How long to wait?
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:45 pm
Apologies for this extended post, but I'm feeling frustrated and somewhat upset after weeks of waiting for a result from two independent schools and wondered if this was a common experience, and whether anyone had any advice?
My son is 10 (young year 6) and we think very bright and creative. I know all parents tend to think that of their offspring, and with two Oxbridge parents he has had a facilitating environment, but he has always motivated himself to learn and create new things.
For instance, he has an extraordinary vocabulary, unnaturally good spelling(!), excellent literacy skills and KS2 level 5a Maths. In the past two years he has:
Both schools said they would have the results of the exam and scholarships/bursaries within about 7 days.
After 7 days, the first school sent a letter saying they would be delighted to have him and that he had done well in the exam (but no actual scores). Owing to a range of unexpected circumstances we have a very low income at present so our son would need a bursary to take the place - and we had completed all the forms in advance. After three weeks we contacted them and were told the bursary/scholarship committee had been inundated by applications this year and had not made final decisions. Here we are at 7 weeks and still no word...
After 2 weeks there is no news from the other school.
The waiting and uncertainty are taking a toll on all of us - but I think it is especially unfair to leave a 10 yr old dangling in this way.
There were only 12 children at the first exam and 4 at the second - and these schools are not in London, so it is hard to know what can possibly take so long to decide.
He felt he did quite well on the tests, and from the practice papers we did in the weeks before I imagine his scores were ok.
I feel my confidence in the first school has been completely undermined. If they have so little awareness of the damage to self-esteem that leaving a 10 year old to wait for so long can do, how can I feel sure that they will be aware of his needs if he is at the school?
Has anyone had a similar experience and any advice to give? Thanks.
My son is 10 (young year 6) and we think very bright and creative. I know all parents tend to think that of their offspring, and with two Oxbridge parents he has had a facilitating environment, but he has always motivated himself to learn and create new things.
For instance, he has an extraordinary vocabulary, unnaturally good spelling(!), excellent literacy skills and KS2 level 5a Maths. In the past two years he has:
- * taught himself to use Flash 8 to create animations,
* used professional level tools such as Fireworks, Audacity and Gamemaker to mix soundtracks and make games,
* set up, run and changed the look of a Wordpress blog and two websites by himself;
* written dozens of rather good raps, parodies, short stories and poems;
* modified elements of the Sims 2 game and uploaded them to forums for others to use;
* taught himself to play the piano initially, and once he had lessons began composing his own tunes
etc.
Both schools said they would have the results of the exam and scholarships/bursaries within about 7 days.
After 7 days, the first school sent a letter saying they would be delighted to have him and that he had done well in the exam (but no actual scores). Owing to a range of unexpected circumstances we have a very low income at present so our son would need a bursary to take the place - and we had completed all the forms in advance. After three weeks we contacted them and were told the bursary/scholarship committee had been inundated by applications this year and had not made final decisions. Here we are at 7 weeks and still no word...
After 2 weeks there is no news from the other school.
The waiting and uncertainty are taking a toll on all of us - but I think it is especially unfair to leave a 10 yr old dangling in this way.
There were only 12 children at the first exam and 4 at the second - and these schools are not in London, so it is hard to know what can possibly take so long to decide.
He felt he did quite well on the tests, and from the practice papers we did in the weeks before I imagine his scores were ok.
I feel my confidence in the first school has been completely undermined. If they have so little awareness of the damage to self-esteem that leaving a 10 year old to wait for so long can do, how can I feel sure that they will be aware of his needs if he is at the school?
Has anyone had a similar experience and any advice to give? Thanks.