School report for Indie....

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
nina1on
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 12:12 am

School report for Indie....

Post by nina1on »

Dont know why, but asked on Friday my school if they were contacted by Indie schools (which we applied) regarding the school report for my DS.
Very annoyed, our Head teacher replied that it was a lot of paper work as apparently the Indies don’t ask for a copy of school report but they send some forms which my DS teacher has to fill out. And from some schools they got a 7 pages form and were very angree!
Anyway, to cut it short, I asked if they submitted it? And the answer was …..No, not yet! As his class teacher did not have time! I got in a little shock, as I am aware, the Indie school we are most interested in will need to post results this week! And they did not get the school report yet.
My question is: do we (as parents) have to chase the schools so they submit the reports on time??? Or, it is done between schools only and we don’t have to know about it. I worry very much as I asked the Indie we are interested what will happen if they don’t send report…..they said it would be bad for my DS. Of course, I begged our teacher to submit it ASAP but what if she does not. They all seem not to care about where their Year6 kids will go to…..
Sportsmum
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:00 am

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by Sportsmum »

I would contact the admissions department of your preferred school and tell them that the primary school is being awkward regarding filling in the forms that were sent, as they are telling you they are too busy and you are concerned that this might affect your child's chances. Ask them if there is anything else that you can provide them with in case the forms don't arrive on time. I would also send a letter to the school governors telling them you feel that the school is hindering the prospects of pupils trying to get into indies.

I'm sure someone else will come on the forum and give more advice. Good luck.
nina1on
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 12:12 am

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by nina1on »

Thansk Sportsmum. I am doing all this today. It just make me wondering, if I did not ask them on Friday...they would not probably do anything at all! And I would not even know it, because, as I understand, it is not my obligation to check if my school sent the report or not. But it looks like it is better always to check everything. My mistake
lara228
Posts: 201
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:23 am

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by lara228 »

My DSs State school has this down to a fine art as they have quite a few children applying to Independent Schools.........

They ask the parents to write a report about their child, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, etc, etc, which is then used as part of the report sent by the Head to the Independent school!!!! Guess what - my DSs school is full of highly talented geniuses!!!
MmeH
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:54 pm

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by MmeH »

Your primary school should really have a policy about how they respond to requests like this. Our state primary will either i) send out a copy of the Yr 5 report at no charge; ii) write a detailed report about child's abilities and roles in school which parents can help with by providing list (orchestra, school council etc, after school clubs) - this costs £30 and a copy is sent to each school, stapled to their own form if they send one - it covers the same stuff anyway; or iii) they will fill in a separate form for each school but you pay £30 per school! The payments are to compensate the teacher for the extra work and mean it is more likely to happen.

We opted for ii) and I did see a copy of what was sent and it was very good.
Regarding timing, one of the schools we applied to rang our primary as they hadn't had the report when they needed it and the secretary emailed it to them.
So, I do think you have grounds to complain (to the head first and then the governors if you don't get a response) - they should make it clear to Yr 6 parents what their policy for school references is!
nina1on
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 12:12 am

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by nina1on »

It is good that your school has a policy for such cases. But in my case it came to light ONLY when I asked! So, as I understand it is parents responsibility to check if the school sent off the references! May be my situation will help others and they will call their schools to find out.
surreymum
Posts: 553
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:26 pm

Re: School report for Indie....

Post by surreymum »

We had this situation where our prep school did not do the report for the indie school we were sitting at 11+. I had heard rumours that this was often the case and asked several times, but it still did not get there in time.

The indie school we were applying to were well aware that the school rarely got reports to them (our school went till age 13 and indie took from 11) and did not seem bothered as long as I could guarantee that my ds had never been excluded.

I took along copies of all his reports to show them, they didn't look at them!
Post Reply
11 Plus Mocks - Practise the real exam experience - Book Now