Anyone here yet for 2021 entry?!

[cheltdad]

I think that disparity between private and state schools is also going to be apparent in September when the current Year 6 grammar school passers start in Year 7. Will those at private schools have overtaken some of the state school ones simply because they have had full schooling since March? I hope that the Year 7 teaching will even things up but who knows?

I suspect what happens when Yr7 starts is going to be interesting.

My suspicion is that it's really going to be more down to how much they've got out of the habit of "learning". To get thru 11+ they all should have been beyond much of what was being taught in Yr6 anyway.

[jearund]

I suspect what happens when Yr7 starts is going to be interesting.

My suspicion is that it's really going to be more down to how much they've got out of the habit of "learning". To get thru 11+ they all should have been beyond much of what was being taught in Yr6 anyway.

I think you're spot on there - it's well known that kids forget a lot over the summer and this is like an extra long summer. I guess the private school ones who've been following a full 9-3 (ish) timetabled possibly with virtual classes (I'm making what could be an inaccurate assumption here) will be more "in the learning habit" than those who've been attempting home schooling with us as teachers. But you're also right about the level - if all the private schools are doing is the Year 6 work (and our state school, at least, has only been doing revision) then hopefully all the kids are beyond that anyway and the gap won't be as bad as it would be for younger years.
I'm aware I'm making a lot of assumptions here as I don't actually know what the local private schools are doing, only really what our school is doing, so if I'm off-base, please correct me, but don't jump on me!
On the original subject of the year 5s, they have my full sympathy! This year's success is going to be much more dependent on how much parents have been able to tutor their own children than previous years. Having been through it twice now, if I had a Year 5 child now I would be focusing hard on maths, probably using both Year 5 and Year 6 Oak Academy resources over the summer, as well as lots of CGP books to practice grammar and comprehension. NVR isn't taught at school anyway so that's just a question of practicing tests. On mocks - child 1 didn't do any, child 2 did two. I think they are useful but they both did well on the test. Yes, it's helpful to get them used to the strange environment but it's more important to get them familiar with the question format so they don't make mistakes filling in the answer sheet.
I will be crossing my fingers for you all on test day!

[JayC]

Like many I always had this thought process that private schools would be teaching for 11+ and so my son would better placed for the test in that environment, but having put a child through this for year 5 & 6, I can honestly say that really isn't the case in terms of the education he was getting but was the case in terms of the environment.

The majority of kids in my sons private school year group were generally more brighter then the children in his old school, but I don't think it had anything to do with what they were being taught (some of which I just found funny and stupid). This meant my son found it more challenging and competitive and had to step up (peer pressure). The outcome of this was that in his private school the number of children getting a grammar place was in the double digits whilst in his previous school you could count those on a single hand.

Ultimately where ever a child goes to primary school is less important in my opinion (although having seen the data the bias towards private schools as feeder schools for Pates, STRS, DR, etc is defiantly a thing). To be successful in the test I think a parent has to spend consistent time with the child, good ol' hard work, but of course in lockdown that could be tough to do.

I know a few children for this year where lockdown has been a great thing in terms of prep, but not due to their school but because parents have stepped up, in some instances they were ""forced" to step up.

[cheltdad]

I think that disparity between private and state schools is also going to be apparent in September when the current Year 6 grammar school passers start in Year 7. Will those at private schools have overtaken some of the state school ones simply because they have had full schooling since March? I hope that the Year 7 teaching will even things up but who knows?

I suspect what happens when Yr7 starts is going to be interesting.

My suspicion is that it's really going to be more down to how much they've got out of the habit of "learning". To get thru 11+ they all should have been beyond much of what was being taught in Yr6 anyway.

Just as a bit of a follow up to this: One thing you could do to try to get DC back upto speed is to have a look at the BBC Bitesize stuff for Yr7 - they set things each day, but the previous days/weeks stuff is there as well. A lot of it is quite interesting and bit of an intro into the sort of things they'll be tackling:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/tags/zf9 ... s1-lessons" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Polgara_Glos]

I watched the Ribston virtual presentation tonight. Someone asked the question about September being fair and they just said we have added extra familiarisation material.

My DC is regressing in their scores in maths at the moment so trying to be zen and give them a break.

[2Socks]

Oh, the periods of regression really worry and frustrate me, every single time! We forgot how to do subtraction earlier on.

We haven't done any of the virtual tours...managed to get to a lot back in October, so haven't wanted to stress her...she seems to think she has to decide now. Any thoughts about the virtual tours? We liked all of them when I went around... they were all (including the non-selectives) nicer than the secondary that I went to... that was a good while ago though, and not in Gloucestershire.

I've not looked at the familiarisation materials (looked at last year's) I wasn't sure if they were showing the style alone, or giving an indication of the difficulty. I'm assuming that it's the former. Any thoughts from those that have more knowledge?

[Polgara_Glos]

The ones they have posted are from CEM themselves.

The virtual tours from Stroud (MS Teams webinar) and Denmark (ZOOM webinar) were good, with a good mix of presentations, snippets from pupils etc.

Ribston (just a ZOOM conference) was a bit more dry - no tour or anything and Crypt was very dry (ZOOM conference) as it had a couple of talks, a youtube video and no Q&As. When I say dry, I was struggling to get my DC to concentrate.

[Polgara_Glos]

Do you think there will be more kids who previously ended up in independent schools choosing a grammar with the economic uncertainty?

[cheltdad]

Do you think there will be more kids who previously ended up in independent schools choosing a grammar with the economic uncertainty?

Suspect that might be an interesting factor - though there were always those that opted to spend on a private education for Junior in the hope that improved the chance to get into Grammar who would not have continued after that (However, I've also heard complaints about some of the private schools not necessarily pushing/coaching children for 11+ because they didn't want them to leave........).

One other issue in terms of "economic uncertainty" might however be a reduction in those that are prepared/able to pay for travel from out of county to get to the Gloucestershire Grammars - and will that impact specific schools like Pates who seem to have a higher percentage of "out of area" pupils more?

[Polgara_Glos]

One can hope - considering DC's scores are currently regressing in maths!

I'm trying to strike the right balance with their (limited) school work to be done and both DH and I work full time from home as well. I definitely think there is a holiday brain attitude.