New to 11+ - Help required please

[Kay3]

Hi All

I have a daughter (aged9) who will be moving into year5 in September 2010. I am considering the options and have now decided I would like to enter her for 11+. Please advise on where I begin? In year 2 she was on the gifted & talented register for English, apart from that she has always been in top sets in subjects. How do you know this would be worth a shot?

[chad]

Hi Kay3, welcome to the forum.....

Can you let us know what area you are in...as not all 11+ exams are the same.

[Kay3]

Sorry in Solihull near Birmingham

[um]

If you're in Solihull, chances are that she's in a good school, and if she's at the top of the class in a good school, then it is certainly worth a try - there are no certainties in life, but you're also helped by the fact that getting a girl into a KE Grammar in Birmingham is easier than getting a boy in.
I'm assuming you're thinking primarily of the King Edward Foundation Grammar Schools in Birmingham, but Stratford, Alcester and Sutton Coldfield may all be options. In any case, the exams are similar - you can find more info on what the exams are like, on the Birmingham forum.
Good luck

[Kay3]

Thank you

[JaneEyre]

but you're also helped by the fact that getting a girl into a KE Grammar in Birmingham is easier than getting a boy in.

Why?

[fm]

The bottom score for a KE boys' school last year was 330 or so for KE Aston. The bottom score for a girls', KE Handworth, was about 320. It is therefore slightly easier for girls to achieve a King Edward school.

[JaneEyre]

The bottom score for a KE boys' school last year was 330 or so for KE Aston. The bottom score for a girls', KE Handworth, was about 320. It is therefore slightly easier for girls to achieve a King Edward school.

Oh! I see!!! Thank you for your explanation, fm!

[Milla]

the same happens in Gloucestershire. 2/3 of the passes for Pate's were boys and, typically, the bottom mark which gets in tends to be lower for Denmark Rd (girls) than for Tommy's (boys). And yet today the papers are full of girls being - and "knowing" that they are from the age of FOUR - superior. Perhaps this should be altered to know they WILL be superior since come GCSEs girls still do better although the gap then narrows back a bit at A level it seems. Dreading all that.

[JaneEyre]

It's funny, because due to some article titles in newspapers, I was expecting the young girls to do better than bioys (more focused, more mature, nicer and cleaner notebooks,etc).. So I was surprised when I realised that the high flyers in maths in my year 4 DS were ALL boys (a good bunch of 10)!!
In English, groups are properly mixed...

Well, you will tell me that boys prefers maths and non-fiction books ans have a 'different mind'... But I don't think that girls always outperforms boys. It seems rather odd to me that a 4 yer old girl would already feel 'superior'!!