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Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:55 am
by solar_mum
We are currently living in South Africa. My son would like to take the Eleven Plus for Gloucestershire in September. Does anyone have experience with taking the exams abroad or have any knowledge of what process we need to follow?

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 12:27 pm
by Tinkers
You'll need to contact the school or schools in question directly to confirm, but I doubt you'll be able to sit the exam abroad and will need to come to the uk to sit the exam at the school.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 12:41 pm
by DC17C
solar_mum wrote:We are currently living in South Africa. My son would like to take the Eleven Plus for Gloucestershire in September. Does anyone have experience with taking the exams abroad or have any knowledge of what process we need to follow?
Hi, I think you will need to start with looking at the individual admissions information whaich can be found on the website for each school. I would also contact the individual schools- and ask if it is possible to take the exam overseas. I It believe it has happened in the past and was previously mentioned in some of the admission information for Pates Grammar School but the current guidance does say that the test has to be taken at one of the Gloucester Grammar Schools and indeed the only the 400 children living closest to the school will be able to sit the test there and if I guess they actually live nearer one of the other schools - Sir Thomas Rich, The Crypt or Marling then they would be asked to take the test at that school since it is the same test for all the schools.
The results can be shared with all the schools that you are interested in and I would recommend doing this as the competition for places is high and setting one's heart on one particular school and indeed going through the whole process is fraught with the possibility of disappointment. The exam taken is run by CEM and there is a mass of information on this site as to what prep might be needed to familiarise with the test.
Hope this gives you somewhere to start - I don't envy you going through it - I have 1 that passed and 1 that failed (very stressful time) - both have ended up in grammar schools thanks to an appeal and both are enjoying their respective schools and seem to be making the most of the opportunity :)

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:19 pm
by PettswoodFiona
Only 11 plus exams that I know where you can sit the exam outside of the UK are for the Independent schools.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:27 pm
by Guest55
Bucks used to send 11+ papers abroad - you'd need to check whether this is still an option.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 1:29 pm
by solar_mum
Thank you DC17C. I have contacted Pates directly to confirm the approach with them. I will post their response for any others in the same boat. We have friends who were able to sit the exams here for Bucks with a moderator at their school and are therefore hoping that this would apply to GLOS too.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:01 am
by authormum
Hi Solar_Mum,
Just to add to DC17C's comments - we were living in France last year when DD was to sit the test. We were not able to sit it abroad and were told we had to be physically present at one of the schools, or else make a late application once we had arrived, so we made the trip over for the test.

I appreciate that it's much harder to do that from S. Africa, although one of the benefits for DD was that she got to see the school and meet people there.

Things may have changed this year though, so I'd check with all the schools in the area, because you can (should?!) ask for results to be shared with all the grammar schools in the area, so even if you sat remotely for a different school you might still qualify for Pates and could then put it as your first choice.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 1:16 pm
by capers123
In the past I have heard appeals for Glos grammar schools where the children sat the exam abroad. The main problem is taking the test at the exact same time as the UK kids (so the answers can't be transferred either way), and linguistics - are the children used to UK English vocab as opposed to other English vocabs.

I've not heard any appeals for overseas for a few years, but that doesn't mean they're not happening - it could just be that they got a high enough score.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:16 pm
by solar_mum
Thank you for your helpful comments everyone. Luckily we are only an hour ahead of the UK in Summer and the children use the English vocab. I will wait to hear from the school.

Re: Taking the Eleven Plus Exam abroad

Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:39 pm
by hermanmunster
I think the issue over Vocab is that all Anglophone countries use English Vocab but that is not actually the same as British English - there are some families who have moved from the USA and have been aware of the differences and the need to be familiar with the the local lingo (the old "two nations divided by a common language"

To some extent it depends how long you have been away from the UK, what the kids read and whether the kids have been to school here at some point