11 Plus Exams Forum

stroudydad wrote:

Amber wrote:I am sorry to say this but if you think that doing a GCSE is going to give you 'a real handle on the language' then prepare to be very disappointed. And if your son is currently doing that range of languages in Scotland then moving here is going to be a mighty come-down. You won't get Latin in the state sector I don't think (Pates dabbled for a while...not sure if they still do, and likewise with Mandarin); Swedish you won't get anywhere (it is one of my languages and I know of a private local tutor who I used to help me with some specialist stuff a couple of years ago) and if your son is already bilingual in French then he will laugh his chaussettes off when he sees what he has to do for GCSE - an A level would be a better bet if he wants to prove his ability. If you are in the market for private school you might do better there - certainly for the Classics and maybe for Mandarin. I used to teach Russian to A level in a local state school but they have dropped it now I think. PM me if you want more details.

Sadly, foreign language teaching is a disgrace in England in my view - it is afforded no priority and with many people still viewing the ability to speak another language as some kind of gift from the Almighty rather than something attained through hard work, that is not set to change any time soon. With Brexit perhaps we will all be taught US English as a foreign language as there won't be any need to go anywhere else.

Do Tommies not still do Latin?? I'm sure Marling were.. don't know about now though.

Marling still do Latin.

Further south, KLB do Mandarin and/or Japanese alongside European languages. I hear Y10 visit China. Oversubscribed and would mean not living in Cheltenham though.

Amber wrote:I am sorry to say this but if you think that doing a GCSE is going to give you 'a real handle on the language' then prepare to be very disappointed. And if your son is currently doing that range of languages in Scotland then moving here is going to be a mighty come-down. You won't get Latin in the state sector I don't think (Pates dabbled for a while...not sure if they still do, and likewise with Mandarin); Swedish you won't get anywhere (it is one of my languages and I know of a private local tutor who I used to help me with some specialist stuff a couple of years ago) and if your son is already bilingual in French then he will laugh his chaussettes off when he sees what he has to do for GCSE - an A level would be a better bet if he wants to prove his ability. If you are in the market for private school you might do better there - certainly for the Classics and maybe for Mandarin. I used to teach Russian to A level in a local state school but they have dropped it now I think. PM me if you want more details.

Sadly, foreign language teaching is a disgrace in England in my view - it is afforded no priority and with many people still viewing the ability to speak another language as some kind of gift from the Almighty rather than something attained through hard work, that is not set to change any time soon. With Brexit perhaps we will all be taught US English as a foreign language as there won't be any need to go anywhere else.

Pates - I have a feeling Latin is still an option. We did a recent open morning, and on the tour, I am fairly sure Latin was mentioned. I was on 'information overload' though!! However, if languages are really important, probably worth a quick double check with them, as it might help you with which direction you want to try for.

A bit further east but Oxfordshire has an international school - https://europaschooluk.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Might tick your boxes re languages?

Thank you for all of these answers. I am familiar with the GCSE qualifications - the new GCSEs are significantly harder than the ones that have been done until now (with controlled assessments etc) and the A level is a very challenging course. In Scotland, even at Higher Level, all you need to do is learn a couple of essays by heart and you are allowed to take a dictionary in to the exam! At primary level, Scotland is better for languages but at secondary, England is superior.

I acknowledge that he won't be able to get the full spread of languages in school and we will probably try to keep some going from home. I think having an option of doing something other than French is key, as that is one he studies independently through the CNED.

As an update to the process, we have been given a date of 9 May to sit the 11+. I have been going through the many differences in the Maths curriculum between Scotland and England and I have to say that England covers lots more than Scotland does, so it feels like a bit of a slog getting him up to speed and he has had a few demoralising moments saying "but I thought I was good at Maths". On tests he is getting over 90% in English, about 65-75% in NVR and about 50% in Maths (we have the CGP and the Letts packs). Do you think he stands a chance?

The council have told us that we cannot be allocated a school as we are not in county yet, all of our state school options have been refused but that they have places available in Tewkesbury School, All Saints Academy, Cleeve School and Henley Bank High. I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Silentdraperunners wrote:Thank you for all of these answers. I am familiar with the GCSE qualifications - the new GCSEs are significantly harder than the ones that have been done until now (with controlled assessments etc) and the A level is a very challenging course. In Scotland, even at Higher Level, all you need to do is learn a couple of essays by heart and you are allowed to take a dictionary in to the exam! At primary level, Scotland is better for languages but at secondary, England is superior.

I acknowledge that he won't be able to get the full spread of languages in school and we will probably try to keep some going from home. I think having an option of doing something other than French is key, as that is one he studies independently through the CNED.

