selection Review advice & feedback
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:35 am
Hello, I have been soaking up as much info from this forum as possible and am now in the final stages of gathering all my bits to submit our selection review. Some feedback or advice before submission would be most welcome.
So DS scored 115 on his 11+. (V 120 / M 108 / NV 115)
A big shock to us and his school as he was expected to pass and pass easily.
This is basically the content of our review:
* 1:1 from headteacher (not many were given and only a couple didn't pass)
*End of Yr 5 report states GDS in reading, writing and maths
* Cats scores taken at the same time as 11+ were 123 verbal, 127 non-verbal, 117 maths
*End of year 6 expectations are GDS for writing and 111-120 in maths and reading
*Reading age of 13 years and 3 months
*Consistently working in top sets (as stated in headteachers report)
*Invited to belong to a writing workshop in Year 5 for 'gifted writers'
*Yr 2 SATS - GDS in reading & writing / EXS in maths and science.
*Headteacher report states he is working at the same level if not higher in maths than his peers who have gained grammar places.
And the Headteacher report also states that he has a keen interest in humanities, represents school at sport, has leadership roles within school etc. And concludes they are 'strongly convinced' he would thrive at GS.
So all very positive.
However, we have no specific extenuating circumstances aside from the obvious.
Our school was one that found out about the discrepancies on the answer sheet during the exam and they were told to put an answer rather than disregard them. While this didn't seem to bother our son at the time and he did as told, kids being kids, then talked about it during the break and he started to get anxious and upset that he had wasted too much time on questions that wouldn't be marked. He was therefore not himself and in fact totally unfocused for the second paper. I also think he may have tried to over compensate by working too quickly and maybe not reading the questions properly. I don't know. Now I know the argument is that this happened to every child in Bucks, but my argument would be that this would have affected every child differently.
I guess the other side of that argument is that a child in grammar school needs to be used to dealing with high pressured situations so this shouldn't have made much of an impact?? I'm not really sure that's true either. Because I do think he would have been fine in the second paper (a high pressure situation in itself) had that not all happened.
Any feedback on what to say or how to word it would be very appreciated. I'm keen not to dwell on the extenuating circumstance but to concentrate on all our positive academic evidence and glowing headteacher report.
Our cover letter is one side of a4, bullet pointed and to the point.
Ill be attaching his Yr 5 report and his latest reading test. Anything else i should attach?
Many thanks
So DS scored 115 on his 11+. (V 120 / M 108 / NV 115)
A big shock to us and his school as he was expected to pass and pass easily.
This is basically the content of our review:
* 1:1 from headteacher (not many were given and only a couple didn't pass)
*End of Yr 5 report states GDS in reading, writing and maths
* Cats scores taken at the same time as 11+ were 123 verbal, 127 non-verbal, 117 maths
*End of year 6 expectations are GDS for writing and 111-120 in maths and reading
*Reading age of 13 years and 3 months
*Consistently working in top sets (as stated in headteachers report)
*Invited to belong to a writing workshop in Year 5 for 'gifted writers'
*Yr 2 SATS - GDS in reading & writing / EXS in maths and science.
*Headteacher report states he is working at the same level if not higher in maths than his peers who have gained grammar places.
And the Headteacher report also states that he has a keen interest in humanities, represents school at sport, has leadership roles within school etc. And concludes they are 'strongly convinced' he would thrive at GS.
So all very positive.
However, we have no specific extenuating circumstances aside from the obvious.
Our school was one that found out about the discrepancies on the answer sheet during the exam and they were told to put an answer rather than disregard them. While this didn't seem to bother our son at the time and he did as told, kids being kids, then talked about it during the break and he started to get anxious and upset that he had wasted too much time on questions that wouldn't be marked. He was therefore not himself and in fact totally unfocused for the second paper. I also think he may have tried to over compensate by working too quickly and maybe not reading the questions properly. I don't know. Now I know the argument is that this happened to every child in Bucks, but my argument would be that this would have affected every child differently.
I guess the other side of that argument is that a child in grammar school needs to be used to dealing with high pressured situations so this shouldn't have made much of an impact?? I'm not really sure that's true either. Because I do think he would have been fine in the second paper (a high pressure situation in itself) had that not all happened.
Any feedback on what to say or how to word it would be very appreciated. I'm keen not to dwell on the extenuating circumstance but to concentrate on all our positive academic evidence and glowing headteacher report.
Our cover letter is one side of a4, bullet pointed and to the point.
Ill be attaching his Yr 5 report and his latest reading test. Anything else i should attach?
Many thanks