worried about my son travelling from upminster to southend

[moved]

You can put your local school second. Edit: Sorry this was not everything I meant to send!

All the schools allocate places for all of their applicants according to their own criteria. The schools do not know their position on the CAF.

You have two options that still include both schools: put Southend first and your local school second or put Southend second and if you do not get your local school then Southend may be a better option than your third or fourth choices.

If you were allocated Southend and at that point decided not to take the place then you would be placed on the waiting list for your second choice school. If you had already filled their criteria you should be at the top of the waiting list.

If you decided that you really wanted Southend, having put them second, then you could put your son on their waiting list where he will be very near the top if he has already fulfilled their criteria.

[Hopefuldad]

Hey Swot I had this conundrum too, except my local comp is not so great. So I have to subject my D to travelling if that is the way it goes.
As a matter of interest what is your local comp ?

[swot]

Thanks again moved.
We would definitely get our local school as we're so close so to have any chance of getting Southend I think we would have to put it as first choice. I'm a little more confident now that we would get our local comp if we didn't put it first but then subsequently wanted a place due to changing our mind. I hope this is correct.
Hopeful Dad, when you say you 'had' this conundrum, does that mean in the past tense? i.e. does your D currently now go to a grammar and have to travel or are you currently applying?

[Hopefuldad]

swot, my D will be doing 11+ this year, I only used past tense because I have submitted my CAF.

regarding preferences, no school is informed where you have put them on the form so everyone is considered equally. The preferences are only to give you the school you want most if you were eligible for more than one school.make sense!

As I understood it, if you changed your mind you will not be garunteed a place you would be put on a waiting list.

[swot]

Hi Hopeful Dad,
We lived in an area where we were not in any school's catchment and would have been at the bottom of the lists for any of the good schools. That is why we started preparing our DS for 11+. We then moved home at the end of August and are now near two good schools. This is why we are now trying to decide whether to put him through the whole process or not. We had a chat last night and he's still going to go for it. We'll just have to see what happens in March.
All the best to you and your family, hope you get what you want.
Regards, swot.

[Hopefuldad]

Swot

Good you moved, takes the worries away. It is good yor S is still going to take the test. Best of luck to you guys too.

[Tinkerbell]

My dd is in year 9 at shsg and has travelled every day by train on the c2c line. It has never been a problem. Before she started there I nearly gave up her place when I realised there was no school bus. I am so glad I didn't, she loves it. There are so many travelling from all the c2c stations to the Southend schools. You will find that they have 'school' friends and 'train' friends, it's quite a social event. I would say make a few morning trips on the train with your dd if you can so you can see how you feel. That's what we did . Hope that helps. Good luck to you with your decision and your ds for next week.

[swot]

Thanks for your comments. Can't believe this time next week the test part will be over. As long as he does his best he'll be fine. We have been allocated the morning session and have to be there to register for 8:30 so it'll be a very early start! I just hope he'll be in the right frame of mind. We shall be treating our DS after all his hard work. I think it's good timing that Harry Potter has just been released as that'll be just the ticket!

[Moonlight]

Hi swot, just wanted to wish you and your DS all the best for Saturday. I think it's actually better to be in the first session as you get it over and done with. You then have the rest of the day to enjoy! Will be thinking about you.

[Fran17]

Hi swot, sending you and your DS lots of luck for Saturday, have been there twice. I have two sons at SHSB - we live in Billericay. Having viewed the grammars in our area, SHSB KEGs and WHSB we decided to put SHSB top of the list for both our sons (although we thought all three were amazing schools). Both were lucky enough to get into SHSB and I must say we are so happy with the choice we made, both of our DSs are happier than they have ever been and are absolutely flourishing - a very good friend said to me they go in a small boy but very soon develop into a rather larger young man -I hope this helps to put your mind at rest and if you need any help or advice regarding the school I would be more than willing to help.

Can I just add, SHSB doesn't give as much homework as the other grammars so the boys are able to carry on with other commitments and activities in the evenings. We feel they have got the balance just right.