11 Plus Exams Forum

Do Barnet schools rank children according to suitability for grammar schools in the way Bucks do? Are references provided to the grammars before allocation of places ie do the schools use these as additional info in deciding which children to take?

Definitely not for Henrietta Barnett - just on the actual exam marks. Don't know if any of the others have a sibling or distance criteria; I have heard of church schools taking references into account but no grammer that I know of does.

Latymer asks for a headteacher's reference. It was to be provided fairly soon after the second round.

At the end of October my child's school wrote references for Barnet, I'm not sure how Barnet uses these. I remember there were scores for academic potential and motivation.

I was under the impression that exam marks were the most important factor. I know Latymer and QE both ask for a headteachers report mostly to confirm what you said on your application form regarding extra curricular activities were true. ie. do they play in the school band, have they represented the school at football, do they play cricket every week in an after school club etc. I think they only pay attention to this report for tied scores or borderline cases although I'm sure QE would push for a child who had been selected from the school rugby team to represent the borough in the London Youth Games!!! - actually to be fair that may just be me being a touch cynical. I would, however, be very interested in the scores that are sent to the borough regarding ability/motivation. What are they for exactly? Does anyone else actually know or are we all guessing wildly in the dark.

Yes, Barnet's form includes questions about academic potential, motivation, interaction with adults, interaction with other children, kS1 results, KS2 predicted results and activities. The form was completed for all children including those not applyng to selective schools.

I can understand how this information could be useful to secondary schools regarding ensuring children are placed in the correct classes when they get to secondary school. I don't, however, understand why this information needs to be given out in October. Surely its most useful to the schools to be given this information once the children have their school places allocated. I feel very suspicious!

How come parents weren't consulted about outside activities? I too am awfully suspicious.

Have any parents asked their children if they have seen these forms? My primary school showed the form to all the children on the whiteboard and then asked them individually about activities. I presume (maybe I don't considering schools seem to be doing their own thing) other children should be able to confirm this.

My primary school showed the form to all the children on the whiteboard and then asked them individually about activities.

I don't know about your children but mine would probably only name football (the one he thinks is most important) and ignore the rugby, swimming, music, cricket, athletics and all the competitions where he has represented the school. That would make the form as good as useless to his primary school, secondary school and also him if that info is passed to the grammar schools.

Now I know about this I can prime him as he won't be in year 6 until next year but its not much consolation to the poor soles whose children have already had the form completed on their behalf (probably by staff who view it as more boring paperwork that needs to be completed ASAP with minimal effort).