As an update to the process, we have been given a date of 9 May to sit the 11+. I have been going through the many differences in the Maths curriculum between Scotland and England and I have to say that England covers lots more than Scotland does, so it feels like a bit of a slog getting him up to speed and he has had a few demoralising moments saying "but I thought I was good at Maths". On tests he is getting over 90% in English, about 65-75% in NVR and about 50% in Maths (we have the CGP and the Letts packs). Do you think he stands a chance?

The council have told us that we cannot be allocated a school as we are not in county yet, all of our state school options have been refused but that they have places available in Tewkesbury School, All Saints Academy, Cleeve School and Henley Bank High. I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Your DS will probably benefit from Targeted Practice Material in NVR. I find the ISBN: 9781844196234 very good.

conroyiwhiwhu wrote:

Silentdraperunners wrote:Thank you for all of these answers. I am familiar with the GCSE qualifications - the new GCSEs are significantly harder than the ones that have been done until now (with controlled assessments etc) and the A level is a very challenging course. In Scotland, even at Higher Level, all you need to do is learn a couple of essays by heart and you are allowed to take a dictionary in to the exam! At primary level, Scotland is better for languages but at secondary, England is superior.

I acknowledge that he won't be able to get the full spread of languages in school and we will probably try to keep some going from home. I think having an option of doing something other than French is key, as that is one he studies independently through the CNED.

As an update to the process, we have been given a date of 9 May to sit the 11+. I have been going through the many differences in the Maths curriculum between Scotland and England and I have to say that England covers lots more than Scotland does, so it feels like a bit of a slog getting him up to speed and he has had a few demoralising moments saying "but I thought I was good at Maths". On tests he is getting over 90% in English, about 65-75% in NVR and about 50% in Maths (we have the CGP and the Letts packs). Do you think he stands a chance?

The council have told us that we cannot be allocated a school as we are not in county yet, all of our state school options have been refused but that they have places available in Tewkesbury School, All Saints Academy, Cleeve School and Henley Bank High. I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Your DS will probably benefit from Targeted Practice Material in NVR. I find the ISBN: 9781844196234 very good.

Thanks for this. We have been mainly focusing on Maths, as he was so far behind compared to the English primary schools, and that has come on quite well. You are right, though, a bit more work on the NVR is useful as it is so different. He is better than I am at it - I think all those hours of Lego and the Rubik's cube help!

Silentdraperunners wrote:Thank you for all of these answers. I am familiar with the GCSE qualifications - the new GCSEs are significantly harder than the ones that have been done until now (with controlled assessments etc) and the A level is a very challenging course. In Scotland, even at Higher Level, all you need to do is learn a couple of essays by heart and you are allowed to take a dictionary in to the exam! At primary level, Scotland is better for languages but at secondary, England is superior.

I acknowledge that he won't be able to get the full spread of languages in school and we will probably try to keep some going from home. I think having an option of doing something other than French is key, as that is one he studies independently through the CNED.

As an update to the process, we have been given a date of 9 May to sit the 11+. I have been going through the many differences in the Maths curriculum between Scotland and England and I have to say that England covers lots more than Scotland does, so it feels like a bit of a slog getting him up to speed and he has had a few demoralising moments saying "but I thought I was good at Maths". On tests he is getting over 90% in English, about 65-75% in NVR and about 50% in Maths (we have the CGP and the Letts packs). Do you think he stands a chance?

The council have told us that we cannot be allocated a school as we are not in county yet, all of our state school options have been refused but that they have places available in Tewkesbury School, All Saints Academy, Cleeve School and Henley Bank High. I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Hi there,
Hope it all goes well for your DS on the 9th:-).
One thing to remember is that the maths in the cgp books are renowned for being quite tough time wise. Various posters on here have reported the CEM maths to be not as tough:-), my DS1 took the trial CEM in year 7 and reported that it was not too bad. DC2 sat it in December, and maths is by far his weakest subject and was getting similar results to your DS, it seems he got his place at Marling quite comfortably in the end.
So don't worry too much

Test scores are misleading until you’ve covered the content so don’t be disheartened. We avoided doing tests until quite late on until we’d covered all the maths topics & worked on nvr & vocab. You only get a true indication as to their level once they are familiar with all the topics (particularly maths) that might come up. Obvs slightly different in your situation due to a shorter time window & needing to build speed also. Good luck.

Silentdraperunners wrote: We have been mainly focusing on Maths, as he was so far behind compared to the English primary schools, and that has come on quite well. You are right, though, a bit more work on the NVR is useful as it is so different. He is better than I am at it - I think all those hours of Lego and the Rubik's cube help!

Yes, I thought that would be the case. As I said, it might be worth looking at KS2 tests for additional practice.

Have you looked at the English NC here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... s-of-study" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;