11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi

We're in a bit of a quandry regarding our options for DS1 and hope somebody may be able to help us.

He is in year 5 and we had initially planned to move to Barnet and apply to Dame Alice, Latymer, and QE Boys, while still being in the catchment area for a good comp as a fall back position. We reckon his chances of gaining entry to the three aforementioned schools are slim-ish, simply because of the huge numbers of children that apply.

He is in the top 30% of his year at a v good state primary. He is an avid reader with an extensive vocabulary and above average comprehension skills. He's also very swift at verbal and non-verbal tests. He's quite academic but struggles with spelling and punctuation (although this is improving).

We had considered moving to Amersham last year but were put off by the fact that the upper schools did not appear to be a good option if he didn't get into a grammar school.

However we are rethinking this because if he ends up at the "fallback comp" we think he will just coast along.

So....we are rethinking the Amersham option and taking the risk of him not gaining a grammar place but would really like him assessed by an experienced Bucks tutor who could tell us whether he is grammar school material and assess his chances of passing at the correct level, before we commit to a move.

Sorry for the long post, hope it makes sense and that somebody can help us with some advice.

Many Thanks

NL

Dear NL3

Although I am an experienced tutor. I cannot help you on tutoring/assessing

Ensure that the tutor you choose knows the Bucks system, there are many who don't. Ask lots of questions.

Ensure they know ...

2 Verbal reasoning tests 50 mins 80 questions {published by NFER]

Multiple choice

There are only 21 different types of questions, some will fob you off with teaching in excess of 30, some don't even teach the correct 21 types! Look at IPS for correct types.

Shop bought NFER have 6 types of questions missing

Good Luck

Patricia

We are in the catchment area for the Misbourne - Great Missenden. Whilst we would prefer our daughter to go to Chesham High, Misbourne isnt a bad Upper school. We know a lot of happy and very intelligent kids down there. Been hard to hear anything bad about it, infact we hear worse about one of the selective schools and this is from parents with children in both.

If you do decide to move to Bucks, being in their catchment area might not be too bad.

Good luck

I think another option would be a move to the Chorleywood area. Here you could sit the entrance tests for the Watford Grammars whilst having St Clement Dane's as your fall back position.