11 Plus Exams Forum

Every year we get posters whose children sit the transfer test without understanding that they stand no chance of getting a place at a Bucks GS.

Please read the admissions rules before your child wastes time sitting this test. High scores over the qualification score [121] are irrelevant in Bucks and it is the distance from the school that is important.

If you are intending to move then do read when addresses count - it is already too late to be considered in the first round for DCGS. All the Bucks GS were full on 1st March and, from what I can see, few places became available after that.

Please also consider how your travel will travel to the school - if they can't particpate in acitivites and teams then I think they will miss out. WIll you be willing to get to meetings and school events to support them whilst they are at the school?

Wise advice.

Wise advice indeed. It won't stop someone making their first post on 14th October to ask about the likelihood of their child getting a place at Aylesbury Grammar School with a score of 140, and what buses run from Towcester in order to get there.

Guest55 wrote:Please also consider how your travel will travel to the school - if they can't particpate in acitivites and teams then I think they will miss out. WIll you be willing to get to meetings and school events to support them whilst they are at the school?

May I go against the grain here? Being able to support your DC's school by attending meetings is helpful, I agree. As for after school activities, they are not for all DCs; in fact I find that it is only sports that are after school, so if your DC is not sporty it doesn't matter and there are often plenty of lunchtime clubs they can join which would not interfere with the school run and so they won't miss out.

What about musical activities e.g. concerts and school plays? School visits don't always get back by the end of school. In KS4 they may need to work with friends on all sorts of assignments that need school resources e.g. 3D printers, IT room that they can't access during the school day.

School is much more than attending the lessons during the day.

Good quality drama productions require a whole lot more than lunch time rehearsals...so to say "if your child is not sporty it doesn't matter" is really quite a bold, misleading statement. If your child does not want to get involved, except for the academic lessons, in the school you have fought so hard to get into...then they are in the wrong school...

At my children's school there is a lot of drama / music / dance rehearsal after school / at weekends particularly when productions are coming up. Obv there are also sports - even if you don't think your children are sporty it's amazing what they like when faced with new opportunities (I say this partly with a forced smile as we are embarking on 2 after school rowing sessions a week plus a weekend morning).

School is also about hanging out with your mates - my ds has had the most idyllic summer - biking with his friends, hanging out in the park etc - if you live huge distances from a school these sort of social interactions just can't happen.

kittymum wrote:School is also about hanging out with your mates - my ds has had the most idyllic summer - biking with his friends, hanging out in the park etc - if you live huge distances from a school these sort of social interactions just can't happen.

After (too) many years on this forum I would observe that many of those who apply for their children to go to grammar schools miles away from home are of the 'a grammar school, any grammar school' mentality - believing erroneously that merely stepping through the door of one of these institutions will confer social and academic advantages denied to those attending what they see as 'lesser' schools. Thus, I doubt that hanging out with mates, or, for that matter, rowing clubs, will feature much in a decision to commute a child halfway across the country every day for 7 years.

Sadly, I supect you are right, Amber...

It's about personal priorities and cultural norms to an extent though, isn't it?

We live in a partial grammar area (just over the bucks border) , If my DC don't pass the exam they are going to the pretty good comprehensive half a mile away for the socialising and ease of travel reasons kenyan stated above. If they pass then there are 3 Slough grammars walking/biking distance away and Burnham grammar a few stops up the local train line. I think my DD would do well at a grammar but for me it's not the be all and end all. Some of the kids at school have told her their parents are "going to move if they get a great score" so there are clearly parents willing to spend thousands and uproot the whole family for a grammar place.