Beginning the journey....

[ricke]

Hi all,

I've been following this forum for about 6 months now and have found the information contained within excellent.

My DD is embarking on the 11+ journey (although we started some tutoring beginning Year 4) this year for entry into Year 7 next year. As we live in Harrow, we're going for the obvious choices of WG, maybe HBS, CD and some privates as backups. We went to see all the schools last year and will be doing to same this year for the short listed schools, before filling in the CAF. At the moment our CAF order is:

1. WG
2. Maybe HBS
3. CD
4 to 6 Local comprehensives

May change after the open days. Really just posted to share what we're doing with the other posters on this site and maybe pick up a few tips and also share some that we've picked up (mostly from this forum in the last six months !) From what I've seen on the forum, a lot of good(bad?) relationships between posters are made during the process and would be good to be part of it as the first steps are taken in this wonderful journey !

Regards

Ricke

[Daogroupie]

Hello Ricke, Welome to the forum and your journey and what a rollercoaster it is. At times you will feel utter despair and feel you are making no progress at all and then you will have a breakthrough and feel elation. I am on my second journey which has flowed from my first with no break. Well done for doing the open days last year. You will be astonished at how differently you will feel about some of them a year on. When you feel the same two years in a row that is when you know you have nailed it. DD loved the Y7 and Head girl speakers and Oliver Blond at HBS the first year and then loved the different set even more the second year. And yes I have made some great friends and we met up before our dc's started and again on the day which was great. And they were especially supportive when we got a big fat nothing from the school when she got in and a major green eye and silence in the playground. Only other forum folk can understand how that feels after all that work when all they did was click a few boxes online. I would encourage you to go for HBS, you do have six choices after all, we only had three. I will always wonder about dd going to HBS in a parallel universe. And it is great to really have a choice. But we are mindful that so many don't I shall be really interested to see if your choices do change after the open days. What day are you going to HBS next week? We are going Wednesday and hoping to see Barnetdad's dd busy at work! DG

[busybeenfun]

If you live within any of the following Harrow postcodes then you are also within the catchment for Queens' (Bushey).

HA6, HA5 3**, HA5 4**, HA3 6**, HA7 3**, HA7 4**

If you are sitting the SW Consortium test for Watford Grammar and St Clement Danes then this also applies for Queens'. As you have 6 preferences, then it may be an option for preference 4, 5 or 6.

Good luck with your journey!

[ricke]

Thanks for your welcomes Daogroupie and busybeenfun ! I've read many of your previous posts and picked up very some very useful information. Hope I can do the same for others down the line...

We liked HBS when we saw it last year, seems pretty hard to get into. Also, the distance is something that put us off. Even though there is a private door to door bus, don't think it operates a late service for an any extra school activities, so could be an issue with DD making her own way home esp. in the winter months (if she got in, that is ). Don't really want to put DD through an extra set of exams if we definitely know we wouldn't be accepting the offer (golden ticket ?), but we'll see what happens next week.

Haven't really thought about Queens, we didn't see it last year. Distance and wanting girls only (CD is a bit of a compromise) was the main factor. Will do some research on it on it and see if it changes anything.