A lot of schools in Walsall are under huge pressure to get their SATS results up, so you’re right - they may see encouraging grammar entrance as helping that. The lad from my daughter’s year who got a decent score had a few sessions with the class teacher at lunchtime. That was all it required for him to do well enough (which is why I’m sceptical about months of tutoring!). However the other three top table pupils who took it didn’t ask for help and didn’t have tutoring - none of them got in. So I can see that if teachers offered a little support - or if QM did familiarisation sessions and pp children were encouraged to take part - it would have a big impact.

How can some schools actively teach 11+ areas, but others categorically state that they can't even discuss it as it is against local authority guidelines?!

I think it very much depends on the headteacher and their political feelings about the 11 Plus!

It's a staggering rise. Lategate please don't ever feel foolish, we presented it as an option to my one son on much lower, as a couple of years ago 321 got in. Ordinarily your son would have got in on that score, but I will keep my fingers crossed for you on the waiting list.

We were taken back by the volume of students taking the test. It is becoming more popular (I think) in addition to the PP for other potential reasons:

There is a prep next door to the school with close links and the local primary (Park Hall) is known as a bit of a feeder school too, with many students preparing for the test. My other son who is at QM tells me that Park Hall went into QM recently to work with the older students, so there is link there. QM is also a MAT now so maybe its work with other secondaries in the area is filtering through to their feeder primaries?

I know of quite a few Sutton families who could get to Vesey in five minutes but chose QM and a longer bus ride, so maybe more are coming from over that side.

I I did meet one parent from Derby who told me that it was him who had told all his friends to enter their children for the Walsall test and that there are at least a dozen boys who travel in from there. He was also eyeing up the local grammars for his daughter (year 4!)

I guess, apart from Adams, there is nothing else that side for the boys. If you are travelling from Derby then it is easier to access than the Birmingham grammars.

PS Um thanks for compiling again - I was glued to your recording of schools for a couple of years and they gave me some hope in uncertain times.

I mean scores!

Thanks Ricky and Helen, I like to be realistic yet optimistic. I feel that children will never aspire to the top if they don’t know what the top looks like. What I really didn’t want to do was to present the top as unttainable and beyond DS, even though it may be (for now!) He’s not been harmed in the process though and is thoroughly chuffed with himself. It appears that local primaries have had the same idea about presenting aspirations to younger years. DH disagrees with me and says that primaries in deprived areas have no time or resources for 11+ as they are cracking the whip on sats and the aspirational targets pupils have been set.
I know a little about Walsall schools having worked in a few secondaries for a while. We have always had students who have gained places at QM girls and boys, but didn’t take them as they perceived the school “too posh.” We also get students who would not even try for a place, decided by parents on the school not being on the bus route from the stop nearest their house. I wonder if poor ofsteds in a few walsall secondaries has impacted on this shift too. Who knows...

I’m glad your son is chuffed with his achievement anyway Lategate and I hope he’ll settle well at HGS. Will he be going on the Metro? I tried the Metro with ds a couple of weeks ago when he missed the green bus. We were coming from New St but it was my first trip on a tram and I was impressed with how clean and quick it was! Somehow I thought it would be more like a bus... The walk to school was about 10 minutes, very easy. He’s going to take that option in the mornings come September.

That’s interesting what Ricky says about students travelling to Walsall from Derby - it’s a long way!

Crazycrofter- yes he’ll be going on the metro. Surprisingly, he said he’s looking forward to the journey to school. I think he’s secretly hoping to swing by the sweet shops on the way! The metro is pretty clean and efficient, we sometimes use it to get to Brum as we can park for free right by the local metro stop.
A commute from Derby would not appeal to me in the slightest. That’s madness!

I think that dozen were all year 7 8 and 9 (his friends' children) so this may be a growing 'thing' over the coming years. They get a taxi and the boy in my son's class has never been late or missed a day (even in the snow). I did ask the dad about the grammar in Derby but I think he said it's fee paying?