BSG entrance

[ringwoodmum]

Should we assume the published information is correct rather than was we were told verbally?

Yes, I think so. The 33 Bournemouth residents are criteria 3 on that published info. (i.e. the PAN of 166 minus the 133 already allocated). If there aren't 33 Bournemouth residents left, then any places left go out of catchment again. Either way, if they've changed it (which I don't think they're allowed to do without prior notice) there's not a lot we can do about it!

Do you get a place in the school of your preference over the one for which you scored the highest?

Yes. Preference is vital from your point of view, but the schools don't get told what preference you've put them on the form anymore. They get sent a list of applicants (anyone who has named their school on the CAF), and put them all in order according to the criteria they set, and send the whole list back to the LA who then allocates the places according to each applicant's preference and the places available in each school.

This might be why you've had conflicting info in that respect as up until relatively recently various schools in the area would give priority to someone putting them first. I'm pretty sure Corfe Hills did this and if you didn't put them first, you didn't get a place - so despite them being a non-selective comprehensive, they ended up with a lot of kids who could have gone to grammar school but weren't confident on getting a place there (this was at a time when you had to apply before the 11+ results were out too - so was a big risk as if you put grammars first as in doing that you were turning down the "best" non selective in the area too - eek!).

Let us know how your dd has got on with Parkstone!

x

[Ladybird12]

Thank you very much ringwoodmum and Bourne Mum, your comments have been very enlightening and useful. Things are finally making sense!
I hope I can post some good news about Parkstone tomorrow....

[bustwinks]

Just like to add my dd is currently in year 9 at bsg, she didn't have a tutor and was fine and is fine, but has said that some of the kids that had tutors to get in still have the tuors now.....what is that all about, why would you do that ???

[Ladybird12]

Hi Bustwinks, excellent that your DD is doing so well at BSG and congratulations for getting in without a tutor.

I wish we had not had to resort to a tutor but we are in a three tier system where the middle school is not exactly happy about letting go of some of its best pupils so that they can take the grammar school exam (those who get a place at grammar school do not remain at middle school for years 7 and 8, so those years are depleted of some of their best pupils). For that reason, the school does very little to help, and in fact at times the opposite. As we do not rate DD's current school nor the one it feeds into, we had to put all the chances on our side and get a tutor that would give her some encouragement and some idea as to what is expected of her (something the packs you can buy online do not do). I would like to think that DD would have passed without a tutor, but we will never know and we were not prepared to take the risk. I don't feel the tutor "crammed" DD, she just gave her information that was not available elsewhere.

As for still having a tutor once a place has been allocated, I can see where you are coming from and this is not something I would feel comfortable with either. We would not have dreamed of applying for a grammar school had DD not shown sufficient aptitude and I cannot think of much worse than going through the whole process only to end up struggling and needing extra help. This said, without knowing the reasons why some of those girls are still getting tutoring, it is difficult to comment objectively don't you think?

To end with, it would be interesting to see the proportion of children who have a tutor against those who do not. Also the progression year on year as it seems to me that more and more children now have a tutor. In fact, of all those I know who passed the 11+ this year, only one did so without a tutor, and probably 12 or so with a tutor. Would be great to hear other people's experience on this.

[russet]

It would be interesting to know what percentage of children passing the 11+ did not have tutors, go to private school or have any help from their parents at home.

[BournemouthDad]

Hi all,

A big thank you for starting this thread and giving us a little info on how the whole test system works. My son wants to take the 11 plus (he's 9 and will be taking it in September) and we have been a little unsure as to the best way to help him. On paper he should be going to BS for his ability level, but I understand it doesn't work like that. He's not had a tutoring and goes to state school so will have to contend with those who go to some of the local privates who are trained from a young age to pass. Nothing wrong with that, they've paid their money, they've pushed their kids. Add to the fact he's pretty much the youngest in the year and he always seems to be at a disadvantage lol

Our area of concern is the BS English test. We can do past papers with my son for NVR, English and Maths but the written English we haven't a clue on. Should we find a tutor who could help? Anyone been through the process who could shed light on what they are looking for?

We are quite relaxed about it as we have an older child at Bishop of Winchester and they've been fantastic, so if he doesn't get in it won't be the end of the world. But he's off that charts in maths and science and has a very strong work ethic so I think BS is a much better fit for what he needs.

[Ladybird12]

Hi BournemouthDad

I can only give you my perspective from the girls' point of view and the requirements for the BSG entrance exam. For the English paper, the emphasis seemed to be on the use of particular grammatical/vocabulary elements : similes, metaphors, alliterations, personification, adverbs, complex sentences, adjectives. Besides that, spelling and punctuation were also very important, as well as the use of distinct paragraphs showing a logical thought pattern. In our case, a lot of the practice we did was based around descriptive writing but none of the choices offered for the BSG exam last year involved descriptions. So if we had to do it again, we would probably also insist on persuasive writing, arguing, convincing etc.

