struggling with the wait and offer day/waiting list Qs

[copella]

Agree, just like our school, they gave no advice re what school we should apply to, offered no help towards the exams, wrote stiff letters to us when we asked for permission to take our DS out for the day to sit the exams and then have the cheek to boast about the numbers who get level 5's and get into the selectives when it was down to us as parents!!!

[AlisonR]

My thoughts are with you all waiting for news. We went through the process a few years ago and I found the last month of waiting quite tortuous, although noone else in our household worried about it.

Have it all to go through again next year but hoping that it will be "easier" due to knowing test results prior to applying for schools. Of course, that could have the reverse effect of building hopes too high!

Alison

[Charl39]

I find it even harder knowing that the teaching assistants in our school who have children at the school are also in a position to find out the results earlier. I know this has happened in the past at our primary. And even worse is the thought that their children, in my son's class, might know my son's result days before we do.

Two years ago we were supposed to find out the result online at 7am but, as in recent years, the system crashed and was unavailable. I had been awake most of the night worrying and waiting. In the end, after refreshing the screen 100 times to no avail, I phoned up my admissions team at 8am and there was someone there to give me the result. I really didn't want my DD going into school not knowing when other children did, it had been such an awful wait, so was delighted to find out, even though it was bad news at the time. The email eventually came around 5pm and then a letter the next day. I am much happier that the result should be available at 5pm on 1st March this year, all the children will be home from school and have the evening to deal with the news, good or bad, before going back to school on the Friday.

Good luck to everyone waiting this year. My best advice is, whatever happens it is not the end of the world and the school you are given may not be the school your child ends up attending (as in my case - my DD finally got offered a place at our 1st choice (and amazing school) on 15th July that year). If it's not your 1st choice, please do accept the school you're given and then deal with the options later. It will take time to find out your waiting list places/rankings so hold tight but try and be positive for your own sanity and for your child. But let's hope it's good news in the first place!!!

[clear_rule]

Just like to add my tu'penny worth to the primary school taking all the credit. This self-congratulating end-of-year event also happens at our DD's primary. My spouse was a parent governor for the last 4 years and on several occasions, questioned why the school did not encourage the more able pupils. The Head's reply was always the same - that the teaching staff and curriculum is designed to bring out the best in all pupils across all ranges of ability ( -downright lies). The reality is that the teaching staff avoid the higher achievers, knowing that they are already above the school average and will get the SATs level 5. If only a little attention was given to pupils sitting selective school exams, but it does not happen. It is more akin to an ostrich with its head in the sand and I, for one, will be only too glad to see the back end of petty primary school shenanigans.

I'm getting very twitchey about the allocations this year - I need diversions to keep me sane!

[lemondrop]

Our primary tends to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds on this issue. They have been quite happy to let DD have time off for school visits and exams during term time, and will most certainly try to bask in the glory if she or the other child in the school who sat round 2 exams gets a selective school place, but they were somewhat disapproving of her sitting the exams and told me that doing so would be divisive and create jealousy amongst her peers. The boys in her class tease her anyway for being 'brainy' or they tell her she can't be brighter then them because she's a girl. So this is nothing new, nor is it caused by her sitting selective exams. In fact one of the main reasons she chose to sit for the grammar schools in the first place was to give her a chance to get away from this sort of attitude.

In the meantime the school is frantically working with the middle level Y6 children desperately trying to boost their levels in the hopes that they get more 4As and 5s in the SATs. They are virtually ignoring the bright ones who they think will get level 5s anyway, and the less able who they seem to have given up on.

DD and I have been trying to distract ourselves, but I know I won't be able to relax until we know the outcome.

[lemondrop]

For those wanting some distraction, I've been wasting too much time on the internet. Whilst perusing the HBS website I came across this blurb for their forthcoming Shakespeare production:

"HBS proudly present a Key Stage 3 production of Twelfth Night. In Shakespeare’s last and most lyrical comedy, love, madness, mistaken identity and misrule are explored in the mysterious region of Illyria. A shipwreck separates identical twins Viola and Sebastian and Viola disguises herself as a boy in order to seek employment in this strange new land. Nobles, servants and sailors alike are all caught up in the chaos that ensues and, after much confusion and calamity, find out that appearances aren’t quite what they seem… A large ensemble cast of students from Years 7 to 9 will bring this atmospheric and magical piece to life."

Can you spot the mistake? I do hope that the biology department at HBS is more concerned with facts than the English/Drama departments

[curlyching]

Ha, ha! Maybe the fact that all the parts are played by girls has confused things. 'Cos if you've got a girl pretending to be a boy and a girl pretending to be a girl pretending to be a boy and they are both pretending to be twins it all gets a bit complicated!!

[lemondrop]

if you've got a girl pretending to be a boy and a girl pretending to be a girl pretending to be a boy and they are both pretending to be twins it all gets a bit complicated!!

That explains it It would be even more complicated if they cast real twins in the roles as well!

[2GirlsDad]

Agree, just like our school, they gave no advice re what school we should apply to, offered no help towards the exams, wrote stiff letters to us when we asked for permission to take our DS out for the day to sit the exams and then have the cheek to boast about the numbers who get level 5's and get into the selectives when it was down to us as parents!!!

Is this a state or indie school? State schools put these days down as "for educational reasons", not sure if that means that they do not get counted as absence.

[lemondrop]

Yes that's correct, state primary schools count them as educational days and they are not included in the child's absence record.