11 Plus 2008 format

Eleven Plus (11+) in Warwickshire

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Ed's mum
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Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

We were in the same position this year as you will find yourself...we entered our son for the 11+ in order to send him to LSS. We are also out of catchment (OOC) and planned to move or rent before the cut off period. I'm not sure why we didn't move in the end - probably because we found out that LSS in previous years has admitted above PAN and that recently they have managed to provide places for all who qualify - including OOC children.
Funnily enough, when he did get offered a place earlier this month, they had made a mistake and thought that our address was in catchment!!! After YEARS of us worrying about being outside of the priority circle!!!
Please do not take the risk though, plenty of people in our village over the years - particularly girls - have had a qualifying score but have failed to gain a place.
Good luck.
ranjana johal
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Post by ranjana johal »

Thanks Ed's Mum. I don't think we can take the risk. By the way what does PAN stand for? Sorry, this is all new to me and I'm trying really hard to catch-up. I'm most concerned about the change to the exam system and a previous posting had referenced KE's exam (80 questions in 10 mins) and I'm afraid that's thrown me a bit. We've been doing plenty of VR and some other stuff but not a great deal. The trick's in the timing and I think my daughter may have already peaked, I'm sensing that she feels as fed-up with it as I am and we've still got 6 months to go and the whole of the Summer hols......!

Haven't done the secondary Portfolio or NFER as yet so maybe that'll keep her going into the summer. And then we have still to register and rent a place and then sell-up and buy in a space of 6 months if all goes to plan and she gets in - I get tired just thinking about it! What's LSS like, got a few years before my little one will be ready, is it as good as RHS? Also any advice re. Junior schools for my son, will be starting in Year 3 and we were thinking of Bilton Primary because of the close proximity to RHS but with no knowledge of the area, we're only guessing.

Anyone else with advice on good Primary schools in Rugby, would appreciate your comments.
Ed's mum
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Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

Good primary schools? Well, Dunchurch got a lot of children throught the 11+ this year, as did The Revel in Monks Kirby. Clifton is a good school too. I am sure there are more than this but these are the ones I either have first-hand experience of or I know children who attend.
PAN refers to Planned Admission Numbers. LSS often goes over them but apparently Rugby High does not.

I've just seen the other question about LSS...It is a fantastic school. It had an outstanding OfSted inspection. When I went to the Open Evening, I sat with tears in my eyes. The boys are well-mannered and the resources are good. I would have been proud to send my son there. Historically, LSS was never quite so good academically as RHS. Let's face it, girls often work harder than boys! However, LSS is doing really, really well at the moment.
Ed's mum
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:47 am
Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

a previous posting had referenced KE's exam (80 questions in 10 mins)
Really??
KenR
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Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi Ed's Mum

For information, I've pulled out a section from an old Birmingham posting about the synonyms section of one of the KE Exam papers a couple of years ago:-
To clarify the word assoociation are generally synonym pairing aimed at a reading age of greater than 13.5 years. In last years paper (not sure about Nov 2006) candidates had to match pairs of words as in the example below.(only 1 full example question given). The timing was very tight in that paper - 80 questions to answer in 10 mins (7.5 secs per question!!)


VOLATILE, loud, explosive, talkative, welcoming
VIBRANT
INDOLENT
LABYRINTHINE
ENIGMATIC
NOTORIOUS
ZEALOT
etc etc


If you are starting 11+ preparation for the KE grammars you could do far worse than create a number of 80 word lists. I understand (not confirmed) that they used to have all of the words starting with the same letter at during earlier tests.

(Perhaps something for last year's exam candidates to confirm)
No guarantee that this type of question will be in future KE Exams (or that the future Warks exam will be a similar format), but no doubt there will be something just a difficult.

Many children (including my son and his friend) just just went into a panic and either failed to finish or just guessed all of the answers.

In previous years they have given the candidates a couple of pages of written text to read, then taken the text away and asked them a series of comprehension questions about the section about 15 minutes later.

(There were many complaints from parents about this syle of question)


Hope this helps
Ed's mum
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:47 am
Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

Thank you KenR! I wish I didn't have another child who is going to sit the test(s) in two years!!
Charlotte67
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Post by Charlotte67 »

Ranjana,

Re primary schools - you need to be aware that many primary schools in Rugby, including Dunchurch and Bilton, do NO 11+ preparation whatsoever. There are plenty that do but this does not mean that more children pass from those that do. You cannot rely on a primary school to prepare our child for the exam. Many children in Rugby have tutors for this purpose and if you don't use a tutor you will need to put in the hours yourself.

IMO schools like Dunchurch have a high number of 11+ passes because the education is good and the cohort is largely middle class. Be warned though that good primary schools are normally oversubscribed......

Good luck

Also; RHS is not the only grammar choice in Rugby. Ashlawn has a selective stream of 30 children per year. It is also possible to move up to the grammar stream from within Ashlawn. The schools in Rugby are generally very good, particularly given the fact that "the cream" are taken by RHS & LSS (and to an extent the local independents, on scholarships). You could do worse than move into the area regardless of the 11+ result.

Charlotte.
Ed's mum
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:47 am
Location: Warwickshire.

Post by Ed's mum »

Well, I can vouch for The Revel, which does do some preparation for the 11+. In fact they start in the summer term of year 5. They have been fully supportive of selective education - state or independent. I have been extremely impressed!
Rugbymum
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Post by Rugbymum »

The schools in Rugby are generally very good, particularly given the fact that "the cream" are taken by RHS & LSS (and to an extent the local independents, on scholarships). You could do worse than move into the area regardless of the 11+ result.
Can you tell me which secondary schools are the good ones?

I agree that primary schools in Rugby aren't very helpful with regards to 11 plus preparation :?
KenR
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Post by KenR »

Hi Charlotte

It's interesting but the top performing primary schools for Warwickshire 11+ plus exams are not necessarily Independent prep schools.

I obtained some figures from about 12 months ago and the top primary schools (in success order based of total number of successful candidates) were as follows:-

The Croft School - 16
Bridge Town Primary - 10
Thomas Jolyffe Primary - 9
Warwick Preparatory - 8
St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Studley -7
Stratford Preparatory - 7
Tanworth-In-Arden - 7
Stratford-Upon-Avon Primary - 6
Milverton Primary School - 5

Milverton for example had a 83% pass rate in 2006, compared to The Croft and Warwick prep which only had a 31% success rate!

Regards

Ken
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