11+ Results

[Littlemissgiggles]

KCG, I think that is great advice and a great Idea. Thank you so much.

I have been torn between the two options of letting my child open the envelope and opening it myself. Your suggestion gave me clarity and gives me the best of both worlds.

I was woefully under prepared with my first DC, with a set of mixed results, I couldn't manage my own expectations let alone my DC, even when I had opened the envelopes beforehand.

Ensuring that you, as the parent, have a rough idea of a 'safe-ish' score, and knowing what your child has scored, BEFORE THEM, will allow you to provide them with the best possible support, when they do 'open' their envelopes. As already mentioned, not every child/parent will receive the score they want or are expecting.

[kenyancowgirl]

LMG, I hope it is easier second time round...we were much more chilled as we felt that DS2 would be ok anywhere, but, on receiving the results and letting DS2 know he had done really well, he burst into tears and we finally clicked that, unbeknownst to us, he had actually been putting himself under huge pressure to achieve...I think it is harder for subsequent children.

[helen0209]

Hi All,

A question regarding the results.

Google searching has returned info that states that some LA’s release the results to the school 2 weeks before the parents are informed (Kent) is this the same for Birmingham?

Just wondering when the school knows how our DCs have done in 11 plus exams.

To my knowledge this is not the same in Birmingham. The schools here do not get told the information - the school where my 2 DS’s went did not know until the boys told them. I think this is because Birmingham have an ‘opt in’ system for the 11+ whereas some areas it is ‘opt out’.

[PoppyPup]

With regards to parents opening letters first, my Dd is an Aug child and I know that she is not as mature as some of her peers. I have to take this into account.

If I am disappointed, it will only be for her, as she is so keen.


I have no idea how she has done, I am being sceptical (or careful) as it is our first 11+, in the Shirley mocks she achieved a score that was in the bracket “most children who achieve this score go on to secure a Grammar school place” so it is possible it will be good news.

It may be good news, it may not be. I just want to know what emotions I’m going to be faced with when she sees the results.

It has to be an individual decision, everyone knows their child best and child is different.

[MSD]

It has to be an individual decision, everyone knows their child best and child is different.

Absolutely, and any advice provided on this forum will never fit all families and their individual circumstances. Best to listen to all advice but do what you think would suit your child and you.

PS - If you are referring to the same mock centre in Shirley, that I have in mind, I heard for their Autumn mocks they had more than 900+ children taking it. Now, that's a fairly large cohort size, almost 1/5 of the total taking actual test, and this will most definitely give you a good indication on how likely your child is going to fare in the real test. If it is any assurance, we used the same centre for our two boys and their final results were reflective of their K mock score. But again there will be odd cases where children completely surpass their mock results and vice versa.

[PoppyPup]

Ours arrived on the Friday. I worked from home that day.
I opened my twins' letters because I had two sets of news to break simultaneously. There was 10 points between them, the difference between 'passing' and not (though after a long wait this became two 'passes').
At school children share their results (one even said to one of mine "wow! I beat ***" and it was a tough day for them.

Walsall was worse. Everyone here receive theirs on the Fri/Sat. We did not. We faced a long weekend before they arrived Monday mid afternoon.

Once again I opened them. It was a cracking result for one, but not so for the other.

By opening these it gave me chance to break the news. One child sobbing while his brother cheered. How do you (rightly) celebrate with one while your other child is gutted (yet happy for his twin)?

In the end it's worked out.
If it goes 'to plan' great. If it doesn't, be sure you've bigged up your alternative beforehand and tell them how great they are.

I'm not sure I could go through it again though!

Good luck to all.

Ricky74, that must of been such a difficult situation. I’m so glad it worked out for both your twins in the end. The hardest part is that we’re dealing with children’s emotions and as a parent it’s really hard to see our kids upset.

[PoppyPup]

PS - If you are referring to the same mock centre in Shirley, that I have in mind, I heard for their Autumn mocks they had more than 900+ children taking it. Now, that's a fairly large cohort size, almost 1/5 of the total taking actual test, and this will most definitely give you a good indication on how likely your child is going to fare in the real test. If it is any assurance, we used the same centre for our two boys and their final results were reflective of their K mock score. But again there will be odd cases where children completely surpass their mock results and vice versa.[/quote]


MSD, yes, the same centre. It was a very large cohort, I think there were around 428 girls. My DD was in the at the 77% mark. You’re right, so many factors can influence what happens on the day, I’m just using my usual strategy to most things in life, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Thank you for letting me know that you found the mock scores reflective of the final results. It does help o


Our catchment school isn’t the best, that’s what my worry is.

[MSD]

MSD, yes, the same centre. It was a very large cohort, I think there were around 428 girls. My DD was in the at the 77% mark.

That is a very respectable score and from my experience M mocks are set at a similar level of difficulty as the real thing. I maybe wrong here, and taking into account any new testing elements introduced by CEM, they used to use the same older mock as previous years in order to reasonably predict the chances of success - obviously different for each season. Having said that, I am not sure if they actually collate stats using the actual exams scores from previous years' cohort, as we never received any request from them but would have been quite open to provide info to help future 11+ parents with more accurate predictions.

I would however safely predict that if you child achieved similar 77% overall raw percentage in real test, they will qualify for all GS's in Birmingham as well as Walsall consortium grammar schools.

[guest201]

Excellent advice from KCG regarding opening of the letter. The letter is addressed to "Parents of" for a reason. When you first open the letter it is very difficult to even find the score let alone work out what it means.
When my DCs did the exam the results letter consisted of 4 sides of A4 with the result somewhere in the middle. In the case of my daughter it was the year they changed the scoring, I opened the letter thinking that a score over 300 would be a "pass", well, I felt sick when I saw she had scored 225, couldn't believe she had messed up so badly as she is a bright girl. Then when I read on in the letter I realised they had changed the way they marked it (without warning) and her score was good enough for a grammar school place.
My advice would be to open it before your child, if they have done well they will be so pleased that they won't care who opened it and if they haven't done as well as they hoped you will be prepared for it. At the end of the day as mature as they may be seem they are still children. Both of mine wanted to open the letter but I said no, as it was not addressed to them, I gave them both the opened letter without saying anything, they both looked at the letter and then asked me what it all meant !!!

[PoppyPup]

Excellent advice from KCG regarding opening of the letter. The letter is addressed to "Parents of" for a reason. When you first open the letter it is very difficult to even find the score let alone work out what it means.
When my DCs did the exam the results letter consisted of 4 sides of A4 with the result somewhere in the middle. In the case of my daughter it was the year they changed the scoring, I opened the letter thinking that a score over 300 would be a "pass", well, I felt sick when I saw she had scored 225, couldn't believe she had messed up so badly as she is a bright girl. Then when I read on in the letter I realised they had changed the way they marked it (without warning) and her score was good enough for a grammar school place.
My advice would be to open it before your child, if they have done well they will be so pleased that they won't care who opened it and if they haven't done as well as they hoped you will be prepared for it. At the end of the day as mature as they may be seem they are still children. Both of mine wanted to open the letter but I said no, as it was not addressed to them, I gave them both the opened letter without saying anything, they both looked at the letter and then asked me what it all meant !!!

Guest201,

This is really useful to know. Confirms my decision (Along with other posts) to open the letter first. Thank you.