11 Plus Exams Forum

We like both of these schools and they will definitely go down as our 1st and 2nd choices. Just got to decide which one to put first.

If there are any others who picked these two schools as their 1st and 2nd choice I would be interested to know what was the deciding factor.

Was it based on the fact that one offers A levels and the other IB or is it too early to even consider this as a decider?

It is probably a good thing to bear sixform in mind. At DD's school priority is given to students already at the school subject to grades. There is of course a lot of movement in schools after GCSE but still perhaps worth checking the policy of the schools you are interested in. Never know how difficult it may be to switch…time will tell.

Beths looks much better for DT and sports, which are important to my son, while Bexley focuses on languages and humanities. We were impressed by the science departments at Beth's - the open day students were really engaged, we felt.

Does your son mind whether he's at a mixed school or not? It has been suggested that boys-only schools may be more tolerant of behaviour and mixed schools may have a higher homework burden as the girls set the bar. Hard to know how true that is.
it is easy to switch schools at sixth form and many do in the area, but of course they also don't want to leave their friends. The IB is a major issue for us. My oldest two hate the idea of having to restrict the amount of time spent on their preferred subjects, and feel that being forced to continue with so many is infantilising. On the other hand, I personally would have enjoyed the opportunity to continue with more subjects.