Thanks for your replies, very helpful and interesting.
Still, for some of the most highly acclaimed, selective and leading indies (and my DS did
not apply to one of those), you'd think there should be some sort of standardisation as it might ultimately achieve higher results for them. I'm sure some of the adaptive stuff done by CEM etc for privates would be?
The age thing is actually something sports associations are becoming more aware of (better late than never) - looking at 'biological age' when talent spotting. This is just one article I found but anyone interested in the significant effect of when children are born in the year should read Malcolm Gladwell 'Outliers' :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35054310https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstarsAgree, perhaps smaller players have to compensate by having to 'think' more but still, there can be a huge difference between boys in Y6!
Agree, indies tend to look at applications 'holistically' but I should have thought forward-thinking heads should take age into account when looking at scores.