the aftermath

[longtimelurker]

We are getting there. Not always helped by the wonderful enrichment days at CCHS. Poor DD1 is now afraid to mention any good things that happen at school .

[MrsB]

A friend of mine failed the 11 plus (at a time when it was far easier). He went on to a pretty rough comprehensive in an inner city run down area. He is now a doctor.

[Avenue3]

Barbaryape

I can empathise with you and your DD. My DS scored 330.799 and won't be getting a place at grammar. I also told him that he had passed and that if we lived in Southend he would have the choice of 2 grammars to apply to. What a complete cop out and how wrong that if you live in Colchester you get nothing yet an hour away you get the choice of two. Totally wrong and unacceptable. It's either super selective all the way across Essex or availability for children with solid pass scores should be made, as it is in Southend. Now I understand why so many do not agree with the grammar system.. Alot of natural ability is lost in and amongst children who are extensively tutored, there is low availability in Colchester for children who pass and score well. And schools such as CRGS take children from all over the place reducing the available spaces for local boys even further. My son has been placed for level 5 sats and level 6 in maths, we have just had glowing report from school and he had no private tutoring for 11+ Perhaps we don't need grammar after all??? The grammar state system.... For children of the state.... Pending on where you live of course ????

[mbab]

Avenue 3, with a score of 330 are you not able to get into one of the Southend schools or are you OOC? The guidance seemed to imply. However I think the southend scores will be pushed up this year for out of OOC as there will be an influx of high scores of OOC DC who will be able to secure southend places.

CRGS is too far for most OOC children who would have been able to get to chelmsford from Havering and redbridge. But those from chelmsford are able to get into CRGS. I agree with you too few school and perhaps criteria should be the same for all the schools in essex.

Such a shame for Havering DC as no GS in the area and the doors to Essex are slowly closing and I bet will fully close in a few years to come.

Good luck to all

[mum of boys]

My DS scored 330.799 and won't be getting a place at grammar.

If you look at the sticky about colchester scores, some girls with scores around yours were told to still apply at the meeting yesterday. You have nothing to lose by putting Colchester no.1 on your form - you never know what will happen on 1st March and your DD has a score that might get her in.

[Avenue3]

Mbab and mum of boys

I thank you for your responses. I don't think I made my post clear in that I have a DS so 330.799 is not high enough for CRGS. Yes we are out of catchment for Southend and the daily hike to get there if DS were accepted is over two hours by train from Wivenhoe station. I was very interested in your comments and appreciate the difficulties for many, because of where they live and what grammars are available to them. I suppose I would like to see a set criteria accross the board for essex and more availability for places, pending a pass score of course! I know it will never happen and I could be so wrong but I was told ( by ex headmaster) that grammars were intended to take the top 25% of exam candidates, With natural ability who had passed. It appears to me that some are tutored to the high heavens and what is considered a pass in some places is no where near enough for entry into others hence very sad for some children. I know it will never ever change just haven't seen any comments on here raising the question or discussing it. By the way please do not fail to message me if my facts are wrong or if anyone can find a better route into Southend.....???????

[ahap]

Apply to CRGS and find out whether there are any private coaches or CSSE buses going from Colchester to Southend.

[mum of boys]

Sorry Avenue3 - you had made it clear you have a DS - I just wasn't reading properly!!!

Still apply to CRGS - you have nothing to lose. Good luck.

[dunstudyin]

This may be the start of a new (and slightly controversial) thread but I have been reading a number of disappointed parents disparaging those who have been "heavily" tutored. The suggestion seems to be that it is unfair that their child has received a lower score than another child who has been tutored.

To give your child the best possible opportunity to do well I do think that tutoring can be important as it adds
structure to the process but tutoring will only get them so far, it is ulitmately down to the childs cognative ability coupled with their ability to work hard (which is often down to parental support/pressure) that is the determinent.

If you want to be good at something you need to practice, structured/meaningful practice is more beneficial than unstructured practice and I think that is where tutoring helps but it is no substiture for the hard work.

My DS's school advised us not to send her to a tutor as the school would do the work required. The school was kidding itself, it did not do nearly enough for an exam as competitive as the Essex 11+. We knew this would be the case and we weren't prepared to take that risk. It was a combination of the strcutre the tutor provided, a very determined DS and a supportive parent (not me) that enabled her to get the score she did.

I suppose my point is that tutoring did help but hard work was the biggest factor by far.

[Avenue3]

Appoligies if a similar post has already appeared as problems submitting. Good luck to any child tutored or not. I have very little statistical evidence or values of tutoring influencing scores. I did a small amount of reading around the subject, from journal articles ( which are peer reviewed) broadsheet and some info, (perhaps subjective) from an ex head of grammar. Some evidence suggested that children, in some cases are tutored from five, receive tutoring before school on a daily basis etc etc. It was found that this can be counterproductive and that the child's responses to questions become mechanical as oppose to natural cognitive ability. In part some children score highly on the day but begin to struggle, sometimes after the first term at GS. This is what I meant by heavily tutored. I recently completed my PHD at university but found some of those VR practice papers a struggle to complete in 50 minutes. So hats off to all children who even gave it a crack. I do feel that certain threads should be open to critique, debate and opinion on the selective system and the preparation process, however I understand that for parents who are in there hour of elation this critisim can come across as disparaging. And I don't blame them really