Faith Schools Admission

[sherry_d]

I emailed the admissions lady yesterday and she replied me back today. In the last two years they have offered everyone in my category C a place. She has also arranged for us to go and see the school on Monday. I am so pleased on how they have handled my queries and how efficient they have been. I am just a little petrified about viewing the school now. I just hope my daughter will see herself there and that I will also like it.

Many many thanks to all those who have been providing me with valuable info. I really appreciate it.

[mystery]

Oops, I also meant to say, that I am sure once your daughter has a place at Bennett, it would be OK to explain to her school and Bennett that she has a place and has not seen the school and that you would love her to have a short tour within school hours.

It sounds great that Cat C has got in every year so far .......... just never count your eggs in any school admissions process. Your daughter will feel happy going along to any school that has your seal of approval. But if there are aspects of a school that you turn out not to like once your daughter is attending it, you can explain to your daughter how secondary school is more like the real world and that there are right and wrong choices to be made about behaviour, lifestyle etc, that there are people who will not all be nice to you, etc etc, and that as well as the really positive things about this school, it's a great place for learning these real world things too!

[twinkles]

Sherry-d this is great news for you and I really hope both you and your DD like the school when you visit on Monday. Fingers crossed for you both, hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel for you.

[kentmum1]

When comparing the results of Bennett/TWGSB, or any other school for that matter, don't forget that each school gets their results on any combination of subjects and the ones obtained at TWGSB may be more academic subjects, so it is not an accurate way to compare. Also, the boys at TWGSB are still of quite a mixed ability - considering there are 2 highly-selective boys school neighbouring it, so don't expect results anywhere near as high as those, although still an excellent school with a very healthy and rounded environment. I have a child at both these schools and I think they are both v. good but they are completely different even though the results may look similar. For example at TWGSB, for the last 3 years, around 75% of the whole year group have obtained an A*/A in maths. You just don't see this when looking at the overall results. However, when I looked at secondary schools, I didn't analyse all the schools subject by subject, etc. It is not the right way to choose a school in my opinion and can start to become obsessive. Having a child in both types of school makes me see that selective schools are not the ultimate in education. The results gained in the selective schools are so based on their intakes that it is easy to think that the non-selectives look inferior, which in the case of Bennett would not be at all fair.

[kentmum1]

Also, Skinners' only had approx 1% more A-Level A*'s than Bennett. Again, it is not the way to compare schools. The new A* is very difficult to achieve and it is unlikely that we will see huge percentages achieved at this top grade.

[sherry_d]

Bennett was just what I expected but I cant help feeling they are under resourced for the sheer number of students they have. It seems they are just getting by and doing the best with what they have.

The school hall, the labs, the library, the dinning hall, DT, the sports hall are all standard size similar to every other school yet this school has 1400 kids nearly 50% more than the other schools. Walking round it didnt feel big at all but the girls showing us around was telling us about how cramped the dinning hall is at lunch, how she hasnt yet done textiles because they do it in turns. The maths block has a one way system now because the corridors were getting clogged up at the end of each lesson so the one way is system helps solving part of the problem. It was just one thing after the other which clearly showed that this school has been stretched to its maximum and this worries me a bit.

I am not so sure now if viewing a school on a standard working day is ideal. All we saw were the buildings and just peeping through doors to see students inside. An open day you get to see the teachers (how bored or interesting they are), get a closer look of the kids work. You also get a better feel about students behaviour bumping with them in the corridors. We didnt see much of what goes behind to be honest. It would have been nice to meet one member of staff we could chat to or ask any question. It was just back to reception after the tour with the student and out we go.

My daughter prefers St Simon because she thought the teachers were interesting (but we didnt chat to any today) and she loved the science there because she took part in an experiment something we didnt get to do today. I still prefer Bennett but we need to think things through the next day or so to make sure we are making the right decison.

[tiredmum]

she hasnt yet done textiles because they do it in turns. The maths block has a one way system now because the corridors were getting clogged up at the end of each lesson so the one way is system helps solving part of the problem..

Textiles taking turns is normal if one class does it for a tern then the next class do it the following term. Fort pitt does this.
Also many schools have one way systems for ease when the lesson changeover occurs.

I am not so sure now if viewing a school on a standard working day is ideal. All we saw were the buildings and just peeping through doors to see students inside. An open day you get to see the teachers (how bored or interesting they are), get a closer look of the kids work. You also get a better feel about students behaviour bumping with them in the corridors. We didnt see much of what goes behind to be honest. It would have been nice to meet one member of staff we could chat to or ask any question. It was just back to reception after the tour with the student and out we go..

Many schools let you in the classrooms on a working school day and you get to see how the teachers intereact with the students - and sometimes chat to teacher for a min or two. Other schools feel this is unfair to the learning of the students.

My daughter prefers St Simon because she thought the teachers were interesting (but we didnt chat to any today) and she loved the science there because she took part in an experiment something we didnt get to do today. I still prefer Bennett but we need to think things through the next day or so to make sure we are making the right decison.

my dd loved the scince labs at stockys and talking to some of the children demonstrating the experiments - the teachers are very nice at stocky but i expect they are at BM too.

[monstermum]

Everyone got into St. Simon's last year if that helps??

[madasahatter]

Many schools let you in the classrooms on a working school day and you get to see how the teachers intereact with the students - and sometimes chat to teacher for a min or two. Other schools feel this is unfair to the learning of the students.

We went to se Uplands 2 weeks ago and we were invited in four times (!) by teachers as we were looking through the classroom window.... and they were very engaging.... so it's a shame you could not do this at Bennett.

I don't think we disrupted much as it was at a max for 3 mins! We were explained the lesson and saw the kids' work.

For me uplands was a plus in that way as I quite liked the teachers

[pheasantchick]

In year 5 we went around three schools. My DS's favourite then was the one that had the most interactive and fun things to do. It was more like a theme park then an educational establishment! I had to remind him this year that schools don't do these things during the normal course of the day, and we were there to see the academic side of things, not just to have a fun evening.