the tale of a girl

[Perplexed 2009]

So many congrats to your DD, Tree. I stumbled across this post whilst awaiting the rest of my DC's 11plus results- her sister is at Grammar, so it means a lot to her. She too feels she has put in a lot of hard work, but so far not received any good news. She is dreading going to local ( good) comp owing to its vastness and now too feels it matters not how hard she works, because she will be forever condemned to failure! Wishing I'd never put either through the 11plus, not really a sharp elbowed family. I was blubbing whilst reading your post. This is going to be a long day/ week/ year!

[play]

Almost resulted in tears in my eyes. 5 years of pain and now a life time of joy. You must both be proud. Well done.

[panichead]

Without doubt the most inspiring post I have read.

My heart sank as I read it and I felt your pain and how awful it must have been to watch your DD going through that.

But, wow, how wonderful that she overcome it all and has been rewarded for all her efforts.

Our results come tomorrow and I am dreading it (as you were) - with DD1 already at grammar if DD2 doesn't make it the fear of failure on her part will be that little bit more painful.

But, I will be showing her this thread whatever the result.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[sgsgirl]

Congratulations to you and your daughter, Tree. This story has definitely bought a tear to my eyes. How wonderfully uplifting and really does give all us parents that glimmer of hope that we all desparately need at this time.

[menagerie]

What a lovely story. Well done to her. And to you. Obviously she thrived where she was.

[Tree]

Hey thanks to everyone for the lovely posts, we are thinking about you all and how stressfull a time it is and we hope all goes well.

The important thing to remember i think is that if you are worrying about your dc's education, care about what happens to them, encouraging them to do well and being supportive and loving, then it is those things that are more important for their future fulfiment than the school they go to.

good luck all

[Bewildered]

A wonderful story Tree. Thank You for sharing.
It proves, cream always rises to the top!

[Tree]

Hi to everyone waiting for results I thought I would bounce this thread.

We today dropped this same girl off at Oxford to start her degree in economics and management.

So hopefully this tale may reassure anyone who doesn't get the result they are looking for in the next few weeks that all is not lost, that non-selective schools can still inspire and encourage and enthuse academic potential and that sometimes being one of the best in your class/year can be a real confidence boost and bring out their best.

Our DD is sure that her great results in GCSE and achievements when seen in the context of her school which only gets 60 odd percent
4 A-C GCSE's really made her stand out at her interview and UCAS applications, so there are some real advantages to not being at a grammar/selective school.

As I have said before :

The important thing to remember i think is that if you are worrying about your dc's education, care about what happens to them, encouraging them to do well and being supportive and loving, then it is those things that are more important for their future fulfillment than the school they go to.

Good luck to you and your DC's when its your time to be opening envelopes.

[Matrix]

Thank you sharing your inspirational story. Wishing your DD best of luck at Oxford. It's very interesting to hear that you think universities take into account the school attended by candidates.

[Tree]

Hi matrix I'm not sure if they do or don't, my dd is convinced they did but I don't know she has any evidence for this directly, she went to oxfords uniq summer school in year 12 this was run by the uni only for state school kids and was competitive to get into 1:4 or so places and they certainly looked at the grades of your school to asses your application and so according to my dd there were very few if any grammar school kids on uniq it was mainly comp kids. I think for the application process they do use contextual information to some degree but I think it's mainly for the schools who never send kids to oxford and then only to give them an interview but not a place, my dd was the only state school candidate interviewed at her college 12 people 2 places so I think this is what she is basing her theory on but it maybe she was just chosen without any contextualisation see this thread for details of her experience :

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 58&t=35579" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;