KEHS exam suppprt.

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Petitpois
Posts: 1440
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:44 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by Petitpois »

Guys busy at moment watching peas crawl round a blue wall at Solihull ice rink as post results treat. Known as Ice skating.

Playing hey macarena

Happy to collaborate.

Dom de dom hey macarena
Casey0507
Posts: 73
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:13 pm

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by Casey0507 »

crazycrofter wrote:Our daughter is in year 7 at KEHS on an assisted place. She got 218 in the grammar school exams with no tutoring but we did work at home with her over the summer. We were very happy with Sutton but decided to do KEHS anyway as we loved the school and it was nearer. Despite our best intentions we did no work after the 11plus except looking at one Manchester Grammar paper the week before the exam, so I really wouldn't go overboard!

The exam wasn't that hard - I think if they are good at maths and can write creatively, that's what they're looking for. They also observe them on the two exam days. As for the prep schools - again don't worry. Unlike the 11plus it's an individualised process and they consider what school a girl has come from. In our case the school had been in special measures for two years, high % free school meals etc and I wonder if that actually helped!

Also if you are looking for an assisted place you are effectively competing against others who are in the same position - they are unlikely to be at prep schools. So all in all I would say - don't worry too much. If your daughter is aiming for level 6 in maths she will be pushed at school these next few months anyway. KEHS say that they can tell who's been tutored and they know what they're looking for. Just keep it relaxed and give it a go.
Casey0507
Posts: 73
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:13 pm

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by Casey0507 »

Casey0507 wrote:
crazycrofter wrote:Our daughter is in year 7 at KEHS on an assisted place. She got 218 in the grammar school exams with no tutoring but we did work at home with her over the summer. We were very happy with Sutton but decided to do KEHS anyway as we loved the school and it was nearer. Despite our best intentions we did no work after the 11plus except looking at one Manchester Grammar paper the week before the exam, so I really wouldn't go overboard!

The exam wasn't that hard - I think if they are good at maths and can write creatively, that's what they're looking for. They also observe them on the two exam days. As for the prep schools - again don't worry. Unlike the 11plus it's an individualised process and they consider what school a girl has come from. In our case the school had been in special measures for two years, high % free school meals etc and I wonder if that actually helped!

Also if you are looking for an assisted place you are effectively competing against others who are in the same position - they are unlikely to be at prep schools. So all in all I would say - don't worry too much. If your daughter is aiming for level 6 in maths she will be pushed at school these next few months anyway. KEHS say that they can tell who's been tutored and they know what they're looking for. Just keep it relaxed and give it a go.
Thank you for your reply. Is the competition for assisted places high?

I'm not sure if she is sitting the level 6 maths paper but I think she is for English. Did your DD find it easy? This may sound ridiculous but I had no idea that they sat the exams over two days - how does that all work?

Fingers crossed that it all works out X
tiredmama
Posts: 154
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:27 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by tiredmama »

Interesting. Myself and husband were having a discussion the other day whether to let dd sit KEHS or Solihull School test hoping for an assisted place. Hubby is of the opinion 'let dd mingle amongst children of her own class' basically implying that children at those schools are rich and happy to show it off. He says we won't be able to afford to send her on the many trips they go, buy flashy toys/clothes etc even the cost of uniform is in £££ figures. So I am still thinking.Will follow this thread with interest.
"To show me is far better than to lecture everyday.
To lead me is far greater than to just point out the way.
So if you tell me everything then I shall understand,
But rapid streams of words cannot compete with deed of hand[...]"
crazycrofter
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:10 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by crazycrofter »

Actually, I'm not sure they're doing level 6 papers anymore. Hasn't the National Curriculum changed?

Apparently there is high competition for assisted places, but honestly, my daughter is no genius! I think it helped that she was relaxed and didn't feel under any pressure. We were just 'giving it a go' in the knowledge that she could only go there if she got an assisted place anyway. I thought it was highly unlikely! But if you can keep it relaxed, that will help, especially on the creative writing bit. It must be harder to be creative if you're stressed?

The exam is on a Thursday and Friday at the end of Jan. The exams are in the morning and then they stay for lunch on the first day. I think she was finished by 1 on the Friday.

