11 Plus Exams Forum

I am interested in taking my DS to the open day at KE Aston on 12th July at 9:30 am. Is it worth it to make my child miss half a day at primary to attend this?
All other Open evenings are post 10th Sep (after the actual exam), and I was hoping that he would get to see the school before the exam so as to motivate him further.
Any thoughts?

If it were really the only school offering open days before the summer, why not? However, it is not the only GS offering open days/evenings before the summer holidays.

Here is the calendar for this year:
https://www.birminghamgrammarschools.or ... -open-days" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In this list, you can see that there are open evenings at BV and Handsworth Grammar School.
Personally, even if I were aiming at KEA as my first choice, I wouldn’t make my son miss a morning at school to visit a GS if he could visit some other GS in the city in the evening or on a Saturday morning…. But this is just one opinion which could be argued against!

Whatever you choose, best wishes for the 11+ prep!

I would - seeing a school on a 'normal' day is always preferable to an Open Evening - even if there will be no Year 11s or 13s on site.

You will get a much better 'feel' for the school.

Thanks

Visited KE Aston for the Open Morning on 12th July. My findings were:

- Very warm and welcoming staff including Head teacher – He emphasized especially to the little year 5 boys who had turned up for the open day that their financial, professional (parents), ethnic and religious background has no bearing and couldn't act as impediment to their success in this school & later in life, which was quite re-assuring and encouraging from my perspective.

- Very confident and disciplined students, especially the prefects who were assigned to take us on the school tour. Our tour guide was a year 12 boy who was in the process of applying to Oxford.

- Son felt that the school felt like Hogwarts which I am assuming is a compliment. He also liked the library (and the choice of books)

- I personally thought that the lack of open spaces inside the school premises makes you feel a bit claustrophobic. Regardless, they do have very good sporting facilities a short distance away, so that should compensate.

Now the ball is back in DS’s court!

Any further thoughts?

If you feel a dip in the eleven +prep over the summer, I recommend you to watch this video: it is a speech on effort, mistakes and mindset given by a well-known conductor and teacher in the US, Benjamin Zander:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTKEBygQic0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have a good cosmic laughter!