11 Plus Exams Forum

I am going through the 11+ journey with ds1, waiting for letters on 18th February. All the evidence this year seems to point to it being a slightly "odd" year - schools seem to have lots more applicants than ever (according to registrars), children who would have been a reasonably safe bet to get in normally are getting no's or waiting list places. Everyone seems to be saying how hard it is this year. My daughter who is not noticeably brighter than her brother got offers from all the independents she applied to - but this year that seems unheard of amongst the people I know.

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just the madness of SW London?!

You are correct, it seems alot of people are saying what large numbers of applicants there were this year. It would however be interesting to hear if this was also said last year and have some actual figures to back it up.
Anyone got figures?

I'm afraid I have no figures. But in 'my' years (2010 and 2008) 'people' were saying the same. Even if the numbers are up it is impossible to calculate the effect because it can always mean the same people just widening the net a bit and having more contingency? This is certainly what we did with DD2 as having put DD1 into indie we wanted to be sure that she got somewhere and made the poor child sit for 2 schools we would never have considered originally, and indeed probably not have accepted for her if it had actually come down to it. On the other hand, at our primary there was ahem, 'surprise' expressed at some of the children who sat in 2010, as in the past it had tended to be the very bright who tried this route. That said, a couple of the 'surprises' got offers so who knows?

JGBallard wrote:You are correct, it seems alot of people are saying what large numbers of applicants there were this year. It would however be interesting to hear if this was also said last year and have some actual figures to back it up.
Anyone got figures?

There is an interesting post by Mike in Birmingham, which seems to indicate that the rise in numbers applying, is from people seeking scholarships and bursaries with full fee paying applications remaining broadly static.
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If that is the case then you would expect more people to turn down their places either because they didn't get enough of a bursary or because they had spread the net wider and tried for more schools as one of the other posters suggests. So perhaps there will be a lot of waiting list movement this year? Who knows?!

I agree... feel the waiting list "movement" this year will be phenomenal.

This year 6 is also the Millennium babies. Was there a bit of a baby boom? If so next year might have a smaller number of applicants.

Actually birth numbers fell from the late 1990's and didn't recover until about 2004:)

indeed: yer actual figures...

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