Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Eleven Plus (11+) in Buckinghamshire (Bucks)

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SGadd
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by SGadd »

Can you still insist that your child takes the test if Beacon refuses?

The fees for the Beacon averages £6000 a term and for a secondary (Merchant Taylors), it is £7200 a term including lunch. Not that big a difference when you are paying in the first place. I have a friend's son who failed the 11+ then went to a private secondary and then attended Dr Challoner's GS for sixth form.

Did you send your child to private primary and then to grammar school?

We can only pay for one - can't afford primary and secondary for both of them. Can you put your child into secondary when they start their GCSEs? I thought there would be an entrance exam. I guess a lot of private secondary schools start when the child is 13.
hermanmunster
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by hermanmunster »

SGadd wrote:
Can you still insist that your child takes the test if Beacon refuses?
School can't refuse, I have heard of people getting sniffy comments at preps when this was mentioned and having to do their own tutoring outside school.

The fees for the Beacon averages £6000 a term and for a secondary (Merchant Taylors), it is £7200 a term including lunch. Not that big a difference when you are paying in the first place. I have a friend's son who failed the 11+ then went to a private secondary and then attended Dr Challoner's GS for sixth form.


Fair enough - that is quite a lot at Beacon - certainly people do move for sixth forms, have to watch that the child is happy to do so, they may want to stay with friends.
Did you send your child to private primary and then to grammar school?
yes we did that for both children.
We can only pay for one - can't afford primary and secondary for both of them. Can you put your child into secondary when they start their GCSEs? I thought there would be an entrance exam. I guess a lot of private secondary schools start when the child is 13.
Many more schools have their main intake at 11 rather than 13 unless they are the traditional public schools, if they all waited to 13 then they would miss out on many kids.

Make sure you offer the same for both kids - and consider what you would do if you paid at primary and then one child did not get the GS place you hope for, what would you do?

Changing to start GCSEs (year 10) is not a great idea, they have to hit the ground running and know the teachers / school / style of learning etc and may find it hard to keep up. Moving in year 10 - if going into the state sector would be a case of there being a place available and some sort of assessment, if going into private they would probably do an exam / look at reports etc - they may have mixed feelings as to why people are moving at that stage
Moving at year 9 might be better but they will again be few people doing so.
scary mum
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by scary mum »

Many schools start their GCSE courses in year 9 now, so choose in year 8.
My DD moved in year 10 but it wasn't an easy move, but was for unavoidable reasons. In the case of the Bucks grammars the pupil would have to take an entry test, and there would have to be a place available, which is by no means guaranteed so is an extremely risky strategy.
I would think that senior independent schools tend to have more expensive (& numerous) extras than primary schools. £1200 per term difference is £3600 per year which adds up over 7 years. As hermanmunster said, you need to be prepared to do the same for both children.
scary mum
SGadd
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Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:11 pm

Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by SGadd »

Thank you for both your help.

The Beacon is more expensive, but they do include wrap around care and lunch in their fees. The other private schools' fees are lower, but their pass rate is also lot lower.

If our sons do start at the age of 13 then it is 5 years at secondary school. Merchant Taylors' allow intake at 13. But this would mean we can't send them to private primary.

If we do send both boys to private primary and if one doesn't get into a GS then we could put one in private secondary. However, if they both fail the 11+, we can't afford to send them both to private secondary schools.

I am conscious that we have to treat both boys the same and it is worrying.

@hermanmunster - did your provide tutoring outside of the private school for your children? Are you happy with the opportunities provided in your GS?
hermanmunster
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by hermanmunster »

SGadd wrote:Thank you for both your help.

The Beacon is more expensive, but they do include wrap around care and lunch in their fees. The other private schools' fees are lower, but their pass rate is also lot lower.

If our sons do start at the age of 13 then it is 5 years at secondary school. Merchant Taylors' allow intake at 13. But this would mean we can't send them to private primary.

If we do send both boys to private primary and if one doesn't get into a GS then we could put one in private secondary. However, if they both fail the 11+, we can't afford to send them both to private secondary schools.

I am conscious that we have to treat both boys the same and it is worrying.

@hermanmunster - did your provide tutoring outside of the private school for your children? Are you happy with the opportunities provided in your GS?
My children had no tutoring outside of school - the first school was over 100 miles from the GS (we were moving) so the staff had no experience of the GS . DS just did the work that the others did for the local entrance exams at indies, by the time DD did the exam, she was at a local private primary who often had girls doing the 11 plus but TBH they were more enthusiastic about the private school exams as they felt they could tutor better for those, the ones who got the 11 plus, were I think considered to be the "bright ones"
doodles
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by doodles »

SGadd wrote:We can only pay for one - can't afford primary and secondary for both of them. Can you put your child into secondary when they start their GCSEs? I thought there would be an entrance exam. I guess a lot of private secondary schools start when the child is 13.
We were forced into a similar situation by ds1 not being offered a place at the local primary school (long story involving a huge number of siblings at our nearest school) we ended up sending him and then DS2 to prep school and them taking the 11 plus in year 6 instead of staying until year 8 and doing Common Entrance as it was then. I would argue this option was considerably cheaper than going to the special measures primary school 3 villages away that we were offered and then paying for secondary school. I would encourage you to look very closely as to what the fees include as the "extras" soon mount up especially at secondary school.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !
SGadd
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:11 pm

Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by SGadd »

@hermanmunster Thank you.

@doodles Did your boys get into grammar schools? Did their private school prepare them?

I am hoping that we do both the 11+ and the common entrance exams at 11. Some independent schools give scholarship - discounted fees - for good results.
hermanmunster
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Location: The Seaside

Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by hermanmunster »

definitely good to try all options :)

re discounts- there has been a bit of a shift away from big money scholarships towards more money into means-tested bursaries, the pupil usually has to do v well in the exam to get funding from either source.
doodles
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by doodles »

SGadd wrote:@doodles Did your boys get into grammar schools? Did their private school prepare them?
Yes, they did get into GS but their school didn't really prepare them. They were keener on the boys staying until the end of yr8 and doing what was then the yr8 CE, so the majority of their preparation was done outside of school.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !
Rob Clark
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Re: Dr Challoners' Grammar School

Post by Rob Clark »

I have a friend's son who failed the 11+ then went to a private secondary and then attended Dr Challoner's GS for sixth form.
I don't post here much these days as my children are both grown up, but as I live in the same area as you I thought I'd just mention – to add to your options – you could do private primary to 13, private secondary 13-16 then DCGS for sixth form, which would only entail paying 3 years of secondary schooling.

There certainly used to be a perception that the Beacon was geared more to sending its boys to private secondary schools at 13 than to GS at 11, but my experience is about 15 years out of date now, so I'm not sure if that is still the case. If you are seriously considering the Beacon, it might be worth asking some tough questions about destination schools for leavers.

As others have said there isn't much movement in Years 9 and 10 because GS places only come up rarely at those times, but there is tons of movement at sixth form. Into and out of GS, some go to Clement Danes in Chorleywood, others go to colleges… DD was at local secondary modern but got good enough GCSE grades to transfer to GS for sixth form (in the end she decided to stay where she was but the option was there).
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