In terms of 'mixing with your own class' we're only half a term in so I can't really comment! There are some expensive trips - eg this term, there's a weekend trip to Germany for the markets. My daughter mentioned it, I said 'no, it's £375 and anyway you don't have a passport' and that was it! I don't think that many will be going. The uniform was expensive but there was a second hand sale at the induction day. I got her all measured up in advance and did pretty well - 2 skirts for £3.75 each for example! There are second hand uniform sales regularly throughout the year. All the standard trips, apart from the year 7 residential, are included within the fees. The residential was only £90 so not too bad. We're nearly at half term and we haven't had any unexpected demands for money yet!

Other than trips and uniform, I don't know. Our primary school was pretty rough and she wasn't really 'mixing with her own class' there. And this is the other extreme! There are some really nice girls there though and I'm not sure that grammar school would be all that different, if our visit to Sutton Girls was anything to go by. There are loads of prep school kids at the grammars.

I would just give it a go and then make a decision in March based on where you get offered.
tiredmama
Posts: 154
Joined: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:27 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by tiredmama »

crazycrofter wrote:Actually, I'm not sure they're doing level 6 papers anymore. Hasn't the National Curriculum changed?

Apparently there is high competition for assisted places, but honestly, my daughter is no genius! I think it helped that she was relaxed and didn't feel under any pressure. We were just 'giving it a go' in the knowledge that she could only go there if she got an assisted place anyway. I thought it was highly unlikely! But if you can keep it relaxed, that will help, especially on the creative writing bit. It must be harder to be creative if you're stressed?

The exam is on a Thursday and Friday at the end of Jan. The exams are in the morning and then they stay for lunch on the first day. I think she was finished by 1 on the Friday.

In terms of 'mixing with your own class' we're only half a term in so I can't really comment! There are some expensive trips - eg this term, there's a weekend trip to Germany for the markets. My daughter mentioned it, I said 'no, it's £375 and anyway you don't have a passport' and that was it! I don't think that many will be going. The uniform was expensive but there was a second hand sale at the induction day. I got her all measured up in advance and did pretty well - 2 skirts for £3.75 each for example! There are second hand uniform sales regularly throughout the year. All the standard trips, apart from the year 7 residential, are included within the fees. The residential was only £90 so not too bad. We're nearly at half term and we haven't had any unexpected demands for money yet!

Other than trips and uniform, I don't know. Our primary school was pretty rough and she wasn't really 'mixing with her own class' there. And this is the other extreme! There are some really nice girls there though and I'm not sure that grammar school would be all that different, if our visit to Sutton Girls was anything to go by. There are loads of prep school kids at the grammars.

I would just give it a go and then make a decision in March based on where you get offered.
very helpful, thank you x
"To show me is far better than to lecture everyday.
To lead me is far greater than to just point out the way.
So if you tell me everything then I shall understand,
But rapid streams of words cannot compete with deed of hand[...]"
quasimodo
Posts: 3854
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2014 2:47 pm

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by quasimodo »

tiredmama wrote:Interesting. Myself and husband were having a discussion the other day whether to let dd sit KEHS or Solihull School test hoping for an assisted place. Hubby is of the opinion 'let dd mingle amongst children of her own class' basically implying that children at those schools are rich and happy to show it off. He says we won't be able to afford to send her on the many trips they go, buy flashy toys/clothes etc even the cost of uniform is in £££ figures. So I am still thinking.Will follow this thread with interest.
I think the position at the school now is they have about 35 out of the 86 girls on some form of bursary and included in this figure may be up to 16 girls on some form of academic or music scholarship.The position is radically different to when my eldest dd began a full fee paying place 10 years ago for 5 years.At that stage of the 78 girls few were on bursaries and about 8 had some form of scholarship.The school has now a lot more children from less wealthier backgrounds and this in my opinion is where there is toughest competition for places.There will always be children in any school where there may be children because of their parental wealth who show off but it shouldn't put off a bright girl from a modest background from applying for a place on merit.There is nothing to lose and everything to gain if you don't have to pay all the fees or a majority of them.If you think your child will fit in and be happy then have a go at the examinations.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln
Petitpois
Posts: 1440
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:44 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by Petitpois »

If you had said to me before the 11+ where is discrimination at its most powerful in society, I would have probably looked to a minority group for the answer.

