, plus an additional 5% who are deemed qualified after an appeal. It is exactly the same for every Bucks grammar school, and beyond that the chances of a place at any individual school come down solely to distance.

2) There were about 8,600 students eligible for taking the 11+ in Buckinghamshire at the time but only about 8,300 took the 11+;

The number taking the test is around 7,200, with roughly 1,000 children being withdrawn from testing at their parents' request.

Its paper showed there was a 'Drama' took place in 2009. When it was getting closer to the Real test Day, there was a rumour that the paper was leaked, so the council decided to use an old paper instead, which was the 2008's paper, yes, the paper used just the year before!

This was a one-off incident and completely unprecedented. It is well-documented elsewhere on the forum, but is of no particular relevance now. Changes were made to the system to ensure that, as far as is humanly possible, such an incident cannot happen in future.

The council's document also gave a detailed breakdown of the number of candidates for each standardised score (i.e. from 69 to 141) I was surprised by the number of candidates getting the highest score of 141 - which was significantly higher than any other score, higher than those getting the lowest score of 69 and the qualifying score of 121.

The "peak" of scores on 141 is because it is an artificial cut-off point. It is actually possible to score as much as 150, but because score is not relevant when allocating places, all the scores of 141+ are lumped together on 141.

Sally-Anne

[Sally-Anne]

I have moved the thread to our Buckinghamshire section for you, Carmen, because it is very specific to the county.

[Carmenmaria]

this email was extremely interesting and enlightening however scary!! I do not even wish to start preparing now! We actually own our home (which is currently let) just opposite Sir W Borlase...perhaps should just run away fast...to an independent Scottish school close to my inlaws!!

many thanks for all this information and well done you for getting your children in from Australia!

Carmen

[scary mum]

I'm not sure owning the house is enough, you have to be living there. They will know you aren't if your DC takes the test at half term. Hopefully I'm wrong but this happened to a friend of mine and they couldn't be allocated a place until they returned to their house.

[hermanmunster]

This is the sort of evidence that Bucks are looking for:

Address evidence
When applying for a school place you will be
required to provide proof of residence and
must send in one of the following with your
child’s application.
- Council Tax bill (for 2010/2011) for the
property showing that you (the applicant)
are paying the council tax.
- Utility bill (gas or electricity) which is in your
name, is no more than three months old,
and shows usage appropriate to your family.
- Current Television Licence – in your name.

We may verify the evidence you have provided
with other agencies including your child’s current
school

[won2appeals]

Yes but from personal experience you are going to struggle.

Best method is to get the child marking their own practice papers so they understand why answers were incorrect and to practice as much as you can.

Both my children failed their 11+ just after moving from the International Schools System in Spain.

The goodnews we won both appeals citing the fact that they didn't even know what a grammar School was until two weeks before they took their exams

[justmeagain]

Hi, I just wanted to add a couple of suggestions that we feel are important (SWBGS success). Apart from meeting the residency requirement there's no reason why preparation should be made any more difficult by being in Spain, so go for it!

1) there is a useful website at http://www.**** Advertising ****" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - if you're looking for Buckinghamshire, only the verbal reasoning papers are relevant (for now, althought that might change from 2014 entry

2) spend some time making sure basic maths skills are really speedy (multiplication etc)

3) spend time building vocab - if you pm me I'd be happy to send the lists we developed

All the best for your future plans!