11 Plus Exams Forum

Can anyone shed any light on the entry requirements for Pates? I know that they require a minimum standard in each section (I assume this means in NVR, Maths and English as opposed to another way of grouping or sub-dividing the skills) but some people have mentioned weighting to the skills. Does anyone have any clue how this works? Which skills are weighted more/less heavily?

We received my son's ranking on Friday for STR's from a very late test (equivalent rank 60 to those who took test in September) which was quite a bit above expectation. I hope that doesn't make me sound like a bad mother - we've had no reports or scores from his school in several years due to policy so we have little idea of his performance compared to his peers, other than he works in the top ability groups. We are now waiting to hear from Crypt and Pates to see whether he has qualified there.

I did not think he would qualify for Pates because his Maths was much weaker - he had not been taught lots of the content (and I thank those who offered helpful advice on the Scottish and English school curriculum differences in my earlier thread; I will update that thread when all the results are in) but were very pleasantly surprised by his good STR rank, especially allowing for 8 months' of age standardisation since the original test date, so are now thinking that he might be in with a chance after all. Now I am trying to do the impossible and project what rank he might get at Pates and Crypt based on his rank at STR!

I probably just need to relax and take this energy out by going for a run but any thoughts and sense of how Pate's organises things would be gratefully received.

Not sure where your DC would be on a waiting list, for Pates, but this year I believe one student didn’t turn up for year 7, one left as didn’t settle so going to Kings. These spaces have now been taken by others. My DC tells me there are currently two other spaces in Y7 at the moment but doesn’t know for certain why there are but thinks they’ve moved area. Obviously it’s late in the day now for someone locally to take the space and not sure I would swap schools if my DC was settled elsewhere in the county. Not sure if that’s typical movement within a year group and / or same as other schools? Other posters might know what you can expect.

Thanks for your reply. We just found out that his ranking is within the top 150 and he is 1 on the waiting list. We had already registered for an appeal but now we have good grounds but our hearing is not until June.
On paper (or online), my son is super excited about Pate's, so we are hoping that the appeal is successful. We still want to visit in person, though, and get a feel for the school.
In terms of the weighting of the 11+ test papers, I am still no wiser. I'd guess that he qualified in about the same 'zone' for all the schools we applied for, so it did not seem to have impacted him much.
The mystery continues...

You definitely need to visit the schools you are considering. I have one DC at Pates but very unlikely I’d send my other one there as other schools a better ‘fit’ for them. Try to get past the hype / prejudice various schools attract. The school I liked most before I visited them all based on reputation, their website etc was my least favourite after looking round. So definitely visit them all before making a final decision regards preferences. Good luck whichever you get. TBH we are lucky in glos to have lots of great schools.

I would second that - Scotland is not that far away that a visit is not impossible and you should - the GS all have a very different feel to them and you may find what looks good on paper is not the same vibe in real life - and if you move and your son is deeply unhappy, he will feel pressure not to say anything, and then will be unhappy for 7 years! Also, at appeal you can then say "when we visited x school, DS really liked ...... but when we visited y school DS didn't like......" Otherwise how can you really say which is a better fit?

I'm not from Gloucestershire but I would third that advice. I was so surprised, when looking at both primary and secondary schools, that some of the schools that I had rated very highly (based on websites and the experiences of friends) I knew my children would hate and others that I had almost ruled out, I really liked and could see them liking.
I know that it's not always an emotional decision but for me there was a definite "oh yes this is the right school" moment that trumped any other deciding making process.

loobylou wrote:I'm not from Gloucestershire but I would third that advice. I was so surprised, when looking at both primary and secondary schools, that some of the schools that I had rated very highly (based on websites and the experiences of friends) I knew my children would hate and others that I had almost died out, I really liked and could see them liking.
I know that it's not always an emotional decision but for me there was a definite "oh yes this is the right school" moment that trumped any other deciding making process.

+1
And as well as an 'oh yes' moment, there were some 'no way!' ones too. It can just be a comment, or a peek into a particular room, which does it. I always asked children showing me round, 'how easy is it to ask for help if you are stuck?', and the answer to that can be quite telling. As can asking heads about bullying - avoid the school where they say 'we don't have that here', for they all do - it is how it is dealt with that matters. For me it has always been about pastoral care and staff taking a personal interest in knowing children, and for children to feel ok about feeling vulnerable, which we all do sometimes.

Ooh thats a good question Amber (asking for help when stuck). I’ll include that when I do my final ‘school viewings’ once I know what school choices we actually have after the exam results.

Amber wrote:

loobylou wrote:I'm not from Gloucestershire but I would third that advice. I was so surprised, when looking at both primary and secondary schools, that some of the schools that I had rated very highly (based on websites and the experiences of friends) I knew my children would hate and others that I had almost died out, I really liked and could see them liking.
I know that it's not always an emotional decision but for me there was a definite "oh yes this is the right school" moment that trumped any other deciding making process.

+1
And as well as an 'oh yes' moment, there were some 'no way!' ones too. It can just be a comment, or a peek into a particular room, which does it. I always asked children showing me round, 'how easy is it to ask for help if you are stuck?', and the answer to that can be quite telling. As can asking heads about bullying - avoid the school where they say 'we don't have that here', for they all do - it is how it is dealt with that matters. For me it has always been about pastoral care and staff taking a personal interest in knowing children, and for children to feel ok about feeling vulnerable, which we all do sometimes.

We had one of those oh no moments at our catchment comp. During a tour we were shown into a music tech room. it was very rowdy and the teacher greeted us with "Yo" whilst sat on a chair leant against a wall with only the back two legs on the floor..

DW, who normally has a bark far worse than her bite walked up to him and told him straight that her children would never attend one of his schools whilst she still had a breath in her, if he thought it was ok to act like that what must the children think.
We left quite quickly...

stroudydad wrote:

Amber wrote:

loobylou wrote:I'm not from Gloucestershire but I would third that advice. I was so surprised, when looking at both primary and secondary schools, that some of the schools that I had rated very highly (based on websites and the experiences of friends) I knew my children would hate and others that I had almost died out, I really liked and could see them liking.
I know that it's not always an emotional decision but for me there was a definite "oh yes this is the right school" moment that trumped any other deciding making process.

+1
And as well as an 'oh yes' moment, there were some 'no way!' ones too. It can just be a comment, or a peek into a particular room, which does it. I always asked children showing me round, 'how easy is it to ask for help if you are stuck?', and the answer to that can be quite telling. As can asking heads about bullying - avoid the school where they say 'we don't have that here', for they all do - it is how it is dealt with that matters. For me it has always been about pastoral care and staff taking a personal interest in knowing children, and for children to feel ok about feeling vulnerable, which we all do sometimes.

We had one of those oh no moments at our catchment comp. During a tour we were shown into a music tech room. it was very rowdy and the teacher greeted us with "Yo" whilst sat on a chair leant against a wall with only the back two legs on the floor..

DW, who normally has a bark far worse than her bite walked up to him and told him straight that her children would never attend one of his schools whilst she still had a breath in her, if he thought it was ok to act like that what must the children think.
We left quite quickly...

We had similar at our local comp. Other parents/dc were raving about it but after observing 2 boys on their phone listening to music at the back of a class, seeing a blue bolt thru another’s ear & the head talking, lots, about how he was dealing with bad behaviour....my ds was horrified as was I. Whereas for others it’s the sch of choice. Similar with the gs the one my dd’s friends loved, we didn’t like...we much preferred the one one they didn’t like Prospectuses/websites/online opinions are fine but you may think something entirely different when you visit.