Lawrence Sheriff or Ashlawn Selective??

[Amber]

At LSS he'd not be bottom of their intake, but realistically probably not anywhere near the top whereas at Ashlawn he'd be likely to be up at the top (certainly in terms of the school as a whole). .

Personally (and I believe there are some figures to back this up) I would argue that a child's qualifying score in a one off 11+ exam is a very poor indicator of their likely position once in a school. These numbers come down to one or 2 questions answered in a highly artificial situation and I do not believe they have any predictive quality for how a child will do once it is in a school. So I would say, politely, I think this should not be a factor in your decision.

Your inner and outer areas, eastern borders and southern inner circles though... How does anyone ever understand it all?

[Okanagan]

I supect that with the priority order changes this year it could well be pretty much down to just Eastern and Southern areas, with the inner area more or less redundant, if they do the same as last year and set the AQS above the point where they fill all the places from the priority area.

[ginx]

I have a dd2 at RHS (gs) and a ds1 at Ashlawn (now in year 11). He went into Ashlawn grammar stream via his Sats results (level 5's), having scored a very low mark in the 11+.

Comparing their year 7 reports is interesting. The layout is almost identical (although RHS offers two more subjects, Latin, Philosophy and RE).

Dd2's levels are a sublevel or two above Ds1's, and she is "on target" or above for two subjects. Ds1's report for year 7 at Ashlawn shows he had remarkably similar grades at that time.

Ashlawn is a good school in my opinion.

[JPH1]

As stated, good call and a good decision, I think you need to go with the son's choice!

Our son wanted to go to LSS though and through appeal we made it, we're in priority area 2, he did get offered a place at Ashlawn Selective though, again through the appeal process, and if LSS hadn't come through he'd be there with most of his friends!

I know you've made your mind up but perhaps another visit to LSS may be worth while, just to make sure?

Cheers

[Rugbymum]

I agree a second visit to LSS would be a good idea.

My DS who sounds similar to yours in terms of personality is happy & thriving. It is a small school in terms of number of pupils which I feel is an advantage and the teaching is mostly excellent. A huge percentage, think its around 98% stay on for 6th form which says a lot.

I would disagree with the poster who says they do a lot more exams - this is not the case at all, in fact they seem to take fewer exams compared with another secondary school that his friends attend. Also their 11 plus score will not indicate how well they do - children develop at different rates and in the right environment they will do well.

[blackwidow]

Sorry to snoop on the Warks forum... Online there are 2 schools. Ashlawn and Ashlawn selective. Is it one school operating with Chinese walls?

[Fatnorville]

No idea what a Chinese Wall is, but Ashlawn is a bilateral school with both GS and non GS children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashlawn_School" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does this answer your question?

[lordloss]

Thank you once again for your very reassuring replies re: LSS or Ashlawn Selective ...the deed is done, my son and I have been away for a week and my husband submitted the form with Ashlawn first choice. Gut feeling tells me we did the right thing. Of course will maybe have little niggles.."what if?" Bottom line is, a few weeks ago we would have been so happy to even be in the running for Ashlawn GS, and to cajole our son into changing his mind at the last minute just doesn't seem fair...almost like a punishment for doing well, in his 10 yr old mind But yes, I will wonder if he had seen something that caught his interest in LSS he could be making a different choice!

[Fatnorville]

When making choices in life, you will ask "..what if...".

I visited the Ashlawn and LSS open days and was massively impressed by both schools. I thought Ashlawn was the better school for our DS, but DS favoured LSS, so LSS was priority 1 on his CAF form.

We might regret this in the future but the advice I give to my DS is that you should always maximise the opportunities you have, and don't regret the things you don't have, and that is relevant here as it is in any other scenario.

Best of luck to your DS at Ashlawn. Maximise those opportunities as it is an excellent school.

[lordloss]

thanks Fatnorville, and good luck to your DS in his journey at LSS