11 Plus Exams Forum

Hello all

Anybody travelling or considering travelling from Nailsworth area to Pates? We find ourselves in the position of having been accepted for Marling, Crypt and Pates and are keen on the idea of co-ed over single sex.

What's the journey like?! What are the downsides? What are the options for getting back in reasonable time after the inevitable after school activities!!

I know it's pedantic but technically you haven't yet been accepted for Marling, Crypt and Pates as you have not yet filled the CAF form in asking for a place....

surely if their child is ranked in the PAN for that school they are guaranteed a place

essaouira wrote:Hello all

Anybody travelling or considering travelling from Nailsworth area to Pates? We find ourselves in the position of having been accepted for Marling, Crypt and Pates and are keen on the idea of co-ed over single sex.

What's the journey like?! What are the downsides? What are the options for getting back in reasonable time after the inevitable after school activities!!

Sorry, can't help with actual information there. I think Pates has a parents' board on their VLE, though, where parents can post messages to arrange to share lifts home from things.

Hope somebody will be along soon who knows more about it.

Oh, and congratulations to your son on qualifying for Pates. No need to justify why you want to send him there, but I thought I'd just add that I too have a son who wouldn't suit an all boys' school, so I get where you're coming from on that.

DS qualified for tommies and crypt but not pates. As pleased as we are, I still have a teeny niggle about whether a single sex school makes the opposite sex more alien and a bigger issue when they meet. DS has a little sis and so will be in plenty of contact with her circle.

Well done to your DS for all his hard work that now gives him control of his destiny. I always tell my two they must work hard not because I'm that bothered what they end up doing but because it gives them choices and control in the future.

There's a bus that goes through Nailsworth to Pate's (Minch, Nailsworth, Woodchester, Stroud, Painswick, Brockworth, Pate's). Leaves Nailsworth about 7.30am, back about 4.30pm, costs about £1450 per year. It is run by Minibus Direct.

There is also one run by Denwells but I'm not sure of the exact route for that and whether it goes through Nailsworth.

DD finds the journey fine (she gets on in Stroud). After school activities are usually managed through lift shares, but you may or may not be lucky with your cohort in that respect. If you let the child travel that far to school, you have to be prepared to pick up from all extra-curricular and be grateful for any lift shares you come across

Kismet wrote:DS qualified for tommies and crypt but not pates. As pleased as we are, I still have a teeny niggle about whether a single sex school makes the opposite sex more alien and a bigger issue when they meet. DS has a little sis and so will be in plenty of contact with her circle.

My nephews are now 19 and 22 and were at an all boys' school. They've always related to girls just fine. I think it's important if they're at a single sex school to make sure that they are mixing with the other sex in some other context - out of school extra-curricular activities for example - but as long as you do that then it shouldn't be a problem, I think. My son's at a mixed comp, but even if he wasn't, he'd be seeing plenty of girls because of his Friday evening youth theatre, girls at church, his sister and her friends, the daughters of my friends, and the girl next door. So he wouldn't think girls were aliens. His personality, though, wouldn't enjoy the all male atmosphere at school. My nephews did. Children are individuals.

Kismet wrote:Well done to your DS for all his hard work that now gives him control of his destiny. I always tell my two they must work hard not because I'm that bothered what they end up doing but because it gives them choices and control in the future.

I tell mine that too. I tell them that qualifications can often open doors to more interesting jobs that are more fun to do too.

christje wrote:surely if their child is ranked in the PAN for that school they are guaranteed a place

Not true... There are circumstances where people may jump to the top of the qualified list..

Whilst you are all right of course, it's rare that if you are within the PAN you will not gain a place, it's not guarantees of course, and the higher up the ranks you are the safe. I certainly wouldn't be confident in the last 10 of a PAN of 120, but perhaps OPs dc is 45th and they can therefore be fairly confident. Just don't want to pour cold water on them too much, however strictly correct.

I think that the schools just say 'Within top 120' or whatever PAN is if you are, then rank for the rest who passed and just 'not qualified' if below the cut-off score?