Questions for current Kendrick parents

[BlueSmarties]

Can anyone with a daughter/s in +yr 8 tell me anything about the end of year exams please? My yr7 DD is slightly nervous, not knowing what to expect. We think that there will be a maths re-suffle in September based on this end of year exam (into 4 classes vs the current 3 classes). Aside from that, are there any major consequences as an outcome of the exams? Thanks.

[Tinkers]

Apart from maths, nothing else is affected as far as I know. There's some reshuffling of maths sets, and instead of three, there's four. Top and middle sets are about 30, then two
lower sets of about 18 each. I think there is a far bit of overlap between the top and middle set.

[BlueSmarties]

Thanks Tinkers!

[Reading Mum]

My DD does sax lessons at school through Berkshire Maestros. It has been a bit of a pain keeping up in some lessons such as textiles, and the handing in of permission slips is annoying. She has done this for yrs 7 and 8 but will be moving to 'before school' lessons from September.
We had been looking to move to outside lessons if they couldn't accommodate lessons out of school day as some GCSE courses begin in yr 9. My DD already does piano out of school as well so this seems like a reasonable mix for us.

I should also add that - if you can make it work - then using Maestros does save quite a bit of money, especially if you are new to an instrument. If you are having Maestro lessons then you can often hire an instrument through them (for the portable ones) - we pay £12 per term to hire an alto sax whereas the cheapest I found to hire privately was £27 per month! Membership of the Maestros ensembles is also cheaper - my DD plays in wind band for 1 1/2 hours on a Friday night (£60ish per term fee) which is both fun and is probably more practice than she does for the rest of the week.