St Helens and 11 plus

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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Jenny5
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:13 pm

St Helens and 11 plus

Post by Jenny5 »

Hi,
My daughter's been offered a 3+ entry place at St Helen's. Although it's a through school, I'd like my daughter to do well at 11 Plus and have the option of going to an even better school. Do you know if St Helen's prepares you well for 11 plus? Some parents say they may not do it as well as Prep schools do. Thanks!
CandyCrush
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2014 9:50 am

Re: St Helens and 11 plus

Post by CandyCrush »

Probably not....

St Helen’s is part of the Consortium and the 11+ exam format is very different to that of City, NLCS and Habs. There would be no logical reason for St Helen’s to prep Y6 pupils for the exams as in doing so, they would lose their most able students. I believe you could trust the school to deliver a high standard of English and Maths to enable them to do well in the other schools’ exams with a small amount of tutoring and home preparation. Familiarisation and exam technique is key.

DD is currently at St Helen’s in Y11 and got straight 8s and 9s in her mocks so I can say you could trust the school to challenge its most able girls.
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: St Helens and 11 plus

Post by Daogroupie »

No through school is going to do anything that will help you leave at 11 for a "better school"

Their business model has to be to do everything they can to hold onto the students there already have.

The consortium has split off from the top level 11plus indies such as St Pauls, NLCS and Habs and is using an online CEM test of English, NVR and VR followed by an interview for those who score well.

So ironically those likely to score very well in this test will be those who have been preparing for CEM at the state grammars.

This was certainly the case this year. Those candidates found the consortium CEM test very easy.

Don't assume prep schools will do a good job of CEM preparation. They are geared for the traditional English and Maths exams and CEM is very new to them.

If you are thinking of Habs, NLCS, City then no problem, it is if you are looking at other consortium schools then you will need to prepare for the CEM online test. DG
Jenny5
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:13 pm

Re: St Helens and 11 plus

Post by Jenny5 »

Many thanks, both!

Wow I hand't realised there are different types of 11 plus exams for different schools! What you're saying makes good sense.

We would actually like or daughter to get into a good grammar school following 11 plus if possible*, in which case it sounds like St Helens should be ok. I'm guessing we'd need some kind of tutoring even if they were in a prep school? And as you say if she stays on at St Helens that's not a bad thing too.
*would save money! but we never know what would be the best option at the time - can't plan for everything I guess!
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