Pressure or No Pressure

[kenyancowgirl]

Technically Yamin, KES is a super selective as the PAN is so low and the score required significantly higher.

And this topic has been addressed over and over - on the one side you have parents who want a GS place at all cost and can justify to the nth degree why they think it is acceptable to spend 1 or 2 or 3 hours a day with their 10 year old child, working towards that aim - sometimes from y3 or 4 - and some will do this and still not get in - you won't hear many of them on the forum though. And on the other side you will get the more laissez faire parents who believe the system will win out - if their child is bright enough, they will cope with the test without hours of tutoring - maybe a bit of familiarisation but that is all and they are, after all children, who deserve to enjoy childhood - and there are a number of kids who fall between these extremes.

I have made my feelings known on many occasions but think Amber puts it best: They are JUST schools.

The answer is perspective. Keep it. They are JUST children and they are JUST schools. The danger of forums like this is that they add to the frantic panic that some parents feel and encourage them to pile more and more and more on their kids and I wonder when the ticking timebomb will go off.

[Yamin151]

Well said KCG!

And I hadn't thought of that, yes, KES prob is a super selective.

[MerlinFromCamelot]

The danger of forums like this is that they add to the frantic panic that some parents feel and encourage them to pile more and more and more on their kids and I wonder when the ticking timebomb will go off.

I don't think it is just parents. I think publishers and some tutors have a big part to play.

I have seen 11+ books which were so hard I closed them faster then I opened them. The level of some questions was simply ridiculous. Also a friend put her DC in for 3 mock tests from different providers over the summer months. The DC failed all 3 not even close to scraping a pass, still passed Bexley with a very respectable score.

In terms of super selective schools, in DD1 11+ year many moons ago, 2 friends of hers passed Kent but not good enough to get a place (Occ) and one also just failed Bexley but passed Newstead... Again yesterday heard of a fail for Bexley but "likely" for St Olaves, it will be interesting to hear if he passes Kent??
I don't meant to burst anyone's bubble by the way.

[salsa]

The danger of forums like this is that they add to the frantic panic that some parents feel and encourage them to pile more and more and more on their kids and I wonder when the ticking timebomb will go off.

I don't think it is just parents. I think publishers and some tutors have a big part to play.

I have seen 11+ books which were so hard I closed them faster then I opened them. The level of some questions was simply ridiculous. Also a friend put her DC in for 3 mock tests from different providers over the summer months. The DC failed all 3 not even close to scraping a pass, still passed Bexley with a very respectable score.

In terms of super selective schools, in DD1 11+ year many moons ago, 2 friends of hers passed Kent but not good enough to get a place (Occ) and one also just failed Bexley but passed Newstead... Again yesterday heard of a fail for Bexley but "likely" for St Olaves, it will be interesting to hear if he passes Kent??
I don't meant to burst anyone's bubble by the way.

Children can have an off day. I do know a couple of children with a pass for Bexley, but who got into St Olave's or Newstead. I know other children who were expected to get good marks in Kent and didn't. The tests are different too and one test may suit a child more than another.

[MerlinFromCamelot]

Perhaps some are having rather a lot of off days...
Not passing either Kent or Bexley but perfectly ok for a "super selective" and not passing 3 mocks from 3 different providers but being more than OK on the day.

[crazydaisy]

Bexley caught out lots of us with the new CEM/Cloze style questions - our DD passed Bexley and Newstead (Kent awaited this afternoon) but her Bexley scores weren't great. Maybe it's more tutor proof than Newstead? I'm glad we did all three as i agree with Merlin it's unpredictable. And we did an awful mock exam which was just ridiculously difficult and put her off - wouldn't do that again! There is a perverse incentive for 11plus mocks/courses and books to underestimate DCs scores isn't there? And the harder they make it out to be, and the harder DCs work, the higher the standard! It's a huge money making business.

[Looby Loo]

I have recently come across some parents who have commented "I don't want to pressurise my child for 11+". It makes me wonder that you are taking away the chance which could have landed her/him into a GS (and possibly a good Uni). I seriously think that the child must be given at least the opportunity to try, encourage and appreciate the effort (not the pass/fail result). I know that not every child is sharp to crack 11+ but the skills that they pick up in preparing for 11+ are not going to be waste. May be I'm wrong but just thought to ask the fellow parents whose children have just completed the 11+ - Was it worth putting your children into the 11+ pressure? My answer is always "Yes".

I think we should all remember that GS are not the only place children can go to gain a good education and subsequently a place at a 'good uni'. Where we live, children go from the local high school to the grammar in order to sit their A levels because there is no 6th form there so could easily end up with the same results and same uni place as those who passed the 11+.