Our daughter had a tutor and this proved invaluable because she taught her things we would never have known : importance of having a conclusion which relates back to the title of the piece, tricks on how to include alliterations or similes no matter what the topic, etc. I am sure you can pass the exam without doing all this, but it made it a lot easier (and a lot more expensive!). Thereagain, I think we were very lucky in as much as the tutor we picked turned out to be excellent and she kept herself informed of the various requirements of the grammar schools, year on year.

As for being the youngest, in the case of BSG for instance, this is an advantage... They apply an age weighting depending on the month of birth. I think (not sure though, so don't quote me) that the maximum was 6 %, which would be for a child born in August I presume. I personally do not really agree with this, because all the children start school at the same time and they have therefore received exactly the same amount of education, but anyway, that is the way it works! There are threads on this website about how it is worked out.

I hope this is of help. Good luck with it all. We are still in "limbo" at the moment, knowing that our daughter passed the exams but not knowing if she has a place. All will be revealed 3rd March. Fingers and toes crossed until then.

[BournemouthDad]

Hi BournemouthDad

I can only give you my perspective from the girls' point of view and the requirements for the BSG entrance exam. For the English paper, the emphasis seemed to be on the use of particular grammatical/vocabulary elements : similes, metaphors, alliterations, personification, adverbs, complex sentences, adjectives. Besides that, spelling and punctuation were also very important, as well as the use of distinct paragraphs showing a logical thought pattern. In our case, a lot of the practice we did was based around descriptive writing but none of the choices offered for the BSG exam last year involved descriptions. So if we had to do it again, we would probably also insist on persuasive writing, arguing, convincing etc.

Our daughter had a tutor and this proved invaluable because she taught her things we would never have known : importance of having a conclusion which relates back to the title of the piece, tricks on how to include alliterations or similes no matter what the topic, etc. I am sure you can pass the exam without doing all this, but it made it a lot easier (and a lot more expensive!). Thereagain, I think we were very lucky in as much as the tutor we picked turned out to be excellent and she kept herself informed of the various requirements of the grammar schools, year on year.

As for being the youngest, in the case of BSG for instance, this is an advantage... They apply an age weighting depending on the month of birth. I think (not sure though, so don't quote me) that the maximum was 6 %, which would be for a child born in August I presume. I personally do not really agree with this, because all the children start school at the same time and they have therefore received exactly the same amount of education, but anyway, that is the way it works! There are threads on this website about how it is worked out.

I hope this is of help. Good luck with it all. We are still in "limbo" at the moment, knowing that our daughter passed the exams but not knowing if she has a place. All will be revealed 3rd March. Fingers and toes crossed until then.

Ooohhh good luck. Did she apply for both Bournemouth and Poole?

I must admit that my (biased) view is that I agree with the age rating. But then I would lol He has to put up with being the youngest in sports age groups all the time too and no consideration given to the fact he's almost a year younger developed to others. Also his school didn't start the younger kids in reception with the maths and English that the older kids were given and then were always behind them when the books etc moved "down the line" He was on the bottom table for Maths from the start simply due to age and we tried so many times to point out to his teacher at the time that he was ready for more but she never accepted it. Every year after that he was moved up the tables but I always felt like his birth date had hindered him. So any small effort to even it up is fine by me

Thank you for the advice. It does appear that helping him prepare for English will really make a difference.

[Ladybird12]

Hi

I can see that in your case, age was a problem. We were very lucky that in our previous school, all children were treated on ability, not on age. Tables were organised according to what you could do, not how old you were. But I also agree that in PE etc. it would make a huge difference. (By the way, our daughter is neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the system, maybe I would think differently if she was!).

As for English, yes I really think that working hard at it now will pay dividends. Not just for the entrance exam by the way... It has been of benefit for school in general but also outside of school, letter writing, general communication skills etc.

And to answer your question, yes she has applied for BSG as first preference and Parkstone as second preference. Being out of catchment for both, the likelihood of getting Parkstone is quite slim.

All the best.

[Bourne Mum]

Hi Bournemouthdad. We were in the same position as u. Our DS is a late summer baby so he is one of the youngest, goes to a state school & we did not have a tutor. If you can afford one, I don't see any problem in getting one. A lot of our friends home tutored all subjects but got a professional tutor for the essay. We however couldn't afford a tutor at all so we just used GL papers.

Ladybird makes a good point on introductions, conclusions e.t.c We made DS write a few essays then analysed them and noticed that he did not do proper intros & did not have a clue what a conclusion was. We then taught him essay structure. He is a wiz at maths & NVR but really struggled with the English papers up until very close to the exam.