Now that I have been through the process and watched the mindset of predominantly white working people, I know where I think the vast majority of discrimination is occurring. Its the majority white working middle classes trumping the white working classes. Better still the white middle classes don't seem to have to do too much other than be themselves, because loads and loads of white working classes rule themselves out of social mobility and progress because:

- they seem to unnecessarily juxtapose class identity and academic ability / potential and conclude somehow that the two are incompatible
- they display mindsets that suggest they are some how inferior to others because they have a few bob or a plummy accent or whatever and they don't
- that if they replicate many of the successful strategies of the majority white middle classes e.g. tutoring etc, then someone e.g. KEHS will find them out (laughable).
- I love the comment that KEHS can spot a tutored child. Every single last one of them in KEHS, and every other grammar school has been tutored. All of them. No exceptions, 100%. Where do you think the accents come from, they are tutored???

I say be brave and do what is right for your child and set aside any notions of how you expect others might judge you. The only thing you can guarantee is that others will. The bit you control is what is is important. This should be doing the very best for your child, and not letting preconceptions of class, colour, culture or any other arbitrary characteristic get in the way. If you do you have beaten yourself and given others an easy ride.
ABJ
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:54 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by ABJ »

Very useful posts especially for the parents whose dc didn't made it or on border line for grammar 's.
When we say the competition for KEHS will be very high, what's that will be in terms of numbers?
If they got 86 places, roughly how many children will take exams ?

And one thing is for sure that the people or school who say that you don't need tutoring for all these entrance exams are very misleading.
We have seen every year disappointed parents because they believed the theory of non tutoring exams and their dc have missed the place.

You will definetly need tutoring for different reasons and these exams are only time opportunity not like GCSEs or Alevels where you can resit to improve the grades.

I believe if you want your dc to have fairer chance you will need to provide her fairer opportunities as rest of her peers.
crazycrofter
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:10 am

Re: KEHS exam suppprt.

Post by crazycrofter »

There were nearly 500 applicants last year.

I'm only trying to add some balance and perspective as someone who's now on the other side. I agree that my daughter had home 'tutoring' for the 11 plus over the summer. As we had left it late, this mainly focused on speed and getting used to the question style, especially the NVR. This is completely irrelevant to the KEHS exam - it is not a time pressured exam and there is no NVR. She had no outside tutoring, or home tutoring for the KEHS exam. And she didn't get a specific accent from her tutoring either, whatever that means!

I truly believe, from the feedback my daughter gave me last year, that the KEHS exam is designed to examine potential and didn't need to be prepared or tutored for. If you look back on this forum over the last few years there are several examples of girls who decided to do it at the last minute (ie January) and had no specific tutoring yet got in. However, I'm sure that loads of the girls in year 7 now were tutored right up to the exam. As were lots of girls who didn't get in! What does that prove?

I think the 11plus is different because of the time pressure and also the NVR. It is much more unlikely that a child would go into this exam completely blind and come out successful. However I'm still not sure that intensive tutoring makes as much difference as people are making out. One of my daughter's friends, a lad usually a few points behind her in Maths and Literacy tests, took the QM test last year. He's typical of our school - from a council estate, with supportive parents who didn't have a clue what the test involved. Two weeks before the test they asked the class teacher to do a couple of sessions with him to prepare. He got 330. However, he decided not to go to QM as it's snobby and not his type of place.

I just think there's a lot of hysteria around the need for tutoring/ prep schools etc. The 11 plus is two 45 minute tests, which aren't rocket science. I agree that the vocab can be a problem and perhaps that's the main difference that tutoring can make.

The KEHS exam is basically some comprehension, some maths and some creative writing, all similar to what they will have done at school. Yes, if their school education has been particularly deficient (constant supply teachers for example) then they may need help to fill gaps. But if they're doing well at school I think they will be in a good position.
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