11 Plus Exams Forum

Reading through the Essex topics there seems to be an amazing amouny of knowledge people have on 11+, and this has been very helpful to read, and it shows that Essex have alot of caring parents.

I hope someone will be able to help me with the following questions I have on 12+, as at this stage I have very little knowledge.
The background is that my son failed his 11+ trying to get into the Essex boys Grammars, speaking to other parents who passed he was very unlucky and his VR let him down on the day.
We are now keen to look at the 12+
1. Does the 12+ exist.
2. When is it taken. (and which year is it for at School)
3. Do you take it for each individual school, or is it for the area of Essex.
4. Is the test the same format as 11+.
5. How many places are normally available for this ?

Any other information anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi HM

Firstly, there is no official 12+ in Essex. Basically, what happens is that each school holds a waiting list until the end of year 7. After this you can write to each individual school and ask for your son to be tested if and when a place becomes available in his year group. In practice, it is a bit of a lottery because, usually only one place comes up at any one time and I think all the schools have a policy of each child only being tested once for each particular year.

You will not know how many children have applied for a place in that year group and therefore your son could be taking the test with only himself and another applicant or, if unlucky, there could be many applicants.

The school concerned will offer the place to the child with the highest entrance marks in the test but if no children do well in the test and no applicants fit within the "ability parameters" for the school, then the school does not have to fill the year group with the extra child (this is the law as it stands with grammar schools.

The hard thing is that your son could be taking the test in a situation where one child is "super smart", possibly a child who is moving into the area from another grammar school, or, it could be a case that the majority of applicants are fairly average, whatever the circumstances, there will only be one chance each year.

The format of the tests depends on the school. Most test in English, maths and vr, in a format not unlike the 11+ others, depending on their specialism, will test other areas, such as French. To be sure what is required you should ask the school/s concerned.

It is possible that you could write to school/s at the beginning of the year when your son is in year 8 and a place may almost immediately become available, as children move out of the area, cannot cope with the work or whatever reason. However, you may have a much longer wait, it is luck of the draw.

Good luck

The best advice I can give is that you ring the schools you are looking at and ask them - I know someone whose child did the 12+ so it is possible. You could ring the schools now - I am sure they would be able to advise you on all of your questions. I think it would almost certainly include VR - I know in the 11+ this is the exam that carried 50% of the marks and is the most important one for the child to score highly in.