Kent GS selection 2012

[Ernestdad]

I have read this forum with interest over the last few weeks and can understand the agony parents are going through. For my wife and I, Project GS 2012 has been 5 years in the making, with my son attending 3 years at Kumon and 2 years with a tutor. With St Olaves being the goal as 0.5 miles away. My son sat St Olaves and Kent 11+ and we waited in trepidation. My son had already warned us that he was not confident about St Olaves after he stated the maths test was so hard and so unlike anything he had ever done before that he had almost cried and this was reflected by friends of children who had also sat the test. Therefore it was not a total surprise when we received the dreaded St Olaves letter with the phrase 'unlikely' and we desperately hoped this was not a bad oman on the Kent result.
Thankfully it was not and my son scored 418, thank god so now we have to decide if 418 will be good enough for Judd our second choice or will it be Dartford especially with the general confusion over the standardisation process this year. Tonight we went to Dartford open evening and have been greatly reassured by their head of admissions, who stated the standardisation process has made no difference to achievement levels required and a score of 414 would guarantee a place so I assume a 418 should be sufficient for Judd. Having looked round Judd today my son proclaimed "this is the school for me, it just feels right". So now desperately hoping no further surprises. With two further sons growing up quick not sure I can come cope with Project GS 2014 and Project GS 2019.
I hope everyone on this forum gets what they hope for in March 13.

[CoffeeCup]

Do remember it comes down to distance if a number of boys have the same score.

Good luck and hope it works out as you wish!

[susanass]

5 years preparing for the kent test! My daughter is in year 3 and I haven't even thought that far ahead, is this really how long we should be preparing our children for the test? Don't mean to offend, but I find that quite excessive. Maybe you had good reasons, but I worry that would just put too much pressure on my daughter, maybe it's just me, or maybe I am the one who is not organised enough Sorry if I offended you, but I am quite shocked that people actually start 5 years ahead of time.

[bromley mum]

I think the OP said they started Kumon 5 years ago. People who do do Kumon tend to start quite early. We didn't send any of ours to Kumon. Started a bit of work in year 4, just to keep on top of vocabulary and maths. Then in year 5 one hour a week for 11 plus related work. The bulk of the papers were done in the summer holidays before the exams. So, for a DC who is in year 3 at the moment, I would say just keep on top of whatever is being done in school, for example time tables etc. and encourage age appropriate reading, games to develop vocabulary and that should be enough.

[Tea For Two]

5 years preparing for the kent test!

This is from The Telegraph earlier this year.

Robert Masters, the Judd School headmaster, said increasing entry requirements were not a reflection of more intelligent pupils or rising numbers of applications, suggesting many children were simply being tutored to pass.

“The rise of the coaching culture is a real concern for all the grammar schools in the area – we are not able to identify a commensurate increase in academic scores,” he said.

Separate figures published by the National Grammar Schools Association show that thousands of pupils across England who gain basic pass marks in the 11-plus are still being rejected.

Data shows that 13,800 out of 29,500 children who took the entrance exam at 56 schools last year passed the test. Of those, only 7,700 – just over half – won a place in 2011.

Ilesh Kotecha, founder of the website http://www.ElevenPlusExams.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, said it was “quite easy” for families to prepare for the tests to ensure children gain “phenomenal scores”.

He added: “I have seen courses for the 11-plus aimed at children aged five upwards, meaning they’ll be hot housed for five or six years before the exam.

“But if you talk to heads, they will say that by the end of the first term, when children are put into streams and sets, the people who prepared the least for the exam will end up in the higher sets and the ones who were spoon-fed for years end up in the lower sets.

“By the end time they’ve completed seven years, the children who were over-prepared inevitably end up completely demoralised and have lost all confidence by trying to keep up.”

To be fair to the parents though, they are only operating within the system that is presented to them. A fairer way would be to have the SS choose pupils who score, say over 390 then go on distance.
The result of the current system is that many pupils gain entry to GS and SS precisely for the reasons above and are hot housed either with tutors or private schools; precisely NOT what the GS's were set up for in the first place!

[pheasantchick]

If you look on other threads, I think that last year not everyone got a place at 418. Certainly, the score is increasing every year.

[susanass]

I think the OP said they started Kumon 5 years ago. People who do do Kumon tend to start quite early. We didn't send any of ours to Kumon. Started a bit of work in year 4, just to keep on top of vocabulary and maths. Then in year 5 one hour a week for 11 plus related work. The bulk of the papers were done in the summer holidays before the exams. So, for a DC who is in year 3 at the moment, I would say just keep on top of whatever is being done in school, for example time tables etc. and encourage age appropriate reading, games to develop vocabulary and that should be enough.

Thanks for your answer. Yes that is what I have been doing, but the post just panicked me into thinking I should maybe be doing more as she is not in the top 5, just in the middle. I don't want to let her down by starting too late, but just didn't want to put too much pressure on her at such a young age. Very hard to know what is the right or wrong way to do it. There were lots of mums in my eldest childs class when he was in year 5 who heavily frowned upon any form of tutoring, so a lot of mums "pretended" their child was not being tutored at all, but then the children in the class used to tell my son that they did test papers at home all the time, so you don't know who is telling the truth half the time anyway. I think I will continue to do things the way I did with my son who did pass in the end with one years tutoring and hope I am not doing the wrong thing by my daughter by waiting until then.

[doodles]

Correct PC, I seem to remember that on 1st March allocations not all 418's got a place at Judd. I think the 2012 Takers thread has what the scores came down to after waiting list movement, appeals etc. It may be worth having a look over there.

We certainly didn't do 5 years preparation - my nerves couldn't have stood it! We did play games like scrabble, rummikub etc and made sure he did actually learn his tables I also made sure that any gaps in his maths were well plugged - but really we just did what any interested and pro-active parents would for the majority of the time. Preparation began in earnest in Yr 5 I would say.

[sudhacm]

God I am confused.
We live in Cambridgeshire where we don't have any grammar school. My son sat in Kent Grammar schools, London Borough of Bexley grammar schools and St. Olaves grammar school 11+ exams this Sep. He scored 252 in Bexley means he is one of those top 180. Also in Kent he scored 423 and in St. Olave's he is likely to be offered a place. Now which schools to go for. We are happy to relocate but at the same time want him to finish his yr 6 at current school only. Now the question is CAF form which gives only 3 preferences to put.
I thought of putting St. Olave's first and then Dartford/Judd and then Bexley but somebody told me that as my son is guarunteed a place there in Bexley if I put it they will just allocate that only and will not consider for the other prefered schools.

Can somebody help. Totally confused.

Thanks

[pheasantchick]

Have you visited the schools? Which school 'feels right' to you? Thats the school for you.