Please clarify my 11+ confusion

[rainbowpeppa]

@rainbowpeppa, we were in a similar situation a few years ago. The resources in this forum was very useful in guiding us through our 11+ Journey. I will briefly explain what we did - hope you can take something out of our experience.
We were living in an area where there were no grammar schools and we were quite unaware of this part of the education system in this country. We learnt about it in passing and then did a bit of research. We basically used the 'find a school' section here to shortlist the schools the we would be ok to commute from and went through the requirements for each of these exams. This was when our dd was in year 5. We decided to move into catchment of one of the grammar schools to maximise her chances during the summer hols after year 5. We made her write a number of exams - Nonsuch, Wallington (yes, Nonsuch and Wallington were separate exams then!), Essex Consortium, Bexley, Newstead, SW Hertfordshire (this was like a mock) and HBS (didnt have any catchment then). When we moved, we also made sure that the house we moved into was in catchment for a good comprehensive school that we liked. Luckily for us, our dd was quite academic and we didnt have to really force her to work hard. There was no formal tutoring for her but both of us worked with her on the basic knowledge and exam skills. She got through all the exams she wrote and was pretty intent on going to HBS. We ended up moving again when she was offered a place at HBS. She did quite well there and is now studying natural sciences at Cambridge. Looking back, i think we under estimated her abilities and could have avoided the first move! We ignored Kent then because we thought it would be impossible to get out of catchment places but I think she would have gotten in Tonbridge if she wrote the exam. No regrets anyways and now we are getting ready to move again for the second one's grammar school!

That's a great success story. You are right I'm in your exact situation. I don't ve any location priority at the moment and my dd is doing really well in her current school. I'm planning to make her write in every exam that she can and based upon the best school we get, we'll move and settle there. I've heard many success stories of kids from non catchment area. If the marks are well enough then there's no need for catchment. Hbs is one of my priority too. I'm more interested in cchs. Can you share your dd mark if you are ok. just to understand how much scores the school is expecting.

[Rao]

That's a great success story. You are right I'm in your exact situation. I don't ve any location priority at the moment and my dd is doing really well in her current school. I'm planning to make her write in every exam that she can and based upon the best school we get, we'll move and settle there. I've heard many success stories of kids from non catchment area. If the marks are well enough then there's no need for catchment. Hbs is one of my priority too. I'm more interested in cchs. Can you share your dd mark if you are ok. just to understand how much scores the school is expecting.

Hi, when you say CCHS, do you mean Chelmsford County High School or Colchester County High School? the Chelmsford one is a separate test (shared with Slough, Gloucester and a few others, I think). The cut off for out of catchment places at Chelmsford is 120 or so. I am not sure - our DD did not write this exam then. The colchester one is the consortium exam (CSSE) and this school does not have any catchment. The guidance we received when our DD sat the exam is 350+ to be guaranteed a place but this guidance is not provided any more. You can search on the Essex forum - looks like the cutoff is usually around 330 or so. DD got 383. Hope that helps

[ToadMum]

Just FYI, to be considered for one of the 144 places available only to those applicants living in the priority area for Chelmsford County High School, the applicant has to be resident within the 12.5 mile radius by 1st September of year 6 and remain ontinuously resident within the radius at least until the start of Year 7.

As an OOC applicant, unless you are a LAC / PLAC (or have an EHCP naming the school), you are limited to the maximum 36 places left in the last category (180 minus LAC / PLAC and 144 ic only).

https://www.cchs.co.uk/wp-content/uploa ... c-21-1